I have a Sidewinder Precision Pro joystick that uses a standard gameport connection.
I did a clean install of XP on two separate machines; both have the same problem with this joystick after migrating settings from Windows 98. one machine has an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard with onboard game port, the other machine has an ABIT KT7A RAID motherboard and a SB Live Value sound card.
The joystick was recognized and workable on the ASUS mainboard machine until I did a migration of Windows 98 settings using PC Upgrade Commander. This utility did a great job of migrating applications.
Now, when I go to Control Panel > Game Controllers, and choose Add > Microsoft Sidewinder Autodetect, it finds the controller, and show Status OK. For about 1 second, then it blinks off again. If I wait like a cat over a mouse hole and catch it when it turns on, and click the Properties button, it tells me, "Internal Error, Necessary Support Files Not Found!". The stick is not found in any applications that use it.
Here is what I have tried:
All Windows Updates.
New Drivers for everything.
Tried unsuccessfully to reassign addresses in bios. (There is a page on the Microsoft site that says the address should be 300 to 305, the ASUS motherboard allows a choice of two values, like 205 or 209 for instance, while the ABIT motherboard settings seem to be ignored).
At first, while I thought this was a sound card issue (lots of people with this problem and that sound card think that), I tried moving the sound card to different slots, etc.
I searched and read everything I could find in the Microsoft Knowlege Base, and using Google. It seems probable that something from the Windows 98 drivers is causing the problem.
I did find a response on a newsgroup from someone who gave a protracted list of instructions for eliminating the old drivers from the system and registry. I tried those, to no avail.
I ran a registry cleaner (jv16 Power Tools), it found a bunch of old references in the registry, deleted them all, to no avail.
I tried uninstalling the game port, all sound card devices and the Sidewinder in Device Manager, and letting them reinstall, to no avail.
I tried running System File Checker. It found no bad files.
I tried turning all the default services back on, to make sure I hadn't disabled something that the stick driver needs.
Even on this forum, it seems people ask the question and then don't come back, but there have been no answers that give the magic bullet. Somewhere in a driver or registry setting, there is something that makes this happen.
I sure hope someone can help me get to the bottom of this, this seems like a pretty tough question. I usually solve these myself. :)
