Sidewinder problems

[Pete L.]

I have a new Gigabyte AMD 2600Xp running W2k.The new board
doesn't have an old stlye gameport to use with my
Sidewinder Forcefeedback pro so I bought a soundcard with
one on. It doesn't work-not enough resources, code 12!
I've tried disabling COM ports and other unnecessaries,
updating soundcard drivers etc, still no joy!! Are there
any adaptors out there to convert the joystick output to
USB or COM? Will my joystick ever work with my old(ish)
soundcard (Asound Express II 2002-Crystal Soundfusion
CS4281 chip). Should I replace my otherwise perfectly
capable joystick? Any advice would be great thanks!!

 

[Rich Barry]

Pete, take a look here.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;swp&Product=winxp

 

[Pete.L]

Tried it! Still didn't work! Although the splitter cable
may work (15 pin gameport and 9 pin COM port to Joystick
adapter)

 

[Joshua Smith [MSFT]]

Hi Pete,
Your situation is tough. I can tell you that the gameport to USB
adapter isn't going to work. The reason is that the devices driver is going
to try to send the force data down a MIDI channel and the device will never
get it if it is on a USB port. You can certainly try your old sound card to
see if it works. If your new card doesn't though it very well may not
either. For that device you are going to need to find an soundcard with a
gameport. The second issue is that the so called "cheap sound cards" will
often regard the gameport as a good place to save money. Consequently many
will have a hard time with giving reliable joystick data. On the other hand
if you are going to spend money on a decent sound card you might be better
off getting a USB device. They are typically the most stable, easiest to
install because they PnP and have up to date software that allows you to
configure buttons to keyboard keys if you like. In closing I will say that
the gameports days are numbered and this may very likely be the last OS that
supports the gameport.


Joshua Smith
DirectInput Test Lab
Microsoft