My ship and navball keep freezing up

[JackBush]

I'm playing 1.05. I can get my probe ship up to 350 km but when I try to move the ship onto the  navball target to circularize, everything is frozen. I've tried with MechJeb attached and tried after removing MechJeb. Happened about 6 times in a row. Anybody else having this trouble? Apologise if I've put this in the wrong sub-forum.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Probes need electrical charge to control the ship, are you running out of electricity?

Once in space they also need a way to turn the ship that isn't a control surface, like a reaction wheel or RCS units.

Pictures of the ship would help!

[Snark]

What do you mean by "frozen"?  Do you mean the game has locked up and you can't do anything and have to kill the process and restart KSP? Or do you mean that KSP itself is fine, you can rotate the camera and switch ships and so forth, but your particular ship has gone dead and can't be controlled?

If it's the former, I would guess it's a bug in some mod you're running, and the way to find it would be to try running fewer and fewer mods until you identify which one. Then you can post in the mod's forum thread about it.

If it's the latter, then it's likely something wrong with your ship, but there are many possible causes so I'll wait until you've clarified the above point.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Snark

[JackBush]

Thanks for answering Rocket and Snark. Here are a couple of pictures:

http://imgur.com/a/4Zqw2

It's the Probodobodyne QBE probe on top with various scientific stuff. I did not realise it would need electrical charge and so it could well have run out, if there was any to start. I didn't think to add RCS or a reaction wheel. I just assumed it would go as the others do, directed by the fins at the bottom. It got to the height I wanted but then was unable to turn or adjust to the blue target on the navball to circularize. 

Snark, to your point, KSP otherwise was fine. So I'm thinking Rocket's hit on what my problem is.

[JackBush]

Yes, Rocket's response was absolutely the one. Thanks.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Glad to hear you figured it out!

If you need more electricity but haven't unlocked the batteries or the solar panels yet you can use an empty Mk.1 Command Pod, it has 50 points of electrical charge and will also provide reaction torque via it's built in reaction wheel.

Best of luck!

[Snark]

6 hours ago, JackBush said:

Thanks for answering Rocket and Snark. Here are a couple of pictures:

http://imgur.com/a/4Zqw2

It's the Probodobodyne QBE probe on top with various scientific stuff. I did not realise it would need electrical charge and so it could well have run out, if there was any to start. I didn't think to add RCS or a reaction wheel. I just assumed it would go as the others do, directed by the fins at the bottom. It got to the height I wanted but then was unable to turn or adjust to the blue target on the navball to circularize. 

Snark, to your point, KSP otherwise was fine. So I'm thinking Rocket's hit on what my problem is.

Yeah, R.i.m.P. hit the nail on the head.  You may be out of juice, and you need torque.

Most probe cores have built-in reaction wheels (small ones, not very powerful).  However, the QBE and OKTO 2 do not have built-in wheels and need some other way to turn the rocket.

All probe cores use electricity (though not all at the same rate; you can see their consumption in the items tab of the VAB).  When they run out of electricity, the rocket goes completely dead and you can't control it at all (assuming you don't also have a crewed pod somewhere aboard).  So if you're using a probe core, make sure that you either have some way to recharge in flight (e.g. solar panels), or else enough battery storage at launch to last for the duration of the mission.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Snark