Subterranean Animism Pad Input issue

[Kojiremi]

Hey again folks.

I had this issue before 2 years ago and posted about it then

http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=6131.0

However somehow the problem just...fixed itself and the game started reading my controllers inputs.

2 years ago the game suddenly stopped reading my controller's inputs. It was working before that point however but one day it just stopped working. Then I posted about it seein if there was a solution to it. I tried what was suggested but it didn't work. However one day it just....suddenly started working again. No idea why or how I got it to work. But now its at it again, 2 years later. Now I haven't been playing it all the time or anything but I'm getting pretty fed up with SA wanting to work or not pretty much.

Touhou log -----------------------------------------------
Cannot use DirectInput SetCooperativeLevel.
Using T&L HAL!
DirectSound initialized normally.
----------------------------------------------------------

Is the error I get in the log. ALL my other touhou games work perfectly fine with no error and as that one poster said in the link I provided, ONLY SA ever seems to have this problem so, now I wish to try and figure out what the blue hell is going on with it....
It suddenly stops working then mysteriously started working, then some time later to the present it suddenly stops workin with the same error. I'd rather not just leave it to chance and see if it fixes itself again I want to eliminate this issue once and for all.
If anyone has ever fixed this or has any suggestions then please please give any words of advice you can offer. Even as I post this I'm re-installing the game from the CD and gonna see if that works, I don't know what else to try ~_~...

[Momiji]

First off, what's your system's hardware specs and version of Windows?  Next, are you absolutely sure your system and drivers are 100% up to date?  Next, make sure you install the version of DirectX 9 that's on the game disk.

Finally, are you potentially running anything else that could also possibly make use of the joystick?

[Drake]

Going to pop in and mention it's apparently an active problem with SA, and I haven't ever found someone who's found an actual fix. It probably isn't anything really obvious.

[Kojiremi]

If my computer can run ALL of the touhou games, even the later ones, I'm sure it should be able to run SA just fine. Like I said it originally worked way back when i bought it. Some time later it gave that error and joypad stopped working...then some more time later it started to work again ._. aaaaand now it gives the error again. 

My drivers were up to date as I checked that first when the issue happened, after confirming all the other games to work just fine and dandy, No other program is on that requires joypad inputs
I'm betting it was some...update that happened that caused it to not work but currently everything is updated just fine. :/
 And if its an active problem then.....shoot I guess many are just as screwed over as I am. I just wish I knew what caused it to allow me to use my controller for so long.

Anyway the system specs
Windows Vista Home Premium (Service Pack 2)
Processor - AMD Turion(tm) X2 Dual -Core Mobile RM-72  2.10GHz
Memory 3.00 GB
32 bit OS.

My laptop is pretty old now, got it like 8 years ago when i started college...more like 7.  But it can play all the touhous i have no problem....Then again i've no idea why it started to work or stopped workin in the first place so i'm willing to try anything i support.
For now i'ma try installing the DirectX that's on the disc since I didn't do that part, restart, and see what happens. I'm doubtful but....try anything haha.

If it is an active problem then hopefullly SOMEONE has a working solution and knows what's up.
But i'ma keep searching around too.

[orinrin]

I've had this issue in the past on a few of my personal projects.  Usually what happens is that the program can hook into the input device correctly, but setting the cooperative level will always return an invalid HRESULT regardless of flags used, which is the most common case for that error (at least with DInput8/9).  Long story short, ZUN is probably checking the return result using the default FAILED macro method.


However, you said that it only started happening recently, which seems to me like this could be a driver issue instead.  If you don't want to tinker around with driver rollbacks and compatibility settings, you can probably go ahead and download the free version of Xpadder/Joy2Key or another program that allows you to emulate keyboard inputs.  Don't forget to turn off the DInput pad option in the custom.exe too.

[Kojiremi]

I see. Well that helped thanks dood.
I've tinkered with most of my drivers but they are claim to be up to date. I was figuring it HAD to be a driver issue since nothing else seems to work. Which makes it more curious since it used to work in the past then stopped....later started to work again then stopped again. Just....bleh

Well I'ma try that program out, don't see much other choice that i haven't tried yet and know myself...
Thanks a bunch. I hope that works then.