SideWinder Prec. Pro issues

[GrizZz FD]

So last night I saw Wayek had a game up on the server all by his lonesome so I joined in. He was AFK at the time, so may have never have even saw me.

Grab me trusty old joystick and.... Nuthin'. No worky. No firing, no throttle, no steering, nada.

Well wtf I think, exit the game, and head into Control Panel and Game Controllers (XP).

I hadn't changed any hardwares or softwares, all that had happened since I used it the day before is a big storm had passed and lost power for 3 seconds, rebooting the PC.

In Game Controllers, it was being identified as a 3D Pro instead of a Prec. Pro, and status was "not connected". So I removed it in software as well as unplugging it from the game port, rebooted, reinstalled, same problem. So I reinstalled the game port, messed around with everything I could, googled the problem, kept coming up with the same results, identified as 3D Pro and not work at all.

Frustrated, I removed/uninstalled it one more time, pulled the plug again, did a full shut down and went to bed.

Got up this morning, plugged it back in and fired up the PC. After full boot up routine, went into Game Controllers, manually installed it again, checked it's status, and NOW it's identified properly as a Precision Pro, status is OK, and testing it it works just fine. Weird.

So if anyone runs into that problem, try that first: unplug it, remove/uninstall it from Game Controllers, shut down (not reboot), plug it in while it's off, then power up, manually add it in game controllers and cross your fingers.

Whew. Now I wanna go tries it and no games up. Sunday morning Ruins going up in a few minutes guys!