Win2000, FS2002, sound card, MIDI interface and control

Hi everyone,I've just stepped up from Win98 to Win2000 (I usually prefer to stay one generation behind on my OS) and am struggling to remedy a couple of issues that have sprung up around my sound card and controller.First, here's my (slightly outdated!) setup:Win2000 sp2srp1DirectX 8.1FS2002 v8.00AMD Athlon 600458 Mb RAMAsus Geforce256 (driver: 16/7/2002)Creative Soundblaster Live! Value (driver: 18/3/2002)MS Sidewinder Force Feedback 1 (Win2000 driver)Now, the issues:PROBLEM 1 - MIDI INTERFACE CONFLICT, JOYSTICK DETECTION AND FORCE FEEDBACKAs well as enjoying a bit of flight simming in my meagre spare time, I'm also a musician. I have a standard MPU401 MIDI interface which runs from the gameport of my Soundblaster Live card to my keyboard and synth with a kind of through-plug for other gameport devices - the MIDI interface works fine under Win2000 but it creates a conflict with my joystick. In Win98, I had a second old sound card installed so that I could run my MIDI interface from there, but there are no Win2000 drivers available for the old card. Therefore, I have to unplug the MIDI interface and connect the joystick directly to the sound card every time I want to use FS2002. Of course, I'd like to avoid having to do that, but I've been unable to find a resolution so far. Presumably, I could buy the newer USB Force Feedback 2 stick, but I'd prefer to save the cash and get my existing set up functioning properly.Anyway, here are the symptoms when I have the joystick plugged into the MIDI interface through-plug:Using Control Panel > Gaming Options, I can get Win2000 to correctly detect that there is a MS Force Feedback Pro attached to the SB Live game port. The status is "OK" (how little it knows!). In Gaming Options, I can successfully test all the buttons and throttle so it seems that, as far as Windows is concerned, my joystick is working fine. (side note: the Sidewinder control software used to manage force feedback profiles and the like on Win95/98 no longer functions under Win2000 - instead, MS say that the drivers included in Win2000 are sufficient to run an older gameport controller.)So, here's where it all starts to go wrong.I start up FS2002 and, from the welcome screen, click settings. Enable joystick is checked (or, in the paradoxical case of FS2002, crossed!) but Joystick Forces is greyed out. I click on Calibrate Joystick but nothing happens. I click on Assignments and discover that Joystick Type is greyed out and no assignments exist for joystick. I start a flight, but the joystick does not appear to have any effect on the program and Options > Settings > Controls > Enable Joystick is greyed out.Questions: When the MIDI interface is plugged in, why does Windows detect my joystick but FS2002 doesn't? How can I resolve the conflict between the joystick and the MIDI interface?PROBLEM 2 - SOUND PERFORMANCE PROBLEMSThis problem is completely independent of the MIDI interface issue described above - that is, I have this problem regardless of whether the interface is plugged in or not.Since upgrading to Win2000, playback of WAV files appears to be suffering from performance problems somewhere in the chain. I have a large WAV file (57 Mb or so) which I've been using to test - generally, playback starts out just fine, but after a few seconds, clicks start to creep in and the playback becomes rather choppy. This is a major issue for my music projects, but also has ramifications in FS2002 where continuous sounds such as engine noise suffer from occasional clicks.After ensuring I have the latest drivers from Creative, I've experimented with various settings for hardware acceleration and sample rate conversion quality under Control Panel > Sounds and Multimedia > Audio > Sound Playback > Advanced > Performance but I've not been able to isolate the problem or see any improvement.Question: what can I do to improve WAV file playback under Win2000 with my Soundblaster Live?So, if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!Matthew