New DD1 Bricked after 1 hour
Eric McCready
Member
My brand new DD1 connected to PC worked for 1 hour. I then shut everything down, and came back to race a couple of hours later and upon startup the fan runs at max speed, it's not recognizing the wheel (podium F1 wheel). I've tried uninstalling the driver and have tried pretty much every driver version they've put out but nothing is working. Contacted Fanatec support but haven't heard back and from what I've read, I probably won't hear back for a very long time.
*** I've searched everywhere and I do see some others have had this issue too but I'm unable to find a resolution.
Comments
It will take a few days for them to get back to you.
If you have more money than time, you can order another one, pay for 2nd day shipping and you'll have it next week.
Then when support gets back to you, you can just tell them you got a DOA unit and want to return it for a refund and want them to waive the 15% restocking fee since it was DOA. You'll be out return shipping, plus what you pay to ship the 2nd one, and you'll have to float the cost of a 2nd DD1 for a few weeks, but, you'll have another DD1 next week.
If you just want a normal Warranty replacement - they should get back to you within a few days.
They will want a video of the problem and you can save time by having that ready to send them.
They also handle these from Europe based on email times, so if you can reply early in the morning, you might cut out a whole business day cycle between communications.
Once they confirm the problem on the video, they'll issue an RMA and ask you to send it to them as cheaply as possible (ie ground shipping) and then they will send a replacement, also via ground. I am going through this process now (with a different item) and it's been approx a 3 week process start to finish (replacement should be here tomorrow)
The nice thing about the warranty replacement is that they cover the shipping cost both ways, so you're not out of pocket any money.
One more thing - If I recall, a DD1 with fans full on, is an indication of an incomplete firmware flash - these won't show up in the fanatec driver, but it may be possible to access the unit and re-flash it. (they can get stuck in 'flash mode' which exposes the USB device differently to your computer, which is why the fanatec driver won't see it - but... there's a flash utility that might be able to see it in this mode)
You might try running C:\Program Files\Fanatec\Fanatec Wheel\fw\FwBaseUpdateWindows.exe and see if that utility can see the wheel (if not, I've heard it can also help to change the USB port on your PC)
This is a longshot, but if it saves you from having to do an RMA, it's worth trying.
Thanks for the info Jack. Very much appreciate. I've tried boot loader to no luck.
I'm wondering if there is a bad connection in the quick release? I want to take it apart but afraid it will void the warranty. Haven't found anything that specifically states it will. Do you have any knowledge on that?
The base side QR is exchangeable, so you don't void your warranty by removing it.
Thanks Dominic!
It's been over a week since I've submitted a ticket for my brand new bricked DD1 and haven't heard anything back. I included a video and everything... Is there anything I can do to help the process? I would literally pay another $100 to get it moving.