Analog percision functionality problem in windows 7

Hi,

Intro:
I usually game on consoles because I find the controller a better option to game with concerning most game genres. I also like gaming on the pc, but through the years I have been flusterated beyond reason dealing with the keyboard & to some degree the mouse(except for games that were built around the keyboard and mouse controls like rts games). You see many times I found myself losing a game because I pressed the wrong button or my arm got tired after hours of slapping/slamming the mouse on the mouse pad during gaming in the heat of battle. Lets face it the keyboard & mouse were not designed for gaming unless a game or game genre were tailored to the keyboard & mouse.

I own at least 3 pc wired game controllers with analog twin stick functionality(logitech, steel series, xbox 360) & none of them offer the precision I get with a dualshock 3 controller on the ps3. To get back into pc gaming I bought a few pc games & played some great fan projects like sor remake & recently brutal doom. Recently I have decided to explore the avenue of using one of my dualshock 3 controllers to see if I can get the analog percision with the pc that I enjoy on the ps3. I was pleasantly surprised that the analog precision that I enjoyed on the ps3 can now be enjoyed on the pc(via installing the necessary ds3 drivers & using motionjoy).

I used the ds3 on the pc for a few days within a week & was considering gaming more on the pc in the future. Then all of a sudden my pc stopped detecting analog precision functionality concerning any of the controllers I have used on it. The analog sticks on any of the controllers that I have used on the pc have only detected the 4 directions like a keyboard(up, down, left, right, no diagonal direction though) & the analog functionality & precision is completely absent.

I have tried to find a way to fix the problem but no solution so far has worked. Things like uninstalling & reinstalling drivers & even using the "recovery" method to restore my pc settings to an earlier date to see
if it would iron out any errors/bugs that may have been causing the problem. Like I said nothing has worked. I have one more solution that probably will work, but that requires backing up all of my pc data to an external hdd & wiping my pc to restore it to factory settings & conditions. I really do not want to do that if there is an easier option & that is why I am asking for help concerning anyone with the know how to resolve this issue that I am having. Please help me, thanks.

OK, in my experience (for whatever this is worth ), dealing with drivers is a toss up, sometimes you get conflicts with IRQs or priorities and the solution is not readily available so... this is what I do

I go to Device Manager - USB controllers and I start deleting/uninstalling USBs, sometimes I get lucky and I don't bust out my mouse drivers so at the end, I can go back and just scan for new hardware as one of the options inside device manager. Most of the times, I am not so lucky so after a few deletions/uninstalls I am busted and all I can do is do a hard reset.

Normally, I get lucky and windows re arrange my drivers in a way there are no conflicts with IRQs and the likes and I am back playing or using the drivers I want for the app or game I want. If that does not happen then I have to rinse and repeat a few more times... I know, tedious to say the least but I can get it to work.

Again, this is my personal opinion and it works for me, there is no rhyme or reason that I know (technically) but it does the job... perhaps one of the more experience PC gurus can come up with an answer or better solution for your issue but trying this unorthodox method will not kill you in the interim