Sidewinder Gamepad/Joystick NOT Detected in EPOX 8K7A/SBLive! under Win98?!?!

[GundamF91]

I have Micrsoft Sidewinder Gamepad plugged thru the SBLive! gameport instead of the onboard AC97 gameport. I just noticed that the gamepad or joystick isn't detected under Windows98. Strangely, Windows2000 detected the gamepad just fine.

When I load Win98, there's a message during boot about "SBLive! not loaded due to IRQ conflicts". I thought this IRQ was a thing of the past. That must be the reason Win98 is not detecting my gamepad while Win2k would.

I tried uninstalling/installing the SBLive! card, original SBLive! drivers, also Liveware3.0 update, etc...everything. Nothing worked. I have yet to try using AC97 gameport, nor do I intend to use the AC97. I never had this problem using Win98/SBLive!/Sidewinder with my old 440LX board.

Any suggestions on fixing this?? Thanks. (I posted this at Motherboard Forum, but maybe i'll have more answers here.)

 

[RayEarth]

conflicts are well and healthy worldwide, it's a wonderful feeling. If you're getting a irq conflict on your soundblaster, there's no way you joystick will work because you have it connected to an item that's not working because of a conflict. If you haven't gone in your bios yet, go in and disable the onboard ac97 audio, and disable usb, and serial ports if you don't use a usb port it will free up an irq, if you don't use a serial port disable both ports, but make sure you disabled your onboard audio. after you load windows and it shows no conflicts or problems, then go into the control panel and manually click on the joystick input icon, and click add, and pick your sindwinder and click ok and wait a few secs and ok should appear. I use win98se and it has never automatically detected the sidewinder, only win2000 does that, 98 is done manually.

 

[GundamF91]

I disabled both Serial Ports...but still no go. I disabled the AC97 onboard audio, but that didnt' help either. And I can't add anything in Game control panel. It just says it's not detecting anything. I must find a way to switch PCI setting.

The bootup message says it's a conflict with PCI. But I went to EPox 8k7A's BIOS, and there's only option for selecting IRQ settings between "PCI or ISA". There are no ISA slots, so I don't know why they even bother. I don't know if it's IRQ or DMA, but I dont' get an option disabling an IRQ. only the choices between PCI and ISA.

Do I do it in Win98 Control Panel or Bios? Anyone else have some ideas? Thanks.

 

[morriswindgate]

Go into the Control Panel>System>Device Manager>Sound Blaster and check or uncheck (whichever it is) the LPT sharing box.

 

[GundamF91]

great idea...sharing LPT fixed the emulation problem. Then I realized the joystick support wasn't loaded for some reason. I so ended up reinstalling the SBLive! driver, and everything's 100% okay now! Thanks.