Please Help With My Controller Problem!

Hello, all. Feeling down today. I am having an immensely irritating and seemingly unsolvable problem with my PC and its controllers. This is so serious that I am very disheartened and sad (no, really - I am close to crying as I write this) that I cannot use any of my driving simulators on my computer without having to manually compensate for this problem. I am forced to hold the steering wheel at about 10o to the left, or I will go right in an arc roughly close to Curva Grande at Monza. This is not due to the individual game's car or controller setup. This happens in all driving and racing games on my PC (which all run under Windows 98 OEM). Let me give you guys some background, in numbered steps below, so you can see how I went about narrowing this down. 1. ThrustMaster Grand Prix 1 and CH GameStick working fine with Grand Prix 2 and Wing Commander IV, going through a Sound Blaster 16 PnP gameport. 2. I upgraded my computer from a 133MHz 586 to a 266MHz K6 MMX, and RAM from 16 to 32MB 100MHz SDRAM. 3. Installed a clean Windows 98 OEM, and my applications. 4. CH stick working fine, but the wheel seems to be sluggish in left-hand turns (I would have to turn the wheel full lock to get around a given turn, but only 75% of right-hand lock when driving it backwards). After calibrating dozens of times with no results, I downloaded and installed ThrustMaster's ProPanel. The wheel would calibrate fine, and showed centered perfectly in the graph, and centered in games' calibration, but when playing, the problem appeared. The joystick, however, is dead center in all games (including racing), even to this day. 5. Passing it off as an old wheel on its way out, I purchased a ThrustMaster NASCAR Pro wheel and pedal set. This also seemed to have the problem, only now the car would turn to the right if I didn't hold the wheel somewhat off-center. 6. After reading some things on the Internet, and reading a few magazines, I went back to the store to buy a ThrustMaster ACM Game Card. I installed it, disabled my previous gameport in the Device Manager, and went to play. The problem persisted, even after adjusting the dial with TMScope, turning it back to "1," up to "10," and disconnecting the dial altogether. Again, the joystick works fine, even after the purchase of Wing Commander Prophecy (I know, I'm a WC freak) - a Windows-native program. I also uninstalled and reinstalled Direct X, and also installed Direct X 6.0 Core, thinking it was the game controller drivers. I still had the problem. In fact, even calibrating the wheel with the "center" about 10o to the right solved the centering problem, but the wheel response was erratic when from 0-10o to either side. I removed the card and re-enabled the Sound Blaster's game port, but the problem still occured. 7. I contacted ThrustMaster Customer Support, and was advised to exchange the wheel and may need to send it and the game card in for inspection. They did not have much of a solution for me. 8. I returned the NASCAR wheel for exhange. The store was sold out, so I decided to try the new NASCAR Sprint wheel. Needless to say, the problem occurs in this as well. I tried the paddles and the pedals, and with or without the game card; still the problem persists. That is about it. I am now at my wit's end, and will not be forced into driving with the joystick when I have two perfectly good steering wheels in front of me. My system specifications follow. AMD 266MHz K6 MMX 32MB 100MHz SDRAM 540MB and 2.1GB Hard Drives 24x CD-ROM Matrox Mystique 220 with 4MB Diamond Monster 3D II with 8MB Creative Sound Blaster 16 PnP with Onboard Game Controller ThrustMaster ACM Game Card ThrustMaster Grand Prix 1 Racing Wheel ThrustMaster NASCAR Sprint Racing Wheel CH GameStick Windows 98 OEM on a clean install (no upgrade) Direct X 6.0 Core (for Windows 98 Only) And now my list of affected games. Sierra's Grand Prix Legends EA's Need for Speed III Microsoft's CART Precision Racing (patched) Sierra's NASCAR Racing II (patched) MicroProse's World Circuit: Grand Prix 2 3DO's TOCA Touring Car Championship (patched) Sierra's IndyCar Racing II (patched) ABC Sports' Indy Racing: Road to the Indianapolis 500 I thank you infinitely for any assistace you can give that may lead to a solution - a solution that will let me drive straight and the car drive straight. I will check the newsgroup periodically, but PLEASE email me with any suggestions. Thank you again, in advance. - John P. Wilson :|: - Downshift http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/1123/index.html - Ten Cylinders, Six Gears, Four Wheels, Two Wings, and One Brave Heart

John. I had the same problem. Give this a try: Recalibrate your wheel but be sure that when you enter the Calibration screen, your wheel is COMPLETELY centered. This is VERY important. If it isn't, it won't calibrate fully to one side or the other. It will be very lop-sided in other words. Then turn the wheel slowly right all the way, the left all the way. Then calibrate your pedals, if you have them. It sounds like a stupid thing but I think that GPL uses the initial setting as the "center" when you come into the screen. My T1 is very loose and doesn't always snap back to full center and I discovered this same problem. When I centered the wheel, it fixed the problem. Good luck. Give it a try and let me know if this fixes the problem. J. >Hello, all. Feeling down today. >I am having an immensely irritating and seemingly unsolvable problem with my

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>PC and its controllers. This is so serious that I am very disheartened and >sad (no, really - I am close to crying as I write this) that I cannot use >any of my driving simulators on my computer without having to manually >compensate for this problem. >I am forced to hold the steering wheel at about 10o to the left, or I will >go right in an arc roughly close to Curva Grande at Monza. This is not due >to the individual game's car or controller setup. This happens in all >driving and racing games on my PC (which all run under Windows 98 OEM).

Let

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>me give you guys some background, in numbered steps below, so you can see >how I went about narrowing this down. >1. ThrustMaster Grand Prix 1 and CH GameStick working fine with Grand >Prix 2 and Wing > Commander IV, going through a Sound Blaster 16 PnP gameport. >2. I upgraded my computer from a 133MHz 586 to a 266MHz K6 MMX, and RAM >from 16 > to 32MB 100MHz SDRAM. >3. Installed a clean Windows 98 OEM, and my applications. >4. CH stick working fine, but the wheel seems to be sluggish in

left-hand >turns (I would > have to turn the wheel full lock to get around a given turn, but only

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>75% of right-hand > lock when driving it backwards). After calibrating dozens of times >with no results, I > downloaded and installed ThrustMaster's ProPanel. The wheel would >calibrate fine, > and showed centered perfectly in the graph, and centered in games' >calibration, but > when playing, the problem appeared. The joystick, however, is dead >center in all > games (including racing), even to this day. >5. Passing it off as an old wheel on its way out, I purchased a >ThrustMaster NASCAR Pro > wheel and pedal set. This also seemed to have the problem, only now >the car would > turn to the right if I didn't hold the wheel somewhat off-center. >6. After reading some things on the Internet, and reading a few >magazines, I went back > to the store to buy a ThrustMaster ACM Game Card. I installed it, >disabled my previous > gameport in the Device Manager, and went to play. The problem >persisted, even after > adjusting the dial with TMScope, turning it back to "1," up to "10," >and disconnecting > the dial altogether. Again, the joystick works fine, even after the >purchase of Wing > Commander Prophecy (I know, I'm a WC freak) - a Windows-native >program. I also > uninstalled and reinstalled Direct X, and also installed Direct X

6.0 >Core, thinking it > was the game controller drivers. I still had the problem. In fact, >even calibrating the > wheel with the "center" about 10o to the right solved the centering >problem, but the > wheel response was erratic when from 0-10o to either side. I removed >the card and > re-enabled the Sound Blaster's game port, but the problem still >occured. >7. I contacted ThrustMaster Customer Support, and was advised to exchange >the wheel > and may need to send it and the game card in for inspection. They >did not have much > of a solution for me. >8. I returned the NASCAR wheel for exhange. The store was sold out, so I

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>decided to try > the new NASCAR Sprint wheel. Needless to say, the problem occurs in >this as well. I > tried the paddles and the pedals, and with or without the game card; >still the problem > persists. >That is about it. I am now at my wit's end, and will not be forced into >driving with the joystick when I have two perfectly good steering wheels in >front of me. My system specifications follow. >AMD 266MHz K6 MMX >32MB 100MHz SDRAM >540MB and 2.1GB Hard Drives >24x CD-ROM >Matrox Mystique 220 with 4MB >Diamond Monster 3D II with 8MB >Creative Sound Blaster 16 PnP with Onboard Game Controller >ThrustMaster ACM Game Card >ThrustMaster Grand Prix 1 Racing Wheel >ThrustMaster NASCAR Sprint Racing Wheel >CH GameStick >Windows 98 OEM on a clean install (no upgrade) >Direct X 6.0 Core (for Windows 98 Only) >And now my list of affected games. >Sierra's Grand Prix Legends >EA's Need for Speed III >Microsoft's CART Precision Racing (patched) >Sierra's NASCAR Racing II (patched) >MicroProse's World Circuit: Grand Prix 2 >3DO's TOCA Touring Car Championship (patched) >Sierra's IndyCar Racing II (patched) >ABC Sports' Indy Racing: Road to the Indianapolis 500 >I thank you infinitely for any assistace you can give that may lead to a >solution - a solution that will let me drive straight and the car drive >straight. I will check the newsgroup periodically, but PLEASE email me

with

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>any suggestions. >Thank you again, in advance. >- John P. Wilson :|: >- Downshift http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/1123/index.html >- Ten Cylinders, Six Gears, Four Wheels, Two Wings, and One Brave Heart

Also since this is affecting other games, other than GPL (there ARE other games?), Thrustmaster has something called ProPanel which you could try. I use it and it helped me get through some goofy joystick setup problems. I found it at www.thrustmaster.com in their files section. Good luck. Jeff

John, I've recently made the exact same type of upgrade (from a 586-133 to a K6-266), and I experience some joystick "drift" problems, but nothing this extreme. I'm using my 16-bit sound card's joystick port, and I've found that the wheel calibration works fine for a few minutes after turning the machine on and calibrating the controller, but as my system warms up, the calibration actually DOES drift. I'd heard of this happening, but never experienced it until now. It helps if I let my system "warm up" for a while in the pits before calibrating and driving. It doesn't sound like this is the problem you're having, though, but I thought this tidbit might help someone else out. Good luck with your problem. -- John Bodin http://irlinsider.adnetweb.com/