HID USB GamePad not functioning in Windows 8.1

Question

I just upgraded from Windows 8 to 8.1, however, after doing so, I found that my HID-compliant USB gamepad (an SLS USB Sega Saturn Controller, fwiw) was no long functioning properly. Looking in the properties in the control panel, I found that the x and y axes do not move when the d-pad is pressed; buttons 2 and 3 do not seem to respond; and if button 1 (or 4) is pressed, the indicators buttons 2,3,6, and 8 light up and do not go off. This pad worked perfectly in Windows 8.0, and just to make sure it wasn't malfunctioning, I tested it on the computer downstairs running Windows 7 and it worked fine on it as well. As such, I can only guess that Windows 8.1's HID driver has a bug.

Given that this is a generic driver, I'm not sure what I can do about it other than wait for it to get patched, but I wanted to make sure Microsoft knows about this.

Of course, if anyone knows of any fixes, please let me know.

Answer 1

Hi John,

This issue can be caused due to the driver issue.

Let’s try the following methods and check if it helps.

Method 1:

I would suggest you to check if there is any pending Windows Update needs to be install.

If yes, then I would suggest you to install the update and check if it helps.

I would suggest you to download and install al the latest chipset drivers and Hardware Driver update from the manufactures’ website.

Method 2:

I would suggest you to install the latest drivers\software from the manufactures’ website and check if it helps.

You may also refer to the steps from the following Microsoft article and check if it helps.

What if a wired device isn't installed properly? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-8/what-device-isnt-installed-properly

Keep us updated on the status of the issue.

Answer 2

Well,

I checked and neither Windows Update nor my computer's manufacturer had any updates at this time.

I have not been able to find any driver updates from my gamepad manufacturer (Sega Logistic Services), but to be honest, I did not expect find any. You see, this pad never came with any software, and has always used the default HID drivers on every system I've tried it on. These have included systems running Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Mac OS X 10.4, and 10.6. This is the first time I've ever had any trouble with it.

I'd check to see any other generic HID gamepads/joysticks produce similar results, but the other pads I have all register in the control panel as specific gamepads (Gravis Gamepad Pro and Xbox 360 Wired Controller), thus I'd assume they have their own drivers and don't use the generic one. For what it's worth, both of those operate properly.

Answer 3

Could you please try out the registry workaround suggested in this article and tell us whether it fixed the issue?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2900614

Thanks,

Eliyas

Answer 4

It did!

The pad must not have been receiving enough power with Enhanced Power Management enabled. Thank you so much!

If it's of any further help, the device instance was USB\VID_04B4&PID_010A\6&D84DDC7&0&2

Again, thank you!

Answer 5

It seems this may not be over yet.

Last night, after trying that registry workaround, everything was operating correctly. However, when I tried using the gamepad this afternoon, I found that it was once again malfunctioning. Not only that, but when I went into the control panel to investigate, neither my gamepad nor my mouse were listed under Printers and Devices. My mouse was working fine, and both devices showed up in the Device Manager, just not in Printers and Devices. I was eventually able to solve that problem by changing my system region (Not sure why that fixed it, but it did).

Anyway, I looked in the registry to see if perhaps Enhanced Power Management was turned back on, where I found that there was another instance under the same VID and PID. I turned off Enhanced Power Management on the new instance (the previous instance was still there, with its settings intact), and that seemed to fix the behavior again, but I wonder if I'm going to have to modify the registry every time I connect this pad?