M$ FF1 Joystick is struggling you? A possible solution....

First, I describe My system:I have a M$ ForceFeedback 1 Joystick connected to the intagrated GameportMIDI, and a home-made controller to the Audigy2 Connector. Originally the two joysticks were connected the other way. Then I tried to swap up them, as Audigy2 has more sensitivity to Analog devices. The home made thing had a poor sensitivity connected to the integrated port, and FF joystick did not suffer of the swap because it's digital...All seemed to work right, but when I started up FS (which recognized the two joysticks and didn't messed around with assignments of axes and buttons...!!) it resulted in a poor FPS of 5.5, with respect to the old of 30FPS (could be more if I change the target FPS limit...!! very nice!!). This solved when I turned FF out. Then I remembered that my integrated port was not available by default on the Motherboard...I've just had to add the cable and port to a PCI slot...after ordering this type of cable in an electronics shop, that soldered and connected the calbles to the two connectors...as this kind of cable is now too obsolete...I turned out thinking that I had to enable the onboard gameport in the BIOS to make it work, when I built up the PC. What I did? I took a look iside the BIOS and notified that altough the Onboard Gameport was enabled, the MIDI port was disabled. I said "I got it"! As FF1 joystick uses MIDI port to send FF data, I was having a heavy hardware issue...enabled the port, re-started PC, which found the "new" hardware. I restarted to check the "new hardware" message to not appear again. and launched FS.., re-enabled Force Feedback, and...the great old performace! steady 30FPS...plus fine-working FF and analog controller...Of course the other controller has nothing to do with all this...but if you have an integrated audio with MIDI port and a sound card with MIDI port too, check if MIDI is enabled on the Motherboard...if your FF joystick is connected to the Audio card, not the integrated, and you experience problems, try the opposite...there might be a MIDI ports conflict...You just need to check up your MIDI settings...it might work...in some cases you just need to disable ground bumps effect...but this means something is not working right...Hope someone to find it helpful...even if newer FF yoysticks are connected right to USB....Mario NoriegaProud http://www.euroavia.net/common/images/logo_euroavia.gif "Euroavia Pisa: European Association of Aerospace Students" International Editor Member