My weird situationship with Fanatec

Austin Julsen

Hello everyone

A few months ago i made a post on here talking about some issues I had with my Clubsport DD base becoming unrecognizable in the control panel after a firmware update. I'll paste the original post below:

January 31 2024:

"I just got my DD a few weeks ago. I was finally able to set everything up recently but, upon trying to update the firmware, it looks like my base bricked and now nothing is being recognized by the control panel. I have tried everything (to my knowledge) that could fix this and have had no success. My base will still turn on and calibrate when connected to both power and my computer, but is not recognized in the software. It's also worth noting that, before I tried to update the firmware, everything was recognized by the control panel and appeared totally fine.

For reference, this is everything I have tried to fix it:

Reset all connections/power, and tried connecting base to different ports on my pc

Tried repairing driver multiple times

Completely uninstalled driver 455, created new folder in a separate location on my pc, and reinstalled

Uninstalled/Reinstalled the control panel software itself, no luck

I'm genuinely lost as to what else to try. I saw another thread that mentioned trying to install to an older driver but I'm not sure where to find those files. I'm also not able to contact support about it since the base itself was a gift that was not ordered through my account. Are other people having similar issues? Are there any known solutions that I'm unaware of?"

In this post, I failed to mention some of the issues that make my situation especially weird. Firstly, as I mentioned, this hub was a gift for my 18th birthday. As amazing as this sounds, the Clubsport DD was NOT what the person had originally ordered. Initially, they had ordered a full CSL DD (5 nm) kit with hub, wheel, and pedals. Through what I can only imagine to be a shipping mistake, we were instead sent not only just a drive hub, but a completely different drive hub too. After realizing this, I made the commitment to just use the Clubsport DD and buy new pedals and a wheel myself. In hindsight, I realize this probably wasn't the best thing to do, but there's not much I can do about it now.

Fast forward to my drive hub becoming completely bricked. After practically begging this forum and Reddit for a possible fix, I was told to try putting the hub into bootloader mode (holding power button for 8-10 seconds until power light flashes blue). Upon trying this, I was met with an audible click from inside the hub, and it will now not turn on at all or give any indication that it's receiving power. At this point, I think it's safe to say that this thing is a lost cause.

Looking back, my guess is that my original order got labels mixed up with a defective base. My current issue is trying to get an RMA for the thing. I submitted a support ticket over a month ago and have yet to receive a response, so I'm ready to just throw in the towel. However, getting an RMA for something that is both the wrong product and something that was bought by someone else as a gift is proving to be challenging if not impossible. but right now, I'm stuck with over $1,300 in Fanatec products that I haven't been able to use once.

Thanks for reading my rant. If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to let me know.

Gagaryn .

Out of curiosity, why didn't you, immediately on receipt, inform Fanatec that they had sent you the wrong items?