Hi Iam a newbie with a problem, I have a AMD 1800xp chip/512meg ram, 64meg Nvidia card, 40 gig H/D, S/B live & am running Win XP home edt. I was running MS FS2000 & using a MS sidewinder force feedback Pro J/stick with know problems. I have now purchased FS 2002 & cant get the J/stick to work I have contacted MS here in New Zealand, but they dont know whats wrong. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I have reloaded FS2002 numerous times & also the J/stick to no avail, Please help.

Cheers & Beers cdsam

Welcome.

Is there an explanation mark ( means there is a problem) in the Device Manager? Start > Contol Panel > Performance and Maintenance > System > Hardware > Device Manager. If you see an explanation mark in the left hand column then there is a conflict with a hardware device that needs sorted. Right click the device (expand the tree if necessary) and select properties from the drop down menu. Where you find a troubleshoot option select it and let the Windows Wizard walk you through the process. Post the results here, so we may be of furthur assistance if necessary.

im running a similar system, with FS 2002, and a sidewinder 2 PRO joystick.

works fine for me, did you install the CD that came with the joystick?

i have mine plugged into usb2 port, on windows XP pro

with flight sim 2002 pro, when i installed the joystick FS 2002 set it as the default controller without me having to do it... all i can think of is the Cd isnt installed,

for now...

any more info?

I have a sidewinder precision pro j/s and have used it successfully in Flight simulator 2002. Mine is connected via usb, and was set as default straight after installing FS2002. Although my software that came with the j/s isnt compatible under xp. You should still get it working without the additional software. Have you tried it in other games, with the same j/s. Have you checked that properties of it under control panel>game controllers make sure that its listed in there.

I have done all what you have suggested, still no luck,

I go into control panel, click game controller, that tells me that MS s\w force feedback pro is ok. I then click properties & all buttons/throttle/rudder/ top veiw etc are all ok.

I then open FS2002, go to settings, make sure that joystick is ticked enable, it shows calibrate J/S in light greenish colour, I click that & it goes through the same things as properties in game controller. The tab under calibrate J/S in FS2002 is not highlighted, & when I open assignments only key board has assignments

Bloody puters, cantankerous like woman.

Cheers cdsam

I forgot to mention, the software I have for the J/S is ver 3.0 & Win XP wont let me reload it, it says that it is not compatible with XP, I have search the net & the only upgrade is 3.2 & that is for Win 98 & 2000.

I am going into hospital for three weeks from tomorrow

so I will look forward to your helpful thoughts & suggestions, any help is greatly appreciated. The hospital is for my Arthritis, knees/spine & elbows my wife reckons if I was a horse they would take me out back & shoot me so I hope I come home feeling like a horny Lil devel .

Cheers cdsam

What version of FS2002 are you running, and did you choose to install maximum or minimum install. When you first start FS2002, choose settings at the bottom> make sure that you have enable joystick on, and then choose to calibrate j/s. This should take you to game contollers box. If your getting all this then it should be fine, I didnt worry about updating my software for my sidewinder as I have the same compatiblity issue that you have with the software under xp.

let us know how you go

my software installed fine.. ill check the version later and post it, it installed the win 2k version, as the software is older than XP and came with something like acrobat 4.5!

Hope you do well at the hospital, nasty stuff Arthritis, but good thing is there no bones in your "lil man"