Strange soundcard joystick port and wheel problems

Hi all I have a SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold, and a Smith's Formula One Steering Wheel (a South African product, for those who don't know). The wheel and pedals form a standard 2-axis, 2-button joystick (the buttons map to shifter buttons on the wheel). For a long time the wheel and pedals have been very jittery in the Y-direction (i.e. the pedals' axis). When calibrating in Control Panels' Game Controllers program, the cursor moves up-and-down incessantly, and sometimes the program claims that the joystick is not connected (this jitteriness is worst when braking, i.e. in the "negative" range of the Y-axis). I get the same problem in DOS (using GP2). The problem would be strange enough if it weren't for the fact that I have had the wheel replaced once (before performing a more thorough test on the old one), and the new wheel works perfectly with a friend's computer (with a SoundBlaster 16). More recently, I have had my AWE 64 swapped out for a new one, and the problem still persists. Could the wheel be incompatible with one particular soundcard (the AWE 64) ? Surely not . . . ANY assistance will be greatly appreciated ! Ryan

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> Hi all > I have a SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold, and a Smith's Formula One Steering Wheel > (a South African product, for those who don't know). The wheel and pedals > form a standard 2-axis, 2-button joystick (the buttons map to shifter > buttons on the wheel). For a long time the wheel and pedals have been very > jittery in the Y-direction (i.e. the pedals' axis). When calibrating in > Control Panels' Game Controllers program, the cursor moves up-and-down > incessantly, and sometimes the program claims that the joystick is not > connected (this jitteriness is worst when braking, i.e. in the "negative" > range of the Y-axis). I get the same problem in DOS (using GP2). > The problem would be strange enough if it weren't for the fact that I have > had the wheel replaced once (before performing a more thorough test on the > old one), and the new wheel works perfectly with a friend's computer (with a > SoundBlaster 16). More recently, I have had my AWE 64 swapped out for a new > one, and the problem still persists. Could the wheel be incompatible with > one particular soundcard (the AWE 64) ? Surely not . . . > ANY assistance will be greatly appreciated ! > Ryan

------------------------------- How fast is your CPU/system? 486's were always jittery, and some of the older Pentiums also... Have you tried an adjustable game card?

> etc. Well, I'm not sure if anyone cares, but I've managed to solve the joystick problem. The cause was one of the strangest I've encountered in a while. Believe it or not, but I eventually traced the cause of all my woes to A VERY SLIGHTLY SHAKY PIECE OF WIRING at the mains plug for the extension lead that powers my computer ! The rest of the machine wasn't affected. Just the joystick port. Oh well. Live and learn . . . I'm just surprised that I managed to find the fault at all ! Ryan