Troubleshooting

Problem: An axis control (joystick, D-pad, etc.) isn’t working properly in Joystick mode.

Solution: More than likely, the axis control is not calibrated correctly. The proportional axis controls on many Gravis controllers are calibrated automatically at the time that you connect the controller to your computer. If you touch an axis control (or a proportional button) while you are connecting the controller, you may cause it to calibrate incorrectly.

The solution? Disconnect the game controller, and reconnect it—being very careful not to touch any of the buttons or controls while you are connecting it.

Problem: Game controller doesn’t work with my game.

Solution: Check the following.

• Is the game designed for Windows 95 or 98, or for Windows 2000?

• Is DirectX 5.0 or later installed on your computer? The Gravis software will not work without it.

• Have you selected the proper controller from the game’s setup menu? Most DirectX games will auto-detect the game controller; if you’re using a GameSet with mouse or keyboard controls, you may have to select ‘Mouse’ or ‘Keyboard’ control in the game.

• If the game's setup program has an 'Enable joystick' option, select it.

• Use the Game Controllers control panel application to check the operation of your game controller.

• If you are using a Gravis Stinger Laptop GamePad with a serial port connection, is it initialized? Open the Stinger Starter Applet (from the task bar or in the Gravis program folder) and click Reinitialize.

Problem: Game won’t detect a GameSet.

Solution: Some games, such as the Star Wars Jedi Knight series, use a launcher when the game is initially started. The launcher starts if AutoPlay is enabled and the CD is placed in the CD-ROM drive or when you select the game from within the Program Menu folders.

Do NOT map your GameSet to the *.exe file that starts the launcher (in Jedi Knight, this file is Jedi.EXE; in Mysteries of the Sith, the file is Sith.EXE.) You want to ensure that you map the GameSet to the .exe file that actually starts the game. In Jedi Knight, the proper file is Jk.exe; in Sith, it is Jkm.exe.

Problem: Proportional axis control rollover.

Symptoms: When moving from left to right using a proportional axis control (e.g. Xterminator's proportional D-pad), the cursor disappears off one side of the screen and reappears on the other side. (Can happen when moving right-left or up-down.)

Most commonly, this is caused when the proportional control is held off center during power-up.

Solution: Re-power the unit with hands off of the controls.

Another possible cause is that the user has rotated the proportional D-pad. This is possible with a D-pad by pulling up on the pad and rotating it in 90 degree increments. This can cause the Thumball signal to be unbalanced. Rotating the D-pad back to its original position will correct the problem. Re-powering the unit with the proportional D-pad in the new position may or may not correct the problem, depending on how severe the offset is.

Problem: Controller is not detected by Sound Blaster game port.

Solution: Digital controllers (e.g. Xterminator Digital GamePad) may not be detected by the game ports on some Sound Blaster cards (mainly the AWE 64 Value cards). The digital devices are not detected, while analog devices work well. Replacing the sound card, even with the exact same kind, typically corrects the issue.

Problem: Controller is not listed when I click the ‘Add’ button in the Game Controllers applet.

Solution: If you have installed Gravis Xperience after installing Microsoft’s Sidewinder software, then subsequently uninstalled the Microsoft Sidewinder, you will find that your devices are no longer listed in the Game Controllers applet. This is because Microsoft’s uninstaller does not quite remove all of the information in the registry, creating one or more bad nodes. When you press the Add button, the applet searches the registry to build a list of devices. The search terminates when it encounters the bad node(s).

Re-installing the Microsoft Sidewinder software will correct the issue.

If you are familiar with the Windows registry and would prefer to edit the registry rather than reinstalling the Sidewinder software, click here for more information.