A7N8X Deluxe + Sidewinder Gamepad USB problem

[Jose]

Hello, all--

For the life of me, I can't get this darned thing to install under Win 98SE.
I've got 98 SE updated to the latest, DirectX 9 as well. I've tried both
the default driver (from '98!) and the USB Human Interface Device one (from
'99). The Sidewinder software is the latest on MS's site, and the gamepad
(bought last October) didn't come with a CD.

The gamepad works fine under XP on my brothers Dell computer. I don't know
whether it's a Win98 thing or an A7N8X thing. The mobo BIOS is the latest
one, as are the NForce2 drivers.

Somewhere I read that if you get a PCI card with extra USB ports, that that
might be a workaround if the mobo was the problem. Well, I went and got
such a card from CompUSA, and the gamepad still doesn't install.

One question about that: are there different kinds of USB PCI cards in the
sense that there used to be "hardware" internal modems and so-called
"WinModems"? I ask because this card I bought made it clear that it could
only be used with Wintel machines and not Macs. Might the aforementioned
workaround only work with a "hardware" USB PCI card (i.e., one that worked
with any machine with a PCI slot)?

Any ideas or help would be very welcome. TIA,

José

 

[Jose]

Hi,
I have never succesfully used Sidewinder USB products under Win98 for more
than a few weeks !
This one of the main things that prompted me to move to Win2K after having
doen 3 clean installs of Win98 in as many months because the joystick or
steering wheel stopped working.

Clive

Well, the MS tech support actually helped me solve my problem, as it turns
out. Apparently on some machines running Win 98 and with the Sidewinder
software installed, there's a problem and you have to go in and try renaming
a couple of files and edit the msjstick.inf file. The procedure that helped
me is at the following link: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=306588

Turned out not to be mobo related after all. Back the extra card goes.

 

[Ron Miller]

Hello, all--

For the life of me, I can't get this darned thing to install under Win 98SE.
I've got 98 SE updated to the latest, DirectX 9 as well. I've tried both
the default driver (from '98!) and the USB Human Interface Device one (from
'99). The Sidewinder software is the latest on MS's site, and the gamepad
(bought last October) didn't come with a CD.

The gamepad works fine under XP on my brothers Dell computer. I don't know
whether it's a Win98 thing or an A7N8X thing. The mobo BIOS is the latest
one, as are the NForce2 drivers.

Somewhere I read that if you get a PCI card with extra USB ports, that that
might be a workaround if the mobo was the problem. Well, I went and got
such a card from CompUSA, and the gamepad still doesn't install.

One question about that: are there different kinds of USB PCI cards in the
sense that there used to be "hardware" internal modems and so-called
"WinModems"? I ask because this card I bought made it clear that it could
only be used with Wintel machines and not Macs. Might the aforementioned
workaround only work with a "hardware" USB PCI card (i.e., one that worked
with any machine with a PCI slot)?

Any ideas or help would be very welcome. TIA,

José

Microsoft's abject failure to make their own hardware work with their
own operating systems is one of the great mysteries of the computing
world. At any rate, USB Sidewinder products like the gamepad and the
Precision joysticks do come with CDs. On the CDs is version 4 of the
Sidewinder interface. For utterly mysterious reasons, MS have never
posted anything later than something like 3.02 on their Web site, not
as of the last time I checked a few months ago, anyway.
Unfortunately, the USB products, at least in my experience, need the
version of the software that comes packaged with them in order to
work. Version 3.02, which is probably what you downloaded, works only
with gameport-connected devices.

If you can't find someone who will give you version 4 of the
Sidewinder software, you may not be able to get this thing going. If
all else fails, you can always buy a USB joystick, install the
software, and then return the product to the vendor. I don't regard
this as particularly dishonest, because by refusing to post the
software for download, MS in their own goofy way (these are the same
IDIOTS that brought you Product Activation) force their customers to
resort to such measures.

Parenthetically, the older pre-USB Sidewinder products, like the 3D
Pro joystick would work very erratically under XP with version 3.02
software. Sometimes, for purely unknown reasons, they would be
recognized and work for a while, but on the next reboot, they would be
listed as not connected. I followed the
microsoft.public.mshardware.product News group for a long time, and
there was never a workaround for this problem. I ended up literally
throwing a perfectly functional 3D Pro in the trash.




Ron

 

[Jose]

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 20:21:32 -0700, "Jose"

Microsoft's abject failure to make their own hardware work with their
own operating systems is one of the great mysteries of the computing
world. At any rate, USB Sidewinder products like the gamepad and the
Precision joysticks do come with CDs. On the CDs is version 4 of the
Sidewinder interface. For utterly mysterious reasons, MS have never
posted anything later than something like 3.02 on their Web site, not
as of the last time I checked a few months ago, anyway.
Unfortunately, the USB products, at least in my experience, need the
version of the software that comes packaged with them in order to
work. Version 3.02, which is probably what you downloaded, works only
with gameport-connected devices.

If you can't find someone who will give you version 4 of the
Sidewinder software, you may not be able to get this thing going. If
all else fails, you can always buy a USB joystick, install the
software, and then return the product to the vendor. I don't regard
this as particularly dishonest, because by refusing to post the
software for download, MS in their own goofy way (these are the same
IDIOTS that brought you Product Activation) force their customers to
resort to such measures.

Parenthetically, the older pre-USB Sidewinder products, like the 3D
Pro joystick would work very erratically under XP with version 3.02
software. Sometimes, for purely unknown reasons, they would be
recognized and work for a while, but on the next reboot, they would be
listed as not connected. I followed the
microsoft.public.mshardware.product News group for a long time, and
there was never a workaround for this problem. I ended up literally
throwing a perfectly functional 3D Pro in the trash.

Well, luckily I have access to software version 4.0 (my brother bought an FF
Pro 2 joystick in December), so I'll keep that in mind for when I transition
to XP. While I've resolved the gamepad problem, a number of months ago I
was having some problems connecting my older MS FF Pro (gameport version) to
my computer through my SB Audigy's (first version) gameport. Never did get
it to show up as connected, and finally had to hook up the A7N8X Deluxe's
gameport and connect the joystick to that: then it worked. That was most
likely a Creative software issue and not MS, though.

 

[Clive Lumb]

Well, the MS tech support actually helped me solve my problem, as it turns

out. Apparently on some machines running Win 98 and with the Sidewinder
software installed, there's a problem and you have to go in and try renaming
a couple of files and edit the msjstick.inf file. The procedure that helped
me is at the following link: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=306588

Turned out not to be mobo related after all. Back the extra card goes.

Glad you found a fix..