Microsoft Sidewinder Pad vs Win2K

OK, otday I took apart my Sidewinder pad, gave it a bit of a clean, and put it back together to fix a small problem I've been having with it for months. Now I suddenly remember the other reason I haven't used it in ages...

After a couple of minutes extensive usage of the pad, it tries to reinstall it, thus either hanging whatever I'm palying with it or screwing up the pads readings. Now, I know this is because in Win2K it auto-installs the pad (I can't use the CD I got with it to install it coz' Win2K says it already has the drivers).

Anyone know how I can fix this? It's really getting on my tits...

Download driver updates from the MS website? :p Or you can also forcefully use the drivers from the CD if you go through Device manager and change them there, I had to do that to my network card in Win2K.

Will this be a reoccuring problem? If not you can run the program and then let the program hang while it reinstalls the software, then re-calibrate the controller. Then if this is the only time that it happens you're set. But if it keeps trying to reinstall it you've got problems.

it does it again and again and again... it's like the freaking Energizer Bunny crossed with ol' Mephistopheles I tell ya!

And I can't force the drivers since Windows has an auto-detect feature for the pad, meaning it will still do that.

Windows has autodetect on my gamepad, but I've forced custom drivers onto it so I can use all 8 buttons :p