Sidewinder Precision2 Works only as Admin in XP

[Chris S]

I recently acquired a Sidewinder Precision 2 USB
joystick. I installed the Sidewinder tools from a
priviledged account and then connected the joystick. I
played around with it under the priviledged account,
checking calibration and what not... everything seemed
fine.

However, when I switch to a 'normal' user account, the
device does not function. I can see it in the Game
Controllers panel (listed correctly with an 'OK' next to
it). The SW logo appears in the system tray (strangely
only right-clicking the tray icon has an effect). If I
try to go to properties on the Sidewinder joystick from
the Game Control Panel, I receive the "An internal error
has occurred that may be due to low system resources."
message from Sidewinder 4.0. I have already looked at
knowledge base article#299039 and it did not help.
Switching USB ports on the PC leads to the expected
disconnect/reinstall behavior but the stick still doesn't
work.

Dazed and Confused....

PS: I am running WXPro,[email protected], 512MB RAM on an Abit
mainboard.

 

[Joshua Smith [MSFT]]

You have hit a limitation in software that was created for an environment
that has no concept of user rights and permissions (Windows 98 vs. Windows
XP). As you have seen, when there are no restrictions it runs fine, when the
system limits what it is allowed to do it errors out. Unfortunatly there
isn't a fix at this time. You will have to run as an Administrator for this
funtionality.