Weird happenings with usb game adapter

[TheSouthAzn]

Hello everyone,

I bought a Dragon "PC Multi Double Power Box 3" (Model No: SAM-PCMDPB3) 2 years ago. It is basically a usb PC to playstation controller adapter so I can use the playstation controller on the PC (pictured here). For the 2 years I've had it, things have been great - worked perfectly fine.

Recently though, after using the adapter on one usb port for a while, windows xp wouldn't recognize the adapter/controller anymore, but if I switched the adapter to another usb port, it would work fine again; however, after another while of use, the second usb port would stop recognizing the adapter again. The usb ports are not dead as my usb flash drive still works through them so the adapter did not kill the ports, but for some reason, xp just would not recognize the controller being there anymore. Also I can confirm that the usb adapter still works on my third usb port, but I'm afraid soon xp will stop recognizing the controller from the third port also.

When I say xp wouldn't recognize the controller, I mean when I click control panel>game controllers, no controller is listed, and if I try to open JoyToKey, it will say "Could't find Joysticks!!!".

I'm asking this question in hopes that XP just has a bug with usb controllers/adapters and someone out there knows a workaround, or if anyone else has experienced such a thing. My PC specs are below just incase it has something to do with the hardware.

Thank you for your time.

Edit: I've tried to recognize the usb adapter from the first two ports mentioned above WHILE in Safe mode, and it still doesn't work, so I don't think it's a conflict with any programs I currently have.

[ulaoulao]

ya ben there before. Boot in to safe mode go to device manager, remove all human interface devices, even if you have a mouse. reboot with the usb adapter NOT connected. When the system is up connect them. If that failles see if you have a VIA chip set, you may need new VIA driver.

[TheSouthAzn]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply.

I really thought you had a good idea, so I went to uninstall the usb ports (or hubs as referred by Windows) in safe mode, and also uninstalled the keyboard and mouse, then rebooted without the game adapter attached, waited until windows reinstalled the usb ports, rebooted again, then finally reattached the adapter.

Unfortunately, Windows still does not recognize the adapter in the two ports from before, but does recognize it from my third port.

My motherboard's online specs (here) show no mention of the word "via" so I don't think I have a via chipset...

Any other ideas?

[ulaoulao]

the nvidia chipset has the same issues as VIA, just make sure you install the right usb drivers for your board. From what you said sounds like you did.

Barring in mind that's all out of the way the next step is to look for the hidden or bad device. So open up device manager and do "show hidden devices" remove all HID's again and plug the adapter in to a bad slot and see what shows up. With USB it has to show something. If it does not the adapter is frying your USB ports and that i find hard to believe.