Joystick Problems

Penny & Giles has been renamed to Traxsys, but their popular, useful and robust range of joysticks and rollerballs haven't changed.

Since releasing the new USB versions of their joystick and roller range, the following two problems seem to come up fairly frequently:

The Penny & Giles / Traxsys Joystick moves on its own in one direction

I think that this is a calibration issue caused by someone leaning on the joystick when it is plugged in or when the computer is turned on - but it seems rather random.

To fix this problem simply unplug the device from the back of the computer, wait about three seconds, and then plug it back in again. Make sure that nobody's trying to use the joystick while you are doing this.

The computer feezes and the mouse pointer won't move

This is to do with Windows XP trying to save some power by turning off the USB port.

To fix this problem try following these steps:

1. Open your Start Menu and choose the Run... command (If you have no Run option then you'll have to speak to your school's techie).
2. In the box that appears type "devmgmt.msc" without the quotes.
3. In the window that appears, click on the little [+] sign next to "Universal Serial Bus Controllers".
4. Right-click on the USB Root Hub entry and select Properties from the list that appears.
5. Choose the Power Management tab and uncheck the box next the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" label.
6. If you have more than one entry for USB Root Hub then repeat for each one.