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ACT LABS Force RS steering wheel not working with Win7 or Vista (fix here)
EDIT UPDATE - I've found a way to use the Force RS with Vista and Windows 7! See post #4 below...

I've been doing some research into getting the ACT LABS Force RS steering wheel to work with Windows 7 and Vista. It's weird, when you connect it, it installs the driver, and then you can see an icon for it in 'Devices and Printers' under Control Panel, but when you right click on it and go to 'Game Controller Settings', nothing shows up in that box. Hence you can't test it or use it in a game.

I'm trying to get the wheel to work in rFactor, but it does nothing, no response at all in rFactor's controller config. I've heard of the wheel working in GPL but supposedly that game has it's own controller driver code.

BUT, I saw a link from an ebay auction talking about some HACKED (custom) drivers for this wheel. Unfortunately the link was to RaceSimCentral.com forums, which have crashed.. Does ANYONE have any information about these hacked drivers or info about using the Force RS wheel on Windows 7 or Vista in general? This is such a great wheel, mine is about 10 years old and still working great. I've done minor maintenance, but this wheel is easy to work on. It's just a shame that something stupid like no new OS driver support would kill it (when so many other BIG BUSINESS companies would continue support but their product is such junk that it falls apart first).

If anyone knows anything about these supposed HACKED (custom / beta) drivers for this wheel, or any info on installing it on Windows 7 or Vista, your input would be greatly appreciated! Or as a last resort, any info on creating custom drivers for Windows 7/Vista would be great. Thank you.
Hi, posted this originally on RaceSimCentral:

Original post (cached):
http://74.125.77.132/search?q= ... =sv&ct=clnk&gl=se

My fix is for 64-bit Windows-7 but it'll be similar for 32-bit or Vista.
Here's what you need to do:

Download 64-bit drivers for the Saitek R440.
ftp://ftp.saitek.com/pub/software/fu...eel_SD6_64.exe
(If this URL dies, the main page is here: http://www.saitek.com/uk/down/drivers.php)

Extract the Saitek_R440_Force_Wheel_SD6_64.exe file somewhere (You might need Winrar to extract the *.exe).

First you need to find out the hardware id of your steering wheel. Plug it-in, enter Device Manager, ActLabs RS (with a yellow exclamation mark next to it since it's missing its drivers.), Details-tab choose "Hardware IDs". (Mine was: USB\VID_061C&PID_C084&REV_0100 )

Open the driver *.inf-file i.e. Saitek_R440_Force_Wheel_SD6_64\FF04\SaiFF04.inf

Look for the title [SAITEK_MODELS.NTamd64]
Below that there's a line like this:
%USB_NAME%= SAI_USB_Inst, USB\VID_06A3&PID_FF04

Replace everything after %USB_NAME%= SAI_USB_Inst, with your hardware id. This will make Win7 match the driver with your wheel.

So the end result will be:
%USB_NAME%=SAI_USB_Inst,USB\VID_061C&PID_C084&REV_0100

After that, simply double click your Wheel again in device manager. Choose Driver->Update Driver and point Windows to the path where you've got your modified Saitek Driver.

That's it, you should be ready to go.

I noticed that one or two buttons including the one looking like a Nintendo-controller in the middle of the wheel didn't work. I guess that that can be fixed too but I didn't bother since I seldom use more than gas/brake/paddles and one or two more extra buttons.
Quote from slidejob :I've been doing some research into getting the ACT LABS Force RS steering wheel to work with Windows 7 and Vista. It's weird, when you connect it, it installs the driver, and then you can see an icon for it in 'Devices and Printers' under Control Panel, but when you right click on it and go to 'Game Controller Settings', nothing shows up in that box. Hence you can't test it or use it in a game.

I'm trying to get the wheel to work in rFactor, but it does nothing, no response at all in rFactor's controller config. I've heard of the wheel working in GPL but supposedly that game has it's own controller driver code.

BUT, I saw a link from an ebay auction talking about some HACKED (custom) drivers for this wheel. Unfortunately the link was to RaceSimCentral.com forums, which have crashed.. Does ANYONE have any information about these hacked drivers or info about using the Force RS wheel on Windows 7 or Vista in general? This is such a great wheel, mine is about 10 years old and still working great. I've done minor maintenance, but this wheel is easy to work on. It's just a shame that something stupid like no new OS driver support would kill it (when so many other BIG BUSINESS companies would continue support but their product is such junk that it falls apart first).

If anyone knows anything about these supposed HACKED (custom / beta) drivers for this wheel, or any info on installing it on Windows 7 or Vista, your input would be greatly appreciated! Or as a last resort, any info on creating custom drivers for Windows 7/Vista would be great. Thank you.

Maybe there is solutionBig grin http://www.zagerdesign.com/racing_sims/act_labs.htm man, I didn't see the Swedish guy's comment, damn!
Just wanted to post an update that I've found a Vista and Windows 7 driver for the Act Labs Force RS steering wheel. You can download the driver here:
Click Here to download the Act ... sta Windows 7 Driver v2.0

Download the zip, extract it to a folder called 'ForceRS' and follow the Instruction text file included.

The Force RS is a great wheel and very well built. Mine is still working fine after 10+ years! It would have been a shame to not be able to use the wheel anymore because of a driver problem. But with this fix you can still use the Force RS on the latest operating systems!

Thanks to JeffInTheUSA. I added Windows 7 support and simplified the fix even more.

Enjoy!
last set of ForceRS + performance pedals+shifter
My Force RS finally gave up the ghost a couple of months ago as the belts slipped. I opened it up to see if I could fix it, but alas, ACT Labs no longer sells both belts to make a repair, and I'm not even sure if it's the belt that's causing it. It could be one of the other pulleys, etc. I think it may be going on eBay soon. It was fun while it lasted, but the newer generation of sim wheels is so much better.
#7 - f1nn
Hi everybody, have anyone saved v.3.0 drivers?
Or what about Win 10 version of drivers?
Hi, please any link to drivers works with Windows 10 64-bit? I have found act-labs force rs wheel + 3 pedals + shifter on my garage after 9 years so i'd like to try it ;-)
Quote from BeNoM :http://www.zagerdesign.com/racing_sims/act_labs.htm

Thanks a lot! It does also work in Win10 64bit, haven't had much time to test many games but old f1 2002 works. Newer games do too, but no force feedback. One game crashes unless I slide force to 0% under game's options.

But, we have to restart with driver signature enforcement disabled at all times for win10 (updated ver 1903) to load the driver. And it does cause issues with some games running anti-cheat programs that prevent loading if enforcement is disabled.
There are two drivers there, maybe try the other ones and see if the issues are fixed or minimized?
I did, pretty much the same driver. Very good work from those guys btw! It didn't work well at all at 1st (Always talking about Win10). Trying to disable FF hoping games wouldn't crash, I ended up removing this hole registry key: (exported 1st as a backup)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\Joystick\OEM\VID_061C&PID_C0A4\OEMForceFeedback (your PID might vary)

Then I re-imported/deleted the key a few times along with a few restarts to test things and now most games work well (with the key back into registry), including Saitek's console settings. It wasn't doing anything when testing FF nor save the FF forces' settings at first. I'm guessing it might have to do with registry permissions in Win10?

But anyway, my gas pedal started doing free games until dying completely... So my only hope now is cleaning the potentiometer if I want to keep testing this, else this wheel is doomed Frown

FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG