Aztec,
I have the old CH analog setup on my Win98, works great. I've had it on at least three computers plus numerous reinstalls, always has worked fine. I use the standard CHJOY drivers, not the betas.
A few questions:
I assume when you refer to the throttle you mean the throttle on the Combatstick, not the CH Throttle or CH Pro Throttle? I have the old CH Throttle, so I don't know anything about the throttle built into the stick.
Do you have the stick plugged into your audio card gameport or the CH Gamecard? I used to use the CH Gamecard dedicated gameport, but have found the gameport on my SoundBlaster Live Value to work fine and a lot less hassel. I'll be glad to mail you my old CH Gamecard, I don't use it and doubt I ever will. If I get a new computer I'll be switching OS's to XP, which will require an upgrade to the new USB stuff anyway. You can send me your snail mail address to
hudcomp@comcast.net if you'd like to try using it. There's more info on the gamecard at the CH products website.
You might want to consider a fresh install of Win 98SE with all the latest drivers. Use the CHJOY98 drivers from their website. If it's been two years you may have too much accumulated goo!