OK cheers guys, I had another look yesterday and reinstalled the A3D drivers after fully clearing them out. The joystick now shows up in the control panel but only sometimes works - sometimes it shows up as status "unknown" or "disconnected", sometimes it's OK and works fine.
I'll try the drivers from a3dfan but I'm starting to suspect a possible problem with the port or the joystick cable.
Thanks for the suggestions
/Grannoid