Say It's not so.. (Sidewinder)

After a few weeks of installing, tweaking, tuning, troubleshooting, etc. my win 7 pro install...

I realize the MS does not support my SideWinder Force Feedback 2 Game Controller in win7.

How can this possibly be? Made by MS, and an MS os. Go to the ms win7 hardware compatablilty page and it says something about information coming soon.

Vista required no drivers, or at least no download was needed. The device was just recognized..

I can't believe it..

Hmmm.... I just plugged mine in and Win 7 (x64) installed the drivers and it appears to be in working order, though I've yet to try it with a game - Freespace for example.

Also, what game are you playing that needs that stick, because the game will probably be the issue. So....



PS, It worked the same way in Vista as Win 7, so...???

I does / did work in vista. There is / was an area in the control panel that would allow calibration of it.

I'm not much of a gamer but the nephews like to play and they liked the joystick.. The way that it would push against your hand.. That would be the "force feedback" part of it.

In regards to the games... F22 lightning, moto racer, and flight simulator come to mind. The 1st two needed patches for vista.I don't have any games loaded on 7 atm.

I guess an xbox360 game controller works. I have wireless controllers but I believe it will work with the USB play & charge cable connected.

barryware said:

There is / was an area in the control panel that would allow calibration of it.

Control Panel, Devices and Printers, right click on the controller, Properties, click Settings tab, and click Calibrate.


Hope this helps/answers your question.

wow... thanks.. who would have thought to look there So I guess it is supported in win 7. My vista setup, there was a game controller icon in the control panel.

My mce remote is also listed there.. Interesting..

Glad to be of help.

And like I said, though it apears to work, I can't say the game(s) will have "full" functionality with the stick. Example - I tried playing Freespace 2 with it under Vista and some of the keys/buttons wouldn't work. I'm "guessing" this was a due to the "game" being run under Vista. So....

Good luck

FYI - There's also the Freespace 2 Source Project - FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Though I still had joystick issues so

My problem is, that the axis is down all the time. It goes to the center if i push the gas to the middle, but if i don't, then it just goes down every menu in all the games and in reverse when your driving. Anybody got any advice?

Well, you have to remember that the stick is old, so I wouldn't expect it to work "perfectly" under Vista or Win 7, especially when you consider the games it was used with at the time of the release :)

Even though I was able to calibrate and use the stick in Vista, haven't used it with a game under Win 7, I had issues in Freespace where the throttle would only work in one direction. Or certain keys didn't work at all.

You might have to do some Googling for this one :). What game BTW?

Also what Thorsen said :)

Well it works now, but the force feedback doesn't work. I have tried Race Driver: GRID, Test Drive: Unlimited, TrackMania, rFactor, Need for Speed Underground 2. The game works well in them except for Trackmania and the force feedback doesnt work. Just a yellow light flashing on the wheel.