strange problems with Sidewinder 3Dpro

[Jabberwocky]

First, my system:
Abit BH6 v1.01
Celeron 566 @ 850 1.7v (rock solid stability during heavy use)
SBlive value
Diamond Viper V770 Ultra
128mb ram

Since I switched from my celeron 300a@450 to my current setup I have had problems with the joystick showing as "not connected". This usually happens on initial boot-up, and sometimes I can reboot once or twice and it shows up ok. Other times it seems it doesn't matter how many times I reboot it's a no-go! I have installed the modified .vxd file from microsoft that specifically addresses the issue of "3dpro showing as not connected on newer systems" and it did help...for a few days. It then went back to the same old crap! Does anyone know what might be causing this problem, and how I might fix it?( Don't tell me to get a new joystick, becaue these days it seems that ALL joysticks are contoured for right-handed users and are useless for lefties! Besides, I prefer to solve problems rather than replace them!)

Thanks!

 

[cavingjan]

OK I won't tell you to get a new joystick. Go over to the Peripherals section and look through the treads over there. You should be able to get it to run in CH mode but you'll lose the function of the 4 buttons on the base. Microsoft does have some Knowlege Base articles on this subject but none have worked for me. I have just decided to get a new one. I'm just waiting to see if any will bundle MW4 with it.
the quick list of problems:
SW3DPro doesn't overly like 100 MHz bus
doesn't like Creative's game port
doesn't seem to like the version 3 software (some people have had good luck with version 2 software)
WinME seems to blow it out of the water too. Nobody who gets it to work can say for sure why it works. Mine just quite working on my system one day even though it works on other systems.