I've seen a few weird things in my professional computer life, but this beats most.

I bought a WLAN USB Stick today since in the new apartment I don't have cables from the router to the game box. Installed easily, fast stable connection, no worries.

But when I loaded up some games tonight, the TrackIR head movement was super jerky. Turns out if I deactivate (Network Connections Manager) or unplug the WLAN, TrackIR works fine.

In Windows, using the TrackIR Software, the head movement is smooth though. Only in games the two interfere.

I think there's an USB Controller somewhere on this motherboard which under processor load can't cope with both. TrackIR is basically a video camera, and WLAN needs also 54Mbit or more Bus speed, so I can see how it can be tight when they run both on the same Bus. Tried swapping both around between various USB slots, but they all seem to run on the same bandwidth.

Thus I'm not sure an internal PCI WLAN card would solve this? If the PCI Bus is overloaded, it's overloaded. I could get a WLAN AP that plugs into the puter by LAN and bridge the connection... or go Powerline - but these are more expensive options than the 20 buck WLAN stick was.

Stupid situation. Thankfully right now I only play one TIR game regularly, and I don't play online, so I can disable/activate the WLAN as needed. But it's annoying for sure.

It actually may be a defective USB wireless adapter... I've seen bad ones cause all kinds of hell to PC components due to noise.

Just a shot in the dark...that adapter wouldn't happen to have a light showing traffic and be within sight of the TrackIR camera would it? Or reflection? Some of those things can be pretty bright. A little black electrical tape on there to test maybe?
Nothing showing up on the test screen?

A little hard to believe it couldn't handle TrackIR and a wireless adapter. Got access to another adapter to test with?

It actually has a light, but way out the FOV of the camera (the stick is 90° to it's side).

Tracking Screen is super clean, and it still puzzles me that in the control software the movements are smooth as always.

The P55 chipsets with that older Bios revision have been known to be weak on USB management (these were the chipsets that wouldn't properly sync iPhones and other Smartphones under Win7).

On the other hand I agree - the Stick can't push more than 50Mbit top into the bus. When I'm gaming, there is no traffic on the connection anyway, so there should be no high data rate on the network to handle. The TrackIR camera certainly has no HD resolution, so I would guess it at 15-20Mbit Datarate top. Doesn't seem like a whole lot.

I would be inclined to think it's a radio noise interference but I've never heard of TIR not working properly next to a WLAN. Also when disabling/enabling the WLAN Interface I managed to lock the TIR Camera up. So definitly some sort of USB conflict.

It can't be a power problem either as the TIR sits on it's own powered HUB, like it has the last two years.

That's the Mobo in question - not a cheap one either:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1156/P7P55D_Deluxe/


I'm inclined to think now after your guy's suggestions that it is not data bus overflow on the USB Controller, but actually some interference either by a bad stick or by the USB Controller data rate problem that has been present before. I have no alternate stick to test and returning/replacing it when it doesn't work means one more drive to the shop.

I would assume an internal PCI WLAN card would get around this. I'd like that as a cleaner solution anyway since it would shut down when the system shuts down, whereas the stick stays powered.

I just didn't want to open the case and screw around. But maybe that, or I could also look at Powerline since all rooms are on the same fuse it should work.

Okay, I think I'm gonna buy this thing here:

http://www.netgear.at/products/home/wireless-adapters/high-performance/WNCE2001.aspx

It costs a bit more than an internal WLAN PCI card, but if the camera really reacts to WLAN Radio interference, then this box can be placed away from the PC as long as the Cat5 cable will allow. It also places no additional management load on the PC which simple gets a standard LAN connection, which also means the PC has internet on boot before loading the drivers.

This box should act as fully transparent bridge, so no NATing taking place inside the WLAN/LAN conversion.

Oh come on, it's fun to open it up and poke around! LOL
Did you try not using that powered hub? They do go bad. Or even just unplugging, you should still have use of 4-5 slots. The try not using the hub at all, just to be sure.

Also, if you have a USB extension cord, plug the adapter into that and stretch it out for some distance to try different locations. I know there isn't a lot you can move the camera.

Check the connections to the USB controller on the mobo, maybe one of those plugs is loose. They aren't the best and can slip off easily sometimes.

Other than that, and the obvious rebooting and reloading of drivers, I'm out of ideas.
A good excuse to buy a new gadget though.

I tried all that... both the camera and stick on lots of different slots, off the Hub, in the Hub, Stick away as far as it would go. No joy.

I really think it's the notoriously twitchy USB Controller on the early P55 revision boards. Maybe a BIOS update might have fixed it, but I don't care for that as everything else runs stable. Same as I really don't like adding/removing cards, had more than one PC go bad for no obvious reasons after screwing around in it (I did it a lot at work too...)

The Netgear gizmo is already up and running, and it was an absolute breeze to set up. I do like the fact that I have an instant connection over LAN again. It does in fact feel a bit faster than the Stick was.

It's working as a bridge, fully transparent, no NAT or adress masking, so it's really like having a Cat5 cable from here to the router. And the PC has no management overhead to handle. I'm seeing reviews of people using that thing to connect two separate groups of switched home networks, for example garage and house. Highly recommended.

And of course TIR works now...