My joystick is not persistent

[Richard]

Evening all,

An admittedly old but well behaved game worked perfectly before WinXP
and now, having finally got my WinXP tuned [with the exception of
folders never remembering their last setting] I decided it was time to
play.

It wouldn't work. Well, actually yes it would - but only with the
mouse. And if you've ever tried flying an X-Wing Fighter with a mouse
you'll know how silly that is.

When I checked, XP hadn't installed my joystick. But it had recognised
a standard game port. Help files really helped for a change and allowed
me to install and test the joystick.

The game couldn't see it.

A quick check in device manager showed that my Human Interface Device
[joystick] was there.
[? Why aren't mice and keyboards listed as HID's]

Since the game is looking at DMA1 and IRQ5 I went to check with system
info... there's nothing listed on either of them. In fact game port
and/or joystick are not listed anywhere at all. So I couldn't switch
either the game or the device to match each other.

To top that, after a reboot my HID had not been loaded on start up and
had to be installed again by hand.

To try and sort things out I uninstalled the standard game port and
rebooted. The system recognised and installed a standard game port and
even recognised the joystick but _didn't_ install it.


So here's your challenge... has anybody got any idea as to what I do
next please?

 

[DJS0302]

A few questions:

What type/brand of joystick are you using?

You keep mentioning the game port so I'm assuming the joystick attaches to the
game port on your sound card. What's the make and model of your sound card.

You mentioned that the game you're having trouble with is an old one. Have you
tried running the game in compatibilty mode? I have an old game that was
designed to run on Windows 95. It runs on Windows XP just fine but it won't
recognize the joystick unless I have the game's compatibilty mode set to
Windows 95.

 

[Richard]

Some people said things, and then:-
MAP added

I can't help with your joystick troubles,but line two left collum at
this
site will fix your folder problem.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Thanks. I shall wander over there shortly.

 

[Richard]

Some people said things, and then:-
DJS0302 added

A few questions:

What type/brand of joystick are you using?

Er, CH Products 2-axis 2-button stick that has absolutely no bells or
whistles and that WinXP recognises as such, will install it when
requested and a check on properties show that it is functioning
correctly and that no device drivers are necessary.

You keep mentioning the game port so I'm assuming the joystick attaches to the
game port on your sound card. What's the make and model of your sound card.

Yep. And dunno guv - I'd have to take it out of the box, WinXP
recognises it as a standard game port, functioning correctly, and no
drivers necessary.

This is standard stuff that Win95 and Win98 accepted without a murmur -
and you know how rare *that* was.

You mentioned that the game you're having trouble with is an old one. Have you
tried running the game in compatibilty mode? I have an old game that was
designed to run on Windows 95. It runs on Windows XP just fine but it won't
recognize the joystick unless I have the game's compatibilty mode set to
Windows 95.

Yep. Tried them all. I can't set the game _not_ to look at IRQ or to
DMA, I can only change *which* numbers they look at; but the port and
the joystick, both, do not show up on IRQ or DMA listings anywhere.

And as I said, the stick's installation is not persistent.

The kit and the game together *work*. Always have. So this problem
must be something to do with the way WinXP is implementing them.