My MS Precision pro joystick has always worked fine -- but just lately , sometimes when I startup Fs2002 (after using other programmes) , the joystick functions will not work - I have to completely reboot the machine to get it to work. Closing Fs2002 and restarting is no good at all.I have a suspicion that I won't be able to get any help on this one -- because it is one of those "mysterious" intermittants that happen for unknown reasons.But anyway -- anybody else experienced this rather strange behaviour. Barry

Yes, I have experienced this strange behaviour, but I was able to specifically track it down to a couple of background processes. For some reason on my machine, there are a couple of systray applets that cause me to completely lose my joystick. The first was aTuner, but I was only using that on a temporary basis to fine tune my video card settings, so that was easily solved. The second is Powerstrip. I have to set some very specific settings with this application as well as disabling the screensaver, otherwise I completely lose the joystick as well.Normally I only ever run Fs2002 with just Explorer and Systray running, and the problems only started when using these two applets. So I imagine it is possible there are other systray applets in existence that might cause similar problems. So you might wish to check if there is any applet running in the background that you recently acquired, just in case you are experiencing the same problems I had.

Thanks for the input --but in my case, unfortunately I can't see any problem in that area. My tray is pretty much the same as it has always been. These intermittants are really difficult to find what is causing them. I used to have a problem where the Fsim would suddenly lockup. The problem appeared out of the bluesky -- but,fortunately for me, seems to have now disappeared. Reasons for the coming and the going remain unknown.But this strange behaviour with the joystick is a nuisance because I like to go online, browse the forums, checkout what it happening with vatsim and maybe do some online flying -- but sometimes I find the joystick is not working so I am forced offline to reboot the machine, :(Barry

Barry,It sounds like something else is occasionally using the same memory address for your joystick. This can be frustrating as it can be a multitude of hardware/programs. I would first suspect the sound card. It seems to take up a lot of memory addresses. Suggest moving your sound card to another PCI slot or swapping PCI slots with another card. Also, try plugging your joystick into another USB slot (if you are using the USB port). Have you tried uninstalling, removing the joystick, and reinstalling? I had this problem when first upgrading to XP and did all of the above and my MS Force Feedback 2 joystick works great. Hope you have the same success. Good luck!Jim

Barry,Do you run a Via chipset? If so I have found these sometimes have a tendancy to "forget" there is a USB device attached to the mainboard, but the problem is intermittent.