Resolved Microsoft sidewinder gamepad and sidewinder 3d pro

I have a dell dimension 2400 running windows xp pro i had to format the harddrive because windows got too messed up (wife messed with it). I have reinstalled everything and now when i try to install my sidewinder game pad or the sidewinder joystick under game controllers it doesn't find it. I have gone into my device drivers and there i have an exclamation point next to unknown device. I've tried to reinstall the drivers several times windows detects the controllers but when it starts installing them i get a data error (cyclic redundancy check) and then it lists it as media with an exclamation point. They worked before i had to format the harddrive. Ive tried my xbox 360 controller and windows found it with no problems. I even went so far as to change my audio card with built in game port. I've been all over the internet trying to figure this out and its got me torqued. Anybody got any ideas before i take the controllers outside and throw them into my fire pit?

 

CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) errors usually mean there's a problem reading the file (in this case your drivers). If you're installing from a CD or HD recovery partition I'd strongly suspect it's faulty.

Try downloading the drivers again and installing afresh.

Please post back with results.

 

Look in Add or Remove Programs or on the drivers CD for an uninstaller. If you can't find an unistaller, right-click on the controller/s in Device Manager and uninstall them there. You probably won't get very far if Windows has selected the wrong drivers for it/them. If I see exclamation marks in Device Manager, the first thing I do is uninstall them, I reboot and see what happens when the Add New Hardware wizard runs at logon.

Uninstall, but then I would check for major drivers updates at the computer manufacturer's website (Dell in your case). Do they connect through USB, if so, you need to make sure that the USB controllers work correctly. If they connect some other way, check that controller. When you think your computer drivers are good, try the Sidewinder controller installer again. Follow the installation instructions to the letter.

You can try installing the drivers manually. Once you have run the driver installer (CD), you can right-click on the exclamation mark controller in Device Manager and "update" the drivers. You will be offered different methods of selecting the drivers, use "...select them from a list ". Find the Microsoft heading, the controller will have the model number that is printed on the Sidewinder hardware (gamepad, etc).

Matt

 

I have already tried everything listed above and i still get the same error. Got any other suggestions? And no they do not connect through the usb. They connect through the game port on the sound card as there is no game port on the mobo. And dell doesn't have the right drivers for my sound card/game port as im currently running an older card cause the original went out. I've also went to creative labs web site looking for drivers and they don't carry the drivers anymore. Acorrding to their web site I must use the drivers that are installed in the os. I've even tried a sound card/game port that is almost brand new that a freind of mine gave me cause he upgraded and still get the same error. It doesn't matter what kind of sound card/game prot card i use i still get the same message.

 

just a quick update i did reinstall joy.cpl and still have the same problem. I guess i was hoping that would work.

 

You need the Sidewinder drivers. Did MS ever release them for Vista (I vaguely recall there was an outcry regarding lack of XP drivers)?

EDIT: Apologies, I had Vista stuck in my head from another thread

Where did you get the original Sidewinder drivers from?

 

I had used the ones that originally came with windows xp pro. I've been to dozens and dozens of web sites looking for drivers and all that i found were ones for everything but xp. Apparrenty Microsoft installed drivers for them into windows xp and didn't do any updates for them or anything like that. I would use the ones from 95/98/me but they are incompatable from what i've found. And the ones from vista and 7 are incompatable with xp from what i've found. So i'm starting to think that i'm toasted at trying to figure this out.

 

Sorry ratchetboy,

I can't help any further (I wasn't even aware XP came with those drivers) it was quite a while ago but I do recall a lot of grief regarding MS XP & Sidewinders (they wern't cheap at the time).

Perhaps someone else can help, but TBH you'll probably be better buying a new games controller.

 

Thats ok I've been debating on buying new controllers anyway for a while was procrastinating it. Now i've got a good reason to do so. Well I bought them about two years ago at a rummage sale for $5 and i've got a freind thats gonna buy for $15. His computer is an old compaq presario 5451 and it can only handle win 98. He had me install win 98se on it and max it out on memory and change the hd from a 13gb to a 20gb. All he's doing with it is games. So at least i've made a profit off the controllers.