Help with Sidewinder

[Guest BobL]

Hi guys. I've been away from the Fly! community for awhile now due to hardware constraints. I have the PFC console and it 1) doesn't support fly! and 2) conflicts with a joystick. Well,...I am now a two computer household and I'm putting Fly!II on one of them. In the process of this upgrade, I've upgraded from ME to XP. Guess what, my Sidewinder Precision Pro doesn't work any more. I visited MS and they aren't supporting that hardware with XP drivers. I wonder if anyone's found a work-around or if you know of another set of drivers that will work with this joystick. I hate to buy another just because of Windows!!!BobL

[RandallR 446]

Bob,I had the same thing happen to me. XP supports the Sidewinder minimally with some basic drivers included with the OS but as you have noticed all force-feedback is gone. Fly!II itself doesn't support FF, though an FF dll is available from the file library. I think it really sucks that MS was unwilling to come out with updated drivers for their own product! I was not able to locate any 3rd-party drivers.I found no recourse but to buy a new stick or flail around with poor control. I went out and bought a new SW2 USB which has XP drivers available for download. I hated to spend the money too, as the orignal stick was very good - maybe I can give someone a good deal that is still running SE or ME.