All of a sudden I'm experiencing a rudder issue - all aircraft load with the rudder stuck at full right deflection. Happens with both FS9 and payware aircraft; with and without a joystick connected; and the NUM-5 key won't center the rudder (it'll spring briefly to center then back to full deflection when I release the key). I've tried changing the default flight and aircraft. I've got autorudder selected in FS9 (I don't use pedals) and FSUIPC (paid version) set to eliminate control spikes. I've tried rebuilding FS9.cfg as well as FSUIPC.ini with no luck. I've been using FS9 since it came out and this has me baffled. Haven't loaded any software recently which could affect the controls. Has anyone else seen this or perhaps have some troubleshooting tips? Thanks!Jerry PostKORF

Hi Jerry:Lacking some basic info about your setup, a couple of things come to mind. [1] My first thought is that something is forcing the control...meaning hardware. If you have a yoke, try unplugging it and restarting the whole PC. Same with a joystick; either one could (and often does) do exactly what you're seeing. We've got one pilot in our airline (LewisAire) ...Randy Wood...who's having the same issue, but with throttles. [2] Don't overlook the possibility of a bad USB port or USB driver; I had that happen on another PC. Sometimes I'd have to re-calibrate the joystick 2 or 3 times during a flight! ...and the joystick itself was and is fine (I'm still using it).[3] There are those who may challenge this, but it's my experience that the defaults --or something deeper inside Flight Sim itself-- can (and sometimes does) get corrupted beyond repair. Or at least beyond the point where it's sensible to keep chasing it. I do a lot of developing for the airline, so I'm in and out and up and down all the time, and this happens to me fairly often. When it does, I try resetting the defaults first (I'm using XP Pro, so the chain is: Start/All Programs/Microsoft Games/Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004/Troubleshooting/Reset Defaults). Nine times out of ten that does the trick. When it doesn't, I park my critical folders off to the side out of FS...then Uninstall and Reinstall FS9, then boot my saved stuff into place. That DOES work, or I've got a hardware problem. I suppose it's remotely possible that some other piece of running software could be doing this, but I've never heard of that happening...Flight Sim takes just about all of the processor interrupts. Firewalls and virus software have a higher order of control, but not much else does that I'm aware of.Hope some of this helps...Garry

All of a sudden I'm experiencing a rudder issue - all aircraft load with the rudder stuck at full right deflection. Happens with both FS9 and payware aircraft; with and without a joystick connected; and the NUM-5 key won't center the rudder (it'll spring briefly to center then back to full deflection when I release the key). I've tried changing the default flight and aircraft. I've got autorudder selected in FS9 (I don't use pedals) and FSUIPC (paid version) set to eliminate control spikes. I've tried rebuilding FS9.cfg as well as FSUIPC.ini with no luck. I've been using FS9 since it came out and this has me baffled. Haven't loaded any software recently which could affect the controls. Has anyone else seen this or perhaps have some troubleshooting tips? Thanks!Jerry PostKORF

Garry:Thanks. I had flipped a couple of my USB connections and switched them back to their original ports and it seems to have "cured" the problem. All of the ports are seemingly "good" but apparently the FS devices only like certain ports. Other devices like the mouse aren't as finicky. Go figure. Thanks again for the tips.Jerry PostKORF