Hello friends,

I'm trying to relive the glory days of Freespace with my old joystick. I'm running Windows 7. Google says that other people have successfully got their joystick to work without drivers but I haven't had any luck. I keep getting the message that "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)"

Does anyone have any suggestions or hope they could offer me?

Thanks for your support!

Rob

Wait, is it USB?
Because there might be issues when using a gameport to usb adapter with most recent windows OSes.

Yes, I have a USB adapter that I bought off of Amazon.com hooked up to the original serial port. You suggest this might be the issue?

Mille grazie.

There are people that claim to get it working with an of the shelf adapter like here, though in my own experience I hadn't much luck with that to get my MS FFB Pro working.

Then there is this DIY adapter, though this can cost quite a bit if you have to ship the components to where ever you live, make it and then pray you don't blow up your PC.

In the end you might as well buy a new joystick.

I got the Microsoft Sidewinder Joystick, similar to the one in the youtube video linked in the previous post, but my Sidewinder Joystick is the Force Feedback version, where it'd vibrate when getting damaged or collisions, firing weapons or thrusters, etc. Good shit!

It is still in the original box with everything in mint condition. But at some point over the years, the gameport interface that the device uses just wasn't an option anymore.

*sigh* Oh the good ole days. What I wouldn't give to have that Force Feedback work again.

Thanks for your help, friend. I think when the time is right, I'll simply buy another joystick.

Try this link.

http://www.descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=15526

I have 3 MS Sidewinder 3D Pro stick with this converter and they work flawlessly in my old WIn7 build and not in my Win 10 build. They worked in FS 2 also.

Sorry to come late to the party, but I have the Precision Pro joystick that had the USB adapter that came in the box. I lost the USB adapter (I got the thing close to 20 years ago after all). HOWEVER! I found a part on Amazon that works a treat with some minor modifications (I used a twist-tie):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000067RIV/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And I had to shunt two of the pins together:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71LYgyHAFoL._SL256_.jpg

And everything was fine. It auto-detected just fine in Windows 10. The shunt may be a teeny bit hard to see, but I'm connecting the second from the left pin with the right most pin. Don't lose hope!

EDIT: Sorry if the picture is a little hard to see (it's in my review of the item from Amazon). I uploaded another picture here that shows which two pins I had to connect together.

WOW! This WORKED! You are amazing! Can you explain what is going on with the shutting? Why does that make it work? Also the twist tie was the ticket. Tried using some plain old steel wire and it would just touch other pins or the side of the metal housing and never make a good connection. The twist tie worked flawlessly.

This works surprisingly perfectly and I hope this forum post becomes the top search result for Sidewinder Precision Pro in Windows 10 lol. Stripped the ends of a twist-tie to act as bare metal contacts for those two pins and BAM, working in Windows 10.