When I read about hardware failures like this I think *static*.

WC

Maybe, but my 7 year old Saitek X52 seems hardy enough to have survived hundreds of plug ins/unplugs and me carting it around. While *static* might be true, it certainly wouldn't be indicative of a good design.


I'm hoping for a quick turn-around. I Fed-Ex'd my stick base to Montreal today and it should arrive tomorrow. Hopefully they can knock it out and get it back to me very quickly. While I'm not thrilled to be spending $25 on postage for a stick that is only a few months old, I'm willing to give TM the benefit of the doubt. Their repair time, return shipping, and subsequent stick durability will all be factors in my evaluation of whether this stick is something I'd recommend. I really love the feel of it and flying with it, but I'm on the fence now about quality until I have more time with it without trouble.


Yeah. I've pretty much just shelved A-10C and Black Shark until I get the stick back. I can't imagine learning the X52 then unlearning it and relearning the Warthog. I'm spoiled for it already.



I'll keep everyone updated on the RMA duration..

They should give you back the $25 dollars, it's their fault and only a few months old!

While it may not be "quick" while you're waiting for it, give it a couple of weeks/months after you get it before you judge the turnaround. When I sent mine, it took about 2 weeks or so from return to receipt of replacement, and I'm not a patient man. I was also grumbling about having to spend money to send something back while I'm still covered by warranty, blah blah blah. Even after all that, even after my TM Cougar MFDs breaking down and having to be replaced, I'd still heartily recommend the TM Warthog and I'm still quite happy with the TM support. Could do better, but not really bad either.

So, wait to get your gear back, use it, love it, and then give us a proper review after 4 weeks of using it. You'll probably have so much fun you'll even forget you had some down time.

Just FWIW...when I got my Logitech Clear Chat wireless, it worked for a day and then would "shut down" within a few minutes of use. Battery was fine - power stayed on but it stopped passing sound. Sometimes from one ear, usually from both.

I got several bad ones in a row - in all I had to pay for shipping back to Logitech 4 times on an $80 headset before I got one that worked consistently. Been using it for a year now, but...

Update...

I FedEx'd my stick to TM in Ontario last week. Their RMA e-mail told me to send just the base of the stick. Stupidly, I did as they told me and just sent the base. So I get an email today that says they've tested the base and found no fault and would I please send along the top part of the stick.

Arrrrgh!!! Now I'll have to shell out another $25 to send the upper stick. I should have ignored their instructions and just sent the whole thing initially.

This is more than frustrating. Now I'll be out $50 on a purchase that is only a couple of months old.

Really, really not happy right now.



BeachAV8R

Good customer service (I would suggest) for under warranty items would be to send a prepaid UPS shipping label or similar to returns. Obviously on a $20 product that wouldn't be practical, but a HOTAS Warthog is a fairly substantial purchase. IMHO..

If they told you to send the base, but nothing was wrong with it, can't you ask them for a shipping refund?

With my case, I tested my Warthog stick on a Cougar base, and tested the Cougar stick on the Warthog base. The stick functioned fine on the Cougar, and the Cougar stick showed errors when on the Warthog base but it was fine on the Cougar base, so that pinpointed the problem to the Warthog base.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Beach.

I just don't understand why they don't throw a (working) stick onto my base, ship it back to me, and instruct me to ship them the top half of my stick in exchange.

That makes sense to me. But I'm just the customer.

Lol, I agree. They had me cut my USB cable to my defective TM MFD; I did not have to ship anything. And I got my replacement in less than a week.

I sent my base back on December 1st and they still have not received it yet. I, like an idiot, sent it via USPS without tracking. Thrustmaster made it sound like it wasn't a big deal. Big mistake. I have no idea where my base is and I can't do anything about it. I waited most of the year to be able to play for a couple weeks non-stop and I end up without the stick. Sucks hard.

On another note, I purchased a Warthog for my Step Father and on his USB cable it says v3 and on my USB cable it says v1. Anybody know what the differences are between v1 and v3?

According to TM it's just the firmware version that's on it when it leaves the factory, no (significant) hardware differences apparently.

Christopher, S!

I'm watching this thread with interest. I had the brilliant idea of getting the warthog so that the stick could replace my cougar stick which( of course) has a bit of play.
Before that i was thinking of the FSSB mod to my Cougar, but that meant some DIY, and was more expensive. I thought- no brainer cos i would have two HOTAS(es) in case of (unexpected ) problems.

THEN - Two things . A customer review who had problems, and this thread.

I see in this thread that there has been no mention of the X58 chipset. The customer review warned that this Warthog was
incompatible with the X58 chipset ( and guess whose got an X58 chipset? )

When i googled this chipset query, some later posts suggested this may have been sorted, but...

I don't suppose that's your problem, is it Chris? Just a thought.


Certainly, this afternoon's reading has curbed my enthusiasm..

Hope it works out for you.

Please keep us informed

As I said before, this problem may have been sorted out by now. The best way to find out for sure is to look up some of the actual owners who've had their throttles bricked by their motherboard and find out how they've fared since then.

As you already have a Cougar, you already have an idea of the build quality of these things. The TM Warthog is a very solid piece of kit, and a few minor hiccups such as these do not detract from their value. Sure, might be a pain in the ass for a few weeks as you sort out whatever trouble ails your equipment, but if it'll be working for years and years to come, what's a few weeks?

That's incorrect.

I've been flying a Warthog on an EVGA X58 board (FTW3) for over a year.

TM acknowledges some problems but I don't think it was as simple as 1 chipset or 1 manufacturer. The failures seem to be predominantly, but not exclusively, with Asus boards, but even those weren't all with any one chipset.

Well, it looks like I'm SOL. Been over a month and no confirmation they received my part and I haven't gotten anything back. Looks like I'll be buying a new Warthog in the near future. At least I'll have an extra stick (without base) and throttle as a backup. Quite depressing but I gotta get back to flying.

That's BS Fuzzy, sorry to hear about that, hopefully you'll hear something soon.

I received an email from Guillemot that I have "parts being shipped" to me. I can only assume it is my stick (and base) coming back home.

I'll let you know..

Here's hoping!!

In re. to X58 chipset:

When my Warthog did fail, it was button 26 of the base unit which was definitely a hardware failure on the Product's part not due to mainboard errors. The TARGET software updated and then I flashed my hardware up with 0 problems and was up and running as advertised within seconds. The problem was the flaky wiring to the button went out with 26 permanently stuck on. The second throttle base they sent had the latest BIOS already flashed so no worries so far other than how long it took to ship from here (Pacific Northwest US to Montreal) 3+ weeks to get there seems a bit excessive, although by the time I got a shipping notice back i had it back in my hands again.

Keep hanging on Chris, I'm sure TM will do right by you although the waiting is NOT pleasant they do seem to stand behind their Products and I still don't regret my purchase either, problems (lengthy RMA) notwithstanding.

I meant to respond sooner but I received the following email in response to me checking in with them again. I received this email on the 5th



I sent December 1st I think and they didn't get it till the end of the month. My fault for sending it via regular mail but I didn't want to spend a lot on shipping because I felt I shouldn't have had to.

Anyways, I sent another email a few days ago asking for a status. No reply yet. I hope it's a total replacement base. Every day I come home I am hoping to see a package from them on my front porch. In the mean time I am borrowing my step fathers that I bought him for Christmas. He is having "attention" issues trying to get into the game. At least I can borrow the stick without feeling guilty.