HOW TO INSTALL THE HOTAS COUGAR FIRMWARE / SOFTWARE ON WINDOWS 7, 64 BIT
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Would it be possible to program it on an old laptop with Win7 or WinXP and then plug it in on Win10?
I bought my Cougar in 2006 and since Win7 I never tried to program it.
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It was designed for XP and below… '98… Vista stuff and drivers package came after. So, Yes
Only thing that You’ll have to manual calibrate the stick on Win10 system. , so, minimum install vista driver package, ‘HOTAS Config’ etc…
One other thing I’ve noticed after Win10 Spring 1803 update ,… after any system restart or shutdown (NOT hibernate or standby) , my HOTAS IN and OUT in device manger have to be removed and driver reinstalled or
HOTAS Config looses write to stick .
After driver reinstall it works normally … ah feckin Win10… have some problems with ‘gaming’ controllers , just google for XBOX controllers. They even break system to bsod… geeee. that’s so cool os.I’ve made custom batch script when I notice that stick lost programming input , so it removes device , rescan system, and install selected devices.
\sysinternals\DEVCON remove "USB\VID_044F&PID_0400&MI_04*" \sysinternals\DEVCON remove "USB\VID_044F&PID_0400&MI_03*" \sysinternals\DEVCON rescan \sysinternals\DEVCON install "USB\VID_044F&PID_0400&MI_03*" \sysinternals\DEVCON install "USB\VID_044F&PID_0400&MI_04*"
Good luck.
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Thanks man, I will have to get back to you as I have no idea where to start at the moment. When I first got the HOTAS 12 years ago, I remember flashing it with new firmware I want to say but never used it to its full potential as there was no BMS around etc. What I would need is a beginner guide as if I just bought the HOTAS today and start from scratch.
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So my brothers what’s the verdict on getting the Cougar going with w10/64?
Oh and is it still advisable to unplug the TQS when firmware flahing?
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Moooowwwaaaaa what’s up man? This is probably the only thread I have been following. I recently upgraded to an 8700K and an RTX2070 so I was just going to install and do a little FPS check but dude, not knowing how Cougar is going to react to newer windows have always haunted me. I think at this point, it will be just a plug and play kind of thing with many functions missing. I can’t believe I got mine in 2006 and it probably has no more than 1 hour flight time on it. So let me know how you figure this out LOL
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Roger that Brother Bushy.
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I’m not 100% sure what’s going on in this thread, but I’m using my Cougar w/ Foxy in Win 10 Pro 64-bit. I don’t remember all the details of the installation, it’s always been a PITA, but at some point I had to go back to the XP machine to reflash. No trouble since I got it running.
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Buzz, remind me what flashing was… I remember flashing it with some kind of firmware back in 2006 when we all had XP, but you are talking about uploading macros, correct? I have a laptop I am going to dual boot with Win7 soon, maybe that would help.
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but you are talking about uploading macros, correct?
No, I meant reflashing the firmware. There might have been a better way, but that’s how I got mine going.
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I do remember doing a firmware update back in late 2006 but that is about it, I don’t know if there were more firmware updates after that. I thought you had to have access to an older OS computer to be able to program the buttons as well. I just gotta try the Win 7 64 bit guide and see how far I can go. Thanks man.
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No, macros/buttons programming and re-flashing firmware are not the same thing.
Maybe even you won’t have to flash the firmware, …if… it all goes well, … just do usual 2007HCOVista (64?bit) install with Foxy…
There is a newer soft from Thrustmaster “Target” but honestly I’ve never used it and don’t know how it plays with Cougar.About programming your stick , win10x64 should work , I don’t have any problem there aside some proggies for stick testing are not working anymore, dx8 axis and buttons test…
, but there are other utilities which are good enough … eg .“DIView” … you can test everything with it , dx buttons , keyboard macros … axis.Flashing, on the other hand, is probably best to do from winXp , win7 machine … you can even try from virtual machine vbox or other with winxp/7 client. … but. I’m not sure if I would try
Programming the Cougar works fine even in virtual machine with win7, I’ve tried , there is no any problem… but like I’ve said flashing is another business.There is no way that you’ll run winxp on new hardware so it is best to use some old computer with winxp/
Cheers
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Flashing the Cougar BIOS…there’s been no updates for at least 10 years. In my case I had last flashed it around that time so there’s no advantage comensurate with the risk.
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I have not been able to install Hotas Cougar, on Windows 7 64bit ultimate yet.
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Look at the hotlist. Its easy.
Now since u might have things fubared, (i did it also) clean up things, this means registry also.
Find and erase all reference to cougar software, yeap hard.
Then restart, follow the guide strictly and ull be fine.Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T818A using Tapatalk
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White Fang, how do we check what firmware we have on the Cougar? I am sure everyone has to be on the same page on that!
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hmm… sadly there is no official way to do it ,I’m afraid. None of the Cougar software just says… you’re running firmware x.x.x.x .
But!, if you run ‘HOTASUpdate.exe’ in \Hotas dir … think it will complain if firmware on the stick is lower then current/latest (3.0.0.6) version and it will ask if you want to update.
There is also ‘HotasFileInfo.exe’ but that will only read version of firmware in ‘HOTASUpdate.exe’ , NOT the actual version on the stick.
Again but, there will be nothing wrong if you really flash the stick again (and again) , it is just not advisable in modern OS like Win10 (really why?) … well the update software was originally for WinXp/Vista(64) , and so it has been reported that it works fine in Win7 , but , I guess noone tried to do it in Win10… you may be the first… hell , I would do it just for the heck of it and report.
(I have bootable win7 on second drive, so if anything fails , … )-to ERASE an FLASH the firmware on the ‘clean’ stick , you have to:
1. unplug joystick from usb
2. press and hold the trigger
3. plug the stick into usb with trigger pressed … WAIT till windows says ‘unknown device’ in device manager (that means firmware is erased , and windows don’t know what you’ve just plugged in)
4. Run ‘HOTASUpdate.exe’ and flash it
5. then calibrate with Hotas Config…think this is complete procedure
but be sure to have Win7 near , some laptop or cute neighbor’s old computer, so you can copy that ‘HOTASUpdate.exe’ on flash drive and do the procedure on that win7(64) pc IF it fails on win10Whistle if you get stuck…
Cheers -
Have u guys tried hirens boot CD. It has win xp inside.
The thought is to place cougar needed files in the hirens boot USB stick. Boot from the stick, select Windows and do the firmware update.
Hirens boot CD is free.
I believe it will work.
Also the Linux gurus might shed some light here if the same can be done via wine. So have a Linux wine bootable stick and do the magic from there.
Maybe creating and distributing such a package might be very helpful for such things.Στάλθηκε από το MI 5 μου χρησιμοποιώντας Tapatalk
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Well although maybe possible, do you have enough courage to do it in ‘virtual’ environment?
I mean, that is exactly opposite what is suggested when flashing eprom chips , you need system in real mode , not emulated mode, because you’'ll prefer direct access to hardware itself via host system.
Linux wine is nothing else then virtual machine , windows client on linux host.
Although newer virtual machines with modern hardware (cpus) are pretty good sharing real hardware via direct access to a virtual client… even with encrypted direct access and what not, for host<>client information sharing hardening.Again, possible, but not suggested nor advisable. Too many emulation is never good when doing some simple tasks as chip programming just because that locked direct access to memory and disks, in often non-conventional way , so that even some antivirus protection can give you problems.
Hiren’s boot ‘miniXP’ may also work, but there is so much ‘Ripped’ out of this type of system that is not advisable to do nothing else then bare offline system recovery… disks, password reset , etc.
It is still winXP but lacking system and driver support for ‘exactly your system hardware’ /… so it uses standard set of minimum compatible with almost anything., and still I think you cant install nothing via normal installation methods because you’re lacking install service… so No Go.Don’t give yourself trouble where is not needed, use confirmed solutions that still can and do it like a pro
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Thanks, Blu3wlo,f That was just what I needed!
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Hi all
I have always kept a copy of this link backed up, very well set out instructions for firmware and driver install for the cougar.
You will need the 2007 HCO_vista_64_rc1 driver and not the 2004 one.Hope this helps some people out of a jam.
http://www.cougar.flyfoxy.com/faqinstall.php
FalconBMS Devs great stuff guys.:p
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Hi all
I have always kept a copy of this link backed up, very well set out instructions for firmware and driver install for the cougar.
You will need the 2007 HCO_vista_64_rc1 driver and not the 2004 one.Hope this helps some people out of a jam.
http://www.cougar.flyfoxy.com/faqinstall.php
FalconBMS Devs great stuff guys.:p
_Have this link, too !!