Well, I followed Joachim's advice and tried to adjust the damping and I could see that spiking could be adjusted on that screen. However, the controls were grayed out/inaccessible. I don't know what a powered USB port is. My joystick is a Logiteck Attack 3. Its quite loose now but was still fine up until very recently. Thanks for trying to help Joe and everyone else. If the advice is to go ahead and replace the stick, then suggestion on a type of stick would be welcome. Thanks again. G