Pulling my hair out!

woodbutcher · January 15th, 2003, 03:06 AM

I decided to take a break today and play some descent 2 on the pc.
Blew the dust off my old but reliable MS sidewinder 3D Pro.
Pluged the stick in, downloaded the software and installed it.
Went into game controllers to calibrate the joystick and I see the "Not Connected" message.
Hmm
That was about 5 hours ago and i'm stumped on this one.
This stick was made in 95 for win 95 and i've had it running on 98 with no problems.
But not tonight (now I REALLY want to play this game).
Under game controllers I can "add" any one of the listed game controllers, even the game pads and the come up OK. However even though the stick is listed there in the controllers list every time I try to add it as the controller it comes back as "Not Connected". I tried the other MS controllers in the list and have the same results.
I have tried everything I can think off with no results.
Anyone have any ideas?

K75SA V1
Duron 900
Win 98
512 ddr 2100
I'm using the onboard sound and game port. I had initially connected the stick to my mx-300 diamond sound card but had the same results.

Any guesses to what the problem might be?

Thanks
WB

Brainchild · January 15th, 2003, 03:14 AM

Does the soundcard have all the joystick drivers installed? Check it in the device manager.

and make sure it's availible to use also.

BC

woodbutcher · January 15th, 2003, 03:39 AM

Yes, everything appears to be there although i've never used the onboard sound or game port.
I had the diamond card sitting here so I threw that in and disabled the on-board sound and game port. The diamond card has been running fine in the ecs board for 15 months now. Never been an issue but then again i'm not a gamer.
The exact same thing happened with the onboard sound and game port as the diamond card.
I've pretty much ruled out a hardware issue.

I just don't get it, UUUrrrr
WB

Target · January 15th, 2003, 03:50 AM

Had similar issue, so maybe this will be something you can check.

In the bios, make sure that the onboard game port is not only enabled, but that an address/irq is assigned for it as well.

On mine, simply enabling it was not enough, also had to chose an address type assignment for it as well before it became fully functional.

Dudster · January 15th, 2003, 04:08 AM

If everything is as it should be on your machine then I think it's the same thing that happened to me. I used a 3D Pro back on my Super Socket 7 machine and when I upgraded to an Athlon machine it never worked again. I think it's the faster FSB speed or something.

There's a patch here which might fix it but it did nothing for me. I ended up just donating the stick to someone with an older machine. Shame, it's a classic joystick.

MD1032 · January 15th, 2003, 08:02 PM

I have my Descent 2 copy ready to install, but I forgot how to install it on 95 instead of DOS. Help anyone. BTW, Descent 2 RULES!!!! D3 is better for multi, though.

msterzer · January 15th, 2003, 08:37 PM

Do you have a 24 TPI blade for you bandsaw? Just trim off everything that does'nt look right and try it again. If it still does'nt work trim off some more. Repeat above steps until it either works or there is nothing left. Then you are done.

woodbutcher · January 17th, 2003, 12:29 AM

Well, I pulled my daul boot HD out and put an old 3.2 fujitsu in.
Booted up, installed the neccasary drivers and no go.
I think this is an issue with the SIS 735 chipset.
I even pulled an old diamond M80 out of the closet and tried it's game port, nothing.
I'm going to throw a k6-2 300 together tonight, good enough for descent 2.

MD1032
Just insert the disk in the drive and let it autorun.
It will install under windows DOS automaticaly.

WB

joker_927 · January 17th, 2003, 12:46 AM

I have that exact same Joystick. I got my computer and it had WinME on it. Same problem as you. It just wouldn't show up as connected. I even trid a joystick-to-usb thing for it and nothing came up. I must have tried for weeks. Finally gave up. Luckily my dad works for Delta Airlines, and he found a Thrustmaster Top Gun USB joystick one one of the planes. Got it for free!

Sorry I couldn't help. Would love to hear if you get it working, I still got the old dusty thing lying right here.

woodbutcher · January 17th, 2003, 01:02 AM

I posted for the need for a new stick, i'll put the old sidewinder where it belongs, in an old machine.

WB