If I plug in an MS Sidewinder 2, Windows says “Installing device driver for MS Sidewinder 2”. So that’s the driver loaded for that particular joystick. Then I run Game Controller panel and see it responds to movements of the joystick. I place the PC into sleep mode. I awaken it, the MS Sidewinder still responds. Just to make sure we are clear on that, the MS Sidewinder still responds after sleep mode.
When you plugged in the CH controllers, you got CH drivers even if you have yet to install control manager.
It is a problem of the CH driver included with windows (probably unchanged since win98). The driver should listen to sleep and wake-up event messages and close and reopen the file associated with the USB port. USB ports are “Files” in Windows.
I have left as nice a comment as possible on CH Hangar but it seems to have elicited more of the same fudging: ”try reformatting your hard disk, have you tried a new haircut, let me know if you find anything, I’d love to fix any problems” etc.
To anyone that spent hours/days/years on this, I’m sorry but CH had you chasing your tails.