sidewinder and creative game port

[Guest]

I have a sidewinder precision 2 joystick that has always worked perfectly
with my computers configuration. (1 GB of ram, 2.6 Ghz. processor, ATI AIW
256 MB video card, SoundBlaster Audigy MP3...not the usb card but the
internal pci card, 2 internal DVD burners, 2 100 GB harddrives and a USB 2.0
internal pci card.)
I had recently replaced both harddrives the video card and the processor and
reloaded everything from scratch.
Everything works except my joystick.
It reports "not connected". and also reports that it is configured through
my creative game port. This is a USB joystick and have tried all of my USB
ports including a powered hub. All other USB devices work perfectly.
I have a creative card installed but I have not installed the midi/gameport
extra card that came with it.(Have never had this extra card installed).
I have not changed the sound card but do have the latest drivers for it and
every other piece of hardware on my computer.(Joystick always worked in the
past with this card).
I have uninstalled the joystick through the joysticks menu/control panels
add and remove software and using uninstall in device manager.
I have uninstalled the creative game port through device manager but when I
reinstall the joystick, it reloads the creative game port.(Found new hardware
and new device installed and working tooltips do appear).
I do not have any problems showing up in device manager or any problem
devices or conflicts showing in "msinfo32".
I am using XP Home so I'm not too sure about changing/reallocating resources
such as IRQ's and the like.
All Microsoft updates have been applied including service pack 2.

What do I have to do too:
1. Force the computer not to look for the creative game port as it is not
installed ?
2. Get the joystick to use the sidwinder software/drivers that came with it
like it always used to do ?
Thanks for any and all suggestions and can supply more specifications if
needed.

 

[Guest]

I found a work-around to this problem should anyone else eXPerience the same
symptoms.
It seems that since the last time I used the joystick, I had installed a
second printer connected to the parallel port. I disconnected this printer
before I fired up the computer and all is now well with the joystick.
I read somewhere in another group that XP doesn't like joysticks and
paralell printers connected at the same time. USB printers are not affected.
Weird!
Anyway, I thought I would post these results for the good of the community.
If anyone has a better solution so that the printer and joystick can coexist
peacefully please post back. Otherwise, I'll have to use this p.i.t.a.
procedure everytime I want to play or print.
Thanks for listening.