gaming keyboard disables other joysticks?

[bisby]

my saitek gaming keyboard for some reason takes up the first 3 joystick positions, forcing my other gamepad into a 4th position or later. This creates problems. In games like NFSU2, it detects the keyboard 3 times under the controller config but doesnt give me access to the 4th spot. An NES emulator I have recognizes the gamepad as "Joy4" but this is the only program i can get to recognize it. Other emulators and games just force me to unplug my keyboard if I want to use the gamepad... which i really dont like. Windows Update also gives me the 0mb download issue and fails the drivers every time. The drivers also wouldnt install off the CD. the device manager sayys i have no drivers installed... I REALLY need to be able to use the keyboard and the gamepad... Anyone?

[BUFF]

http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/supp/gamersk_support.htm

make sure that you don't have any anti-virus etc. running whilst trying to install.

ftp://ftp.saitek.com/pub/software/SD_WinXP_4_3_3_2000drivers.exe
ftp://ftp.saitek.com/pub/software/SD_WinXP_4_3_3_2000.exe

[bisby]

thanks...
while i wait for the download... is this going to fix the driver issue thing, or should it also fix the fact that it cancels out other controllers?

[bisby]

oh... no, it doesnt fix the 3 keyboard controllers but no gamepad controller issue. i still cant use my gamepad. it works when i unplug my keyboard. but if i have to unplug my keyboard nonstop its going to start to be not worth it to me... its an amazing keyboard and i want to keep it... please dont let me lose faith in saitek

[BUFF]

It's odd that for some people it sems to take up 3 slots - does it show up in the Game Controllers part of Control Panel 3 times too or just in certain games?

if you search/read the forum you can find information on disabling a HID entry in Device Manager to disable the Command Pad.

[bisby]

actually after installing the drivers, my gamepad is showing up as joystick3, and it helps a lot of games work better because it doesnt have some sort of "x-axis" setup problem with the keyboard. the keyboard doesnt show up at all under the game controllers anymore.

[bisby]

i had a few listed in there in the HID as keyboard pro, one of them wouldnt turn off. but thanks. it all works now once i turned like 2 of them off. ^_^ thanks a ton

[ViciousXUSMC]

Hmm gonna revive this topic because I think this is the source of my problem also.

Here are the best details I can think of. Had the saitek p2500 controller for some time, when I got it, it installed fine and ran fine on my old windows ME p4 system...

finaly upgraded to windows XP it installed fine and ran fine, this includes all games and the programing software.

Well I just built a new computer and used the same copy of windows xp (service pack 2) and when I went to install my controller it didnt work.. it would freeze in the instaliation point where you have to plug the device in... apparently its a known issue so saitek has a fix for it, "in rare situations the controller might fail to install on windows xp please just let windows auto install its own drivers then go to windows update where you will find a update for your controller download + intstall this and your controller should be working fine" well sure enough it did. I was playing GTA SA (the reason I need the controller... sucks with kb + mouse)

Well some time after that I ended up doing a install of windows anew to put partitions on my drive and stuff so the controller was no longer installed, so I ended up buying the gaming keyboard and a new mouse to upgrade with my new pc, the keyboard and all its functions installed and worked perfectly (never tried the program pad in games but it worked in windows on things like notepad)

And just today I had the urge to play GTA again so went thru the same install process as last time let windows detect the controller, and updated the driver... both keyboard and controller show up on my taskbar in the lower right with the programing softare, both of them appear in the controllers section of my control panel and both of them work in the controll panel.

But I cant get it to work with any game at all! makes no sence ran thru all the trouble shooting stuff and it boils down to "if it works in windows but not your game its a game issue" but thats not true and I tried 3 diffrent games.

I even tried disabling the keyboard in device manager incase it was like the issue above where the keyboard puts the controller at a lower priority and it does not fix it.

also just ran thru the normal install process with the newest WHQL drivers downloaded from there site and it didnt fix it...

So what the hell happend? I cant use the controller and the keyboard at once? I can only think this is the only issue since it worked before I had the keyboard but I cant find anyway to fix it please help sombody

[BUFF]

Do the games that you have problems with support multiple controllers?
If not the gaming keyboard will take precedent over a FF device due to the PID nos & be the 1st controller that the games see.
If that's the case you will have to disable the gamepad which is where disabling a HID entry in Device Manager to disable the Command Pad comes in.

[ViciousXUSMC]

Games I tried Unreal Tournament 2004, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, and Far Cry.

I already disabled the keyboard in device manager tho under HID devices and it removed it from the controllers section of the control panel so sounds like I already tried what you suggjested unless there is somthing else I need to disable, but dont see anything else.

And yes I did reboot after turning it off just incase it needed a "refresh" to read the new layout..

so any ideas now ^^

I guess I could uninstall the controller and keyboard alltogether, install the controller and not the keyboard and go from there since the keyboard seems to work just fine without anything installed for it aslong as I dont use the program pad with it, wich I really dont use with any games I have now (except maybe world of warcraft or warcraft III) but I dont really have the desktop space for it anyways.

[UKSupport]

There in Device Manager under Human Interface Devices you should see one or two (maybe more) entries called USB Human Interface Device. You need to disable one of them by right-clicking it and choosing Disable from the drop-down list of options.

Note: If you have only two such entries there in Device Manager then only one will be able to be disabled - the other will have the disable option greyed out in the drop-down list when you right click it. If however you have more than two such entries in Device Manager then you will need to ewnsure that you disable the correct one. This is done by double clicking on each one in turn and looking at what it says next to Location on the Properties page. The one that should be disabled will say USB Gaming Keyboard Pro next to Location. Once you have disabled that then try the game again and it should work fine.Human Interface Devices in the list of devices and you should see one or two (maybe more) entries called USB Human Interface Device. You need to disable one of them by right-clicking it and choosing Disable from the drop-down list of options.

Note: If you have only two such entries there in Device Manager then only one will be able to be disabled - the other will have the disable option greyed out in the drop-down list when you right click it. If however you have more than two such entries in Device Manager then you will need to ewnsure that you disable the correct one. This is done by double clicking on each one in turn and looking at what it says next to Location on the Properties page. The one that should be disabled will say USB Gaming Keyboard Pro next to Location. Once you have disabled that then try the game again and it should work fine.

[ViciousXUSMC]

Pretty sure I got that already, but it might have been a diffrent file since it said HID device gamers keyboard or somthing like that on the title I didnt have to look at where its located so maybe there is another file to get.

I will check it out later when I am done with my watercooling kit ^^ any plans for a fix to this? kinda messed up buying 2 products and only able to use 1 at a time...

[southernman]

Hi Richard, been a while since SST was introduced and since I've had no problems since then........

I have in control panel ->device manager

Logitech Cordless USB Mouse
Logitech MOMO Racing (HID)
Logitech MOMO Racing
Saitek PC Dash 2
Saitek PC Dash 2 (HID)
Saitek X45 Flight Controller
Saitek X45 Flight Controller (HID)

First thing I note is the MOMO has the (HID) listed first as opposed to the Saitek listings. Is this significant at all?

I also run into the problem of a game not letting me us the X45 and forcing the MOMO. Heroes of the Pacific does this to me. I end up unplubbing the MOMO whenever I want to play it but then I loses the pedals which I normally use with other flight games. In CP->Gamer Controllers the three devices are listed in this order
MOMO
X45
PC Dash

I note here that the X45 superceeds the PC Dash.

Is there another way around this problem or is it just an XP thing we have to live with. Perhaps a utility that lets you easily switch the ID's back and forth?

Thanks, got my X52 on Santa's list this year, can't wait.

[ViciousXUSMC]

Problem resolved by disabling the file in device manager, simply removing it from the controllers does not work, and unpluging the keyboard is not an option...

too bad cant use both at once would be very handy in some games.

[BUFF]

simply removing it from the controllers does not work
of course not - otherwise it will be redetected & re-installed :rolleyes:

[UKSupport]

@Southernman: No, there's no way around this, I'm afraid. The MOMO will be treated as the main controller by the PC unless you unplug it and some games only accept inputs from one controller.

[Stinger22]

@Southernman: No, there's no way around this, I'm afraid. The MOMO will be treated as the main controller by the PC unless you unplug it and some games only accept inputs from one controller.

Do you know of any utilitles out there that let you disable controllers as needed instead of having to unplug them? I'll suggest to Codemaster that they try to issue a patch, can't believe someone still puts out a game that does not recognize multiple controllers.

Thanks Richard

[BUFF]

Do you know of any utilitles out there that let you disable controllers as needed instead of having to unplug them?
Tried Device Manager?

[UKSupport]

No, there's no utility to let you do this. You have to either disable the controller in Device Manager or unplug it.

[MadIce]

I remeber an utility installed by a Thrustmaster product which has the text "Safely remove hardware" in its titlebar and lives in the system tray and does what you want. Not very reliable, though. It doesn't recognize all gaming devices, so I have disabled it. Maybe Saitek can come up with a better one? I maybe give it a shot if there is enough interest for it. I am a games engine coder.