Frozen numbers, scrolling logos, and a dead black screen all get called the same name: the SF1000 LCD freeze. They’re three separate faults, and the fix for one won’t touch the other two.
There’s a second split underneath that one. On PC and PlayStation, the SF1000 gets its display data through the wheelbase. On Xbox it comes over local Wi-Fi. Same rim, same symptom on screen, different thing to go and fix. That’s why changing router channels rescues one person’s screen and wastes another person’s evening.
Read the screen first, work out which route your data takes, then start changing things.
Check What the Screen Is Doing
People use “SF1000 LCD freeze” for a handful of different problems. Work out which one you’ve got before you touch firmware or open your router settings.
The numbers stopped changing mid-race. Gear, speed, fuel, and tyre readings were live, then they stopped. That’s a firmware freeze or a dropped telemetry feed.
The Thrustmaster and Ferrari logos keep scrolling. The rim has power, and it’s waiting for data it can use. Thrustmaster says you’ll see this when the game doesn’t support the display mode you’ve selected or when you’re on Xbox without UDP telemetry switched on.
The screen and LEDs are dead. Check that the Y/N switch on the rim is set to Y. Worth knowing before you panic: the LEDs only come on in-game, so dark LEDs while you’re sitting in a console menu are normal. If the screen stays blank and nothing responds, go to Thrustmaster’s power checks instead of fiddling with telemetry settings. The bootloader is for a rim that’s completely dead, not a screen that locked up once.
Image Source: Thrustmaster
Update the Rim Firmware, Not Just the Base
Thrustmaster lists V9.15 as the current SF1000 firmware. V6.27 was the release that fixed freezes reported on PC, PS4, and PS5, so an older rim could still be carrying the bug that update was written for.
The rim takes its own firmware. Installing the wheelbase driver doesn’t cover it.
- Take the SF1000 off the wheelbase.
- Unscrew and remove the rear paddle shifter module.
- Connect the rim straight to a Windows 10 or 11 PC with a USB-C to USB-A cable.
- Open the right update tool for your base.
- Leave the cable alone until the program tells you it’s done.
For the T300, TX, T-GT, T-GT II, TS-XW, or TS-PC, that tool is Thrustmaster Firmware Updater. For the T818 or T598, it’s My Thrustmaster Panel.
Update the base as well before you test the screen again. Telemetry depends on the current firmware in both the rim and the base, and Thrustmaster keeps the current version for every base at the top of its support page. If you’re on a console, you’ll need access to a Windows PC, because firmware can’t be checked or installed through an Xbox or PlayStation.
Match the Display Mode to Your Platform
The SF1000 gets telemetry one of two ways: Native or UDP, and your platform decides which.
PC, PS4, and PS5 use Native mode. The game pushes display data through the wheelbase, so switch the SF1000’s Wi-Fi off. Your router plays no part in this, which is why changing channels does nothing for a PC or PlayStation screen.
Xbox setups using a base other than the T598-X use UDP over local Wi-Fi. The screen works this way in supported F1 games, and the UDP settings in the game have to match the IP address the rim shows you. Getting UDP connected won’t make the screen work in any other Xbox game.
Two exceptions are worth knowing. F1 2019 can run UDP on PC and PS4. And an SF1000 on a T598-X with firmware V1.60 can take native telemetry on Xbox.
Set Up UDP on Xbox
Unless you’re on a T598-X, the SF1000 needs to be on your home Wi-Fi before you open the game’s telemetry menu.
Turn Wi-Fi on from the rim’s menu, then open Wi-Fi settings on a phone or tablet. Connect to the network starting with TM_Connect and enter 12345678 as the password.
Your phone should open the Thrustmaster Connect Portal. Pick your home network, enter its password, and save. A browser error can appear while the wheel reconnects, and that’s normal. Then check the rim’s Wi-Fi screen. It should now show your home network name and a local IP address.
Open Telemetry Settings in the F1 game and set the following:
- UDP Telemetry: On
- UDP Broadcast Mode: Off
- UDP IP Address: the exact IP shown on the SF1000
- UDP Port: 20777
- Your Telemetry: Restricted
Send rate and format change with the game:
- F1 2019 to F1 22: 20 Hz, format 2020
- F1 23: 120 Hz, format 2023
- F1 24 and F1 25: 60 Hz, format 2023
If you’re on F1 25 with the 2026 Season Pack and “format 2023” isn’t in the list, skip to the next section. That’s a different problem.
One wrong digit in the IP address will leave you watching the Thrustmaster and Ferrari logos scroll for the rest of the session. Read it straight off the rim’s screen and type it in again rather than trusting the one you saved last season.
If Your Screen Died Right After the 2026 Season Pack
Some Xbox players lost SF1000 telemetry the moment they installed the F1 25 2026 Season Pack. EA still lists the fault as waiting for a patch, which means a fix has been made and will arrive in a future game update.
You’re looking at this one if the screen worked before the Season Pack, stopped right after it, and still won’t come back with the correct UDP settings in place. If the correct UDP settings were working before the Season Pack, running the Wi-Fi setup again won’t change this fault.
Install the latest F1 25 update and check EA’s issue page before you go back to the wheel’s firmware. If the fault is still sitting under “Awaiting Update,” leave your settings where they are and wait it out.
Image Source: SimStaff
When the Rim Won’t Hold a Wi-Fi Connection
Work through these if the rim won’t join your network, keeps dropping back to TM_Connect, or holds a connection long enough to start telemetry and then quits.
Thrustmaster doesn’t publish the SF1000’s wireless band. Owners report that the wheel joins 2.4 GHz and fails on 5 GHz, so give it a 2.4 GHz network of its own while you’re testing.
In your router settings:
- Give the 2.4 GHz band its own network name.
- Set channel width to 20 MHz.
- Take the channel off Auto and try 1, 6, and 11.
- Turn off band steering while you pair the rim.
- Pair next to the router or the closest mesh node.
Channels 1, 6, and 11 are the three that don’t overlap on 2.4 GHz. Setting one by hand stops the router shuffling channels behind your back, and you keep whichever one holds.
If you gave 2.4 GHz its own network name, band steering is already out of the picture, and you can leave the rest of your setup alone. If you kept one shared name across both bands, turn steering back on once the wheel is stable, and check to see whether it holds. Turn it off again if the dropouts return.
When It Isn’t a Settings Problem
If the screen and LEDs stay dead with the rim connected straight to a Windows PC, stop touching UDP and router settings.
Try a different USB-C cable, one you know carries data rather than just charge, and a different port. Plug into the machine directly, not through a hub or an extension. If the LEDs still won’t come on, follow Thrustmaster’s bootloader procedure or open a support ticket. Thrustmaster keeps that one for a rim showing no sign of life, where the firmware has gone missing or corrupted. A few LEDs staying dark while others light up is normal, so don’t read that as a fault.
Check the wheelbase next. Update its firmware, reseat the rim, and watch what the base does on startup. An FFB base turns counterclockwise, then clockwise, then centres itself. A T818 or T598 won’t calibrate at all, and that’s how it’s meant to behave. Make sure the base power supply goes straight into a wall socket.
If the base won’t calibrate, won’t detect the SF1000, or does the same thing with another compatible rim, the problem is the base or its connection.
A rim that works over direct USB and only fails once it’s mounted hands support a much smaller problem to chase.
Change One Thing at a Time
As always, make one change at a time, test it in the same game, and note what happens. That way the fault stays repeatable, and you don’t end up redoing steps you already cleared.
If the rim still won’t play ball after the firmware, display mode, UDP, and Wi-Fi checks, SimRigSupport can go through the setup with you remotely and work out whether it’s the rim, the base, the game, or the network before you start replacing parts.
