Sorry I had to do this, I made posts about this 4 times...and it still inst fixed.
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I noticed a few other people have posted this too, but i am gonna repost it. Almost everyone with a sidewinder has been having this problem. I am having it, and Soviet is having it.
Problem: During gameplay, the joystick will just stop working. In order to get it to work, i have to alt+tab. Unplug the joytick, plug it back in, and reinstall the drivers. By the time i have done all that, i have already been bounced, and probally am ded.
This problem started happing and patch 2. Plllllleeeeaaaasssseee release a patch ASAP.
BTW: I do have all the updated sidewinder drivers, and the latest windows USB patches installed