Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad and XP

[The Moog]

I have and old Sidewinder gameport gamepad that I would like to use with XP and wondered if anyone knew how to do it. I know it is not supported under XP, but I have just done an OS reinstall and previously had it working perfectly under XP Pro. Unfortunately I don't have a clue how I managed to do it, but I don't remeber it being that difficult. I would really appriciate any help guys,

The Moog

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Athlon XP 2000+ @ 1780MHz (178MHz FSB)
Asus A7V333 Motherboard V1.09 beta 3 Bios
ELSA Gladiac 920 @ 215/485MHz Dets 30.30
512Mb Corsair XMS2700 DDR RAM @ 356Mhz DDR
Creative Soundblaster Live! Platinum 5.1
2 x 82.3Gb IBM 120GXP @ RAID 0 + 1 x 75Gb IBM 75GXP
Promise Fasttrack 100
Pioneer DVD-106S
Plextor 40-12-40A
Iomega ZIP 250 ATAPI
Panasonic Superdisk Drive
Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB
Logitech MOMO Force
Windoze XP Pro

 

[badboy542]

i had the same problem... go to your control panel and click on game controllers and manually add the microsoft sidwinder gamepad and it will automiatically find it and allow you to use it from there,.. hope it works for ya,... it should say something like
microsoft sidwinder OK

 

[Goatman]

that's exactly what I did with mine, it works fine

 

[The Moog]

Thinking about it that's exactly what I did last time, but I have tried doing that and although the pad lights up, it keeps telling me that it is not connected. I have tried it through the motherboard port (on a backplate) and through the sound card port, but nothing... I have also tried removing it and re-adding it, and sometimes it detects as a Sidewinder 3D Pro which it also cannot connect to. Any ideas? The only thing I can think of is that one of the windows updates has disabled the use of it as it is not supported under XP (I'm guessing here).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Athlon XP 2000+ @ 1780MHz (178MHz FSB)
Asus A7V333 Motherboard V1.09 beta 3 Bios
ELSA Gladiac 920 @ 215/485MHz Dets 30.30
512Mb Corsair XMS2700 DDR RAM @ 356Mhz DDR
Creative Soundblaster Live! Platinum 5.1
2 x 82.3Gb IBM 120GXP @ RAID 0 + 1 x 75Gb IBM 75GXP
Promise Fasttrack 100
Pioneer DVD-106S
Plextor 40-12-40A
Iomega ZIP 250 ATAPI
Panasonic Superdisk Drive
Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB
Logitech MOMO Force
Windoze XP Pro

 

[Sprung]

It is supported in XP. I don't know specifically why it isn't setting up for you, but I doubt Microsoft would drop support for its own gamepad (espcially a good one).

Mine set up easily through the Control Panel > Game controllers. If I remember correctly, there were more than one selection for the Sidewinder, so you might have to add one, and if it doesn't work, try another.

Good luck

 

[The Moog]

This is what I am confused about. I seem to remember that last time I did it there was a specific selection for the Sidewinder Gamepad. Now the selection just has 'Microsoft Sidewinder (Auto Detect)' which it clearly doesn't do! I have visited the Sidewinder site, and the only drivers there are for Windows 9x. Also, the only Gamepad devices that have XP certification are the USB version, and the Pro, the gameport version isn't listed. Help!

Then Moog

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Athlon XP 2000+ @ 1780MHz (178MHz FSB)
Asus A7V333 Motherboard V1.09 beta 3 Bios
ELSA Gladiac 920 @ 215/485MHz Dets 30.30
512Mb Corsair XMS2700 DDR RAM @ 356Mhz DDR
Creative Soundblaster Live! Platinum 5.1
2 x 82.3Gb IBM 120GXP @ RAID 0 + 1 x 75Gb IBM 75GXP
Promise Fasttrack 100
Pioneer DVD-106S
Plextor 40-12-40A
Iomega ZIP 250 ATAPI
Panasonic Superdisk Drive
Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB
Logitech MOMO Force
Windoze XP Pro

 

[jonocainuk]

have you tried unplugging it and then booting up the system?

then turn the comp off... and plug it back in and start the system again... then try it.

i had a similar problem a fair while ago with Sidewinder gamepad an WinXP. I did the above and it worked