Sidewinder FF Wheel XP Problems

[ELX 0]

Hey guys,

 

I bought a Sidewinder force feedback wheel of ebay yesterday and picked it up today. When i got it home i realised it was the gameport version and my computer doesent have a gameport port. No dramas i am gettin a sound card from my friend so that will be fine. I have been trying the wheel on my sisters computer cause it has a gameport. When i plugged the wheel in i went into control panel/gaming controls and clicked add then selected the sidewinder/auto detect. Well it added fine and it said there was a Microsoft Force Feedback Steering Wheel installed. So i went to calibrate it but all there was was a wheel allignment test and then accelerator / brake test. I couldnt get to any force feedback test or anything. So i decided to try installing the drivers i got with the wheel off the cd. I got this.........

 

"Sidewinder Game Device Software 3.x installs drivers that are incompatible with this version of Windows. For more information, contact Microsoft." (Im on XP Pro by the way)

 

So i searched for newer drivers and found a 3.20 sidwinder driver on the microsoft website except it had a simmilar problem and wouldn't install properly. So i searched for a newer version and came across this site. Searched the forums and found that people had had the same problem as me. I tried the solutions people posted and i got to the "sidewinder central" after installing the version 4.0 drivers i found a link to from this site. I have a screenshot of the sidewinder central program below....

 

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-4/989112/untitled.JPG

 

Thats the main menu of the program, so i hovered over the control panel game controls button and got whats in this next pic....

 

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-4/989112/untitled2.JPG

 

But when i click the button i just get back to the control panel gaming controller menu and when i click calibrate i get the same problem as mentioned above.

 

I have been testing the game with monster truck madness 2 witch is definatly supposed to provided force feedback to the sidewinder wheel when you play with it, but i don't get any force feedback at all. I'v made sure all the controller settings for the wheel are fine in the game, still wont work. All i can do is turn/accellerate without any force feedback, vibration ect. And i cant test weather the force feedback is working because i can only get the basic calibration menu. Does anyone have any advice? I realyl don't want to have wasted all my money. Thanks in advance guys and also for reading all that haha.

 

 

Tom

[peterh 1]

Windows XP does not support gameport type Sidewinder joysticks and only provides minumum functionality ie no force feedback, extra controls etc.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;842957

 

I suggest getting a USB Sidewinder.

 

[ELX 0]

Yea but i don't have a gameport joystick. It's a wheel. In that link it says

 

"When you plug a Microsoft SideWinder Standard joystick into the gameport on your Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, the Game Controllers tool in Control Panel does not detect the joystick correctly when you click Microsoft SideWinder (Auto Detect)"

 

But with my wheel it does auto detect it and it comes up as "Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Steering Wheel" or somthing simmilar. But i just don't get any force feedback and i can't get to the profile editor or anything as i previosly explained. So yea i dunno whats goin on. Thanks for the help tho.

[ELX 0]

Yea but i don't have a gameport joystick. It's a wheel. In that link it says

 

"When you plug a Microsoft SideWinder Standard joystick into the gameport on your Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, the Game Controllers tool in Control Panel does not detect the joystick correctly when you click Microsoft SideWinder (Auto Detect)"

 

But with my wheel it does auto detect it and it comes up as "Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Steering Wheel" or somthing simmilar. But i just don't get any force feedback and i can't get to the profile editor or anything as i previosly explained. So yea i dunno whats goin on. Thanks for the help tho.

[myeang 0]

ELX,

I had this same problem with my Microsoft USB FF Wheel - it worked but had no FF. Then I stumbled upon the SideWinder Game Controller Software version 4.0 driver (mssff40.zip). After installing it in XP, the wheel worked beautifully, with powerful FF and all! Just search for this file in Google. I hope it works for you too.

 

Mike Yeang

[ELX 0]

Yes i got the version 4 software, but it still didn't give me the actual gaming control software. I installed it but all it gave me was the sidewinder central thing i mention in my orignal post. Maby the force feeback will only work with cirtain games or somthing. I'v tried it with about 3 so far and it hasn't worked but maby it might with some. Thanks.

[myeang 0]

I found out that this software works only for the USB version, not the gameport version, of the MS Steering Wheel.

 

http://www.xp-drivers.com/drivers/79/79453.htm

 

Too bad. I tried. Can you sell it on eBay and get a USB version?

 

Hey, I have a gameport version of the MS Sidewinder Pro FF Joystick that has FF in XP. But maybe that uses different drivers.

[noorman 0]

Originally posted by peterh:

Quote:

Windows XP does not support gameport type Sidewinder joysticks and only provides minumum functionality ie no force feedback, extra controls etc.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;842957

 

I suggest getting a USB Sidewinder.

 

I found this on a French Forum:

------------------------------------------

"Si cela peut vous aider, j'ai installé mon ancien FF1 avec les drivers du 2.

 

Ben ça marche!

 

Enfin, pour les derniers drivers sortis pour le 1, on peut tenter l'installe sous XP, en outrepassant l'avertissement de ce dernier comme quoi "ce logiciel n'est pas...".

Dans mon cas cela avait fonctionné, mais des amis n'ont jamais pu l'utiliser. En gros, à tenter!"

 

Roughly translated:

he has an old FF1 and he used the drivers for the FF2, and as he says, IT WORKS (for him) ...

 

You can all but try !

[noorman 0]

Originally posted by peterh:

Quote:

Windows XP does not support gameport type Sidewinder joysticks and only provides minumum functionality ie no force feedback, extra controls etc.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;842957

 

I suggest getting a USB Sidewinder.

 

I found this on a French Forum:

------------------------------------------

"Si cela peut vous aider, j'ai installé mon ancien FF1 avec les drivers du 2.

 

Ben ça marche!

 

Enfin, pour les derniers drivers sortis pour le 1, on peut tenter l'installe sous XP, en outrepassant l'avertissement de ce dernier comme quoi "ce logiciel n'est pas...".

Dans mon cas cela avait fonctionné, mais des amis n'ont jamais pu l'utiliser. En gros, à tenter!"

 

Roughly translated:

he has an old FF1 and he used the drivers for the FF2, and as he says, IT WORKS (for him) ...

 

You can all but try !

[noorman 0]

Originally posted by peterh:

Quote:

Windows XP does not support gameport type Sidewinder joysticks and only provides minumum functionality ie no force feedback, extra controls etc.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;842957

 

I suggest getting a USB Sidewinder.

 

I found this on a French Forum:

------------------------------------------

"Si cela peut vous aider, j'ai installé mon ancien FF1 avec les drivers du 2.

 

Ben ça marche!

 

Enfin, pour les derniers drivers sortis pour le 1, on peut tenter l'installe sous XP, en outrepassant l'avertissement de ce dernier comme quoi "ce logiciel n'est pas...".

Dans mon cas cela avait fonctionné, mais des amis n'ont jamais pu l'utiliser. En gros, à tenter!"

 

Roughly translated:

he has an old FF1 and he used the drivers for the FF2, and as he says, IT WORKS (for him) ...

 

You can all but try !

[noorman 0]

Originally posted by peterh:

Quote:

Windows XP does not support gameport type Sidewinder joysticks and only provides minumum functionality ie no force feedback, extra controls etc.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;842957

 

I suggest getting a USB Sidewinder.

 

I found this on a French Forum:

------------------------------------------

"Si cela peut vous aider, j'ai installé mon ancien FF1 avec les drivers du 2.

 

Ben ça marche!

 

Enfin, pour les derniers drivers sortis pour le 1, on peut tenter l'installe sous XP, en outrepassant l'avertissement de ce dernier comme quoi "ce logiciel n'est pas...".

Dans mon cas cela avait fonctionné, mais des amis n'ont jamais pu l'utiliser. En gros, à tenter!"

 

Roughly translated:

he has an old FF1 and he used the drivers for the FF2, and as he says, IT WORKS (for him) ...

 

You can all but try !