Sidewinder Game Pad (gameport ver) probs with win2k sp3/sp2

Greetings good forum dwellers ,, im new to this forum .. I would like to request any help or advice or fixes any of you can offer regarding a problem im having with my original Sidewinder gamepad ( gameport version, not usb )

I recently went from a no service pack win2k installation ( on which my gamepad /gameport sidewinder worked fine ) to service pack 3 ..

Suddenly i find that my gamepad is not functioning.

When I click add in gaming options, and select 'Sidewinder (auto-detect)', it detects it as a Sidewinder 3d pro (which it's not) and the status flickers from 'not connected' to 'OK' every few seconds.

After laboriously trawling through the forums i find that Microsoft have removed all support and drivers !! for non USB gaming devices !

This removal may have happened in sp1 or sp2 ( at work i have the same problem and its sp2 there ) .

Ok so what are my options ?

1/ I throw away a great controller because its not a usb device ( a sad option indeed )

2/ Uninstall sp3 and go back to my non sp win2k ( not shure how to do this ? nor if i can, as at least sp2 is needed to run some of my work software)

3/ I beg you guys to help me find a fix /hack/patch/workaround

ThankingYouInAdvance

Hey,

Ive got the same pad, ill just go try it on a win2000 sp3 system and see if it works.

Well.....it worked

That PC is using a TB Santa Cruz, and its never seen a gamepad before but Sidewinder Auto Detect just found the pad and its working.

So i suppose that means that gameport devices can work in SP3

IIRC, the dinput.dll changed in SP3. Replace the dinput.dll in SYSTEM32 and DLLCACHE with the dinput.dll from SP2 and see if that works.