Cant get any game controllers to work, USB or Game port (1 Viewer)

[Jimi C]

Hey folks. I have a pc running windows XP pro with service pack 2. I cannot get any game controllers to work in any way shape or form. None of them will show up under the game controllers menu in the control panel. I have 2 USB controllers, a xbox 360 pc edition, a microsoft sidewinder and I also have an older sidewinder that uses the game port. I gave up on the older contoller since the only one I really want to use is the 360 controller.
So far I have uninstalled/reintalled all of my USB drivers from the device manager, uninstalled/reinstalled the software for the controllers. Note that all other usb devices seem to function as normal. When plugged in the 360 controller is detected by windows and the led on the front flashes breifly.

If anymore information is needed just let me know.
I have USB 2.0, Ive also downloaded the USB drivers from my motherboard manufacturers website and nothing changed.

 

[Mike Fassler]

did you install the drivers required for said controllers? not the usb drivers but the actual drivers for the controllers? sidewinders come with an install disk, and the xbox 360 controller driver should be available from microsoft.

 

[Jimi C]

Yes I did.

 

[Jimi C]

Im totally stumped. I would flash my bios to see if that helps except I dont have a floppy drive. It dosnt mention any fixes regarding USB anyway, just support for faster cpus. Google searches dont offer any relevant advice.

 

[Mike Fassler]

if you dont mind me asking what motherboard are you using?

 

[Jimi C]

Thats a personal question, I cant answer that.


kidding, MSI KT3 Ultra 2 MS-6380E

 

[Jimi C]

Well, I threw in a floppy drive from an old pc and flashed the bios. Still the same issues. Ive documented exactly what occurs when plugging in my controllers with my digicam and will post the photos in a minute. What happens seems very strange and after searching for days I still cannot find anyone who has talked about a similar issue.

 

[Jimi C]

No longer an issue.. see below..

 

[Jimi C]

Well, After updating the bios I ran into some issues with my cpu running slow. So, I went in and made the necessary adjustments, I swear I set the voltage and fsb to spec. The computer will not post and I get no display. I tried doing a hard reset to the cmos by removing the battery and moving the jumper but it still wont boot. I spent hours trying everything I could think of before just throwing in the towel.

Now for the good news, I went to tiger direct and ordered some parts.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Socket 939
Asus A8N-SLI nForce4 Ultra, PCIE Socket 939
ATI Radeon X1600 PRO 512MB PCIe w/DVI/TV-OUT
Kingston 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz (2 x 512MB)

Unfortunatly the cpu is on backorder, nice of them to let me know after I placed my order and selected the more expensive 2 day shipping.

What do you think of my parts list?

This mb supports raid. Is the performance gain worth the time, effort and money of a casual gamer? Should I just stick to using my current 160gig hd with ide? It also supports dual video cards and up to 4 gigs of ram, ill definatly upgrade the ram within the coming months and I purchased a crossfire ready video card just in case I decide to throw in another card, im sure by the time I want to do that the ATI x1600 will be pretty inexpensive.

 

[Mike Fassler]

the x2 3800 is a great proc, and that motherboard is very stable, for a casual gamer, any 7200 rpm drive will be fine, there really isnt all that much noticeable difference going over 2 gigs of ram. and the x1600 should last you quite a while.

that sucks to hear about your old board, bios flashing can be a pain sometimes.
raid is good its better imo option that if you are going to use raid you should mirror your drives not stripe them. raid wont really have any affect on your gaming. if you mirror them then you have have your data protected should one drive fail. in order to use crossfire you will need a mobo that supports it, which means you need an ati chipset. the difference between one high end videocard and 2 lower end ones are pretty negligeable, and usually the one faster card performs better.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

I should have dropped in here earlier.

First, MS's Sidewinders don't work in XP at all. MS dropped them, completely. Jerks!

On my last install I got some USB 2.0 errors. It got way out of hand when programs were looking for a certain file, and I didn't have it, and I've been working PC's since 1985.
All was well after I updated my motherboard's INF file, and the one I had was only from last year. Go figure!

Glenn

 

[Mike Fassler]

hrmm thats wierd because i have a ms sidewinder dual strike, it works just fine in xp. maybe its an issue with certain models or something, anyway he borked his bios, hopefully he will be happy with his new gear

 

[Jimi C]

See, it wasnt just the Sidewinder though, im pretty sure the problem was a software glitch, the controller i was spending most of my time trying to get work was the xbox controller. I plugged that same controller into the pc im using right now and it worked instantly. I wont be surprised if I still have the same problems with my new board untill I do a clean install of windows.