# [SOLVED] Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens



## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

Just noticed this problem yesterday when attempting to play my flight simulator after work. The controls didn't work at all on my Saitek X45 joystick. The LED status lights were OK, so I exited the program and opened the control panel to access the game controllers. After numerous double clicks, it didn't open. I went into device manager, and under "sound, video, and game controllers" my joystick was not listed; however, it was under the HID section, and disappeared/reappeared when I unplugged the joystick and plugged it back in.

I found several threads on different forums so I tried a few options, including removing all the HID devices and USB devices from device manager (had to use VNC from my iphone to finish all of them when I removed the mouse/keyboard from the list, lol). I then rebooted and let windows "re-find" all of the devices, but "game controllers" still wouldn't open. The Event Viewer shows no errors and I am not getting any popup errors when trying to open it. As a last resort, I tried a registry cleaner this morning, but I am now lost because I have pretty much exhausted all options that I know of.

I did try creating another windows user account and tried to access game controllers from that account. It, too, did not work. The only time I could get it to open was when I booted into safe mode. It came right up.

Ideas?


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

I should also note that other game controllers DO NOT work either. However; all other USB devices are functioning normally.


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## CCT (Mar 21, 2009)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

Try sfc /scannow .

edit - did you try start, run joy.cpl ?


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*



CCT said:


> Try sfc /scannow .
> 
> edit - did you try start, run joy.cpl ?


Doh. I thought I mentioned that already. Sorry, I already created a disc and ran sfc /scannow. Nothing changed as a result of running that.
I also ran a chkdsk /f

Yes, I tried running the joy.cpl file directly too. I even copied the joy.cpl from my work laptop and it, too, does not open.


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## CCT (Mar 21, 2009)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

Do a search for joy.cpl.

Should be in C:\windows\system32\ .


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*



CCT said:


> Do a search for joy.cpl.
> 
> Should be in C:\windows\system32\ .


Yea, it's where it should be. Every other Control panel applet loads fine. I wish there was some kind of error log, but everything that I can find is showing normal.

Obviously something that runs in normal XP mode is preventing it from working, because it works fine in safe mode. I have VNC access to my home computer, so I am trying different things throughout the day, but when I get home (assuming its not resolved yet), I will start shutting down services one-by-one to see if I can open up access to it.


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## CCT (Mar 21, 2009)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

Copy the one from i386 and paste in that folder.


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

I don't have one in my i386 folder.
I have one in my system32\dllcache\ 
I copied that one (identical date/time stamp) with no luck.


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## CCT (Mar 21, 2009)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

Can you use that in Safe Mode?


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*



CCT said:


> Can you use that in Safe Mode?


Yes, the "game controllers" applet loads fine in safe mode.


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## CCT (Mar 21, 2009)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

Then check for startups in MSConfig that might interfere.

Perhaps a device controller you installed for a joystick ?

Also, look for 'run' entries in the registry.


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*



CCT said:


> Then check for startups in MSConfig that might interfere.
> 
> Perhaps a device controller you installed for a joystick ?
> 
> Also, look for 'run' entries in the registry.


that's the kicker...no new software (except turbotax) has been installed over the past month, and that hasn't caused an issue the past 4 years of using it.


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## CCT (Mar 21, 2009)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

Look for the 'run' entries anyway.

and runservices


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

Oh good lord, you can go into services.msc and do an export of the current list. How convenient is that? 
Unless someone else chimes in with some resolution attempts, I will begin disabling services and RUN events until I find the culprit (and hopefully I do) lol


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## CCT (Mar 21, 2009)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

Sadly, every place I found talking about this, the only 'cure' was a Repair Install.

So, if you find something, please share.


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

I have no immediate need to reformat / reinstall, so I am going to look thoroughly for a solution and if I do resolve it, I will definitely post it up here. I love finding [SOLVED] threads. It's a great idea.

If I don't find anything about a week or so of searching & testing, I will probably resort to the reinstall because I am itching to land my 747 at JFK in FSX


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

ZAPF DINGBATS! I closed my antivirus and ftp server simultaneously and voila! My controllers window pops up. Now to see which one it was and more importantly, WHY!?


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## phuz (Jan 10, 2011)

*Re: Game Controllers (Joy.CPL) in Control Panel no longer opens*

...the BulletProof FTP Server 2010 service is somehow prohibiting the access of "game controllers" in the control panel. I recently changed the FTP server to run as a service, instead of running at startup...so why should I suspect this would affect anything else? WELL, IT DOES! I can run the FTP server normally (not in service mode) and everything operates fine. If I start the service, I can no longer access the game controllers. I guess I am removing the service and going back to running the server at startup (minimized). Ugh! Now to send the developers an email letting them know about this awesome little bug.

SOLVED! Thanks for assistance.


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