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Instructions to fix the tophat on a Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro or a Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 Joystick.

The Problem:

   After some use, the tophat switches themselves get slightly pressed back away from the center position of the shaft of the tophat. This causes the 4 microswitches to not be completely depressed when the shaft presses them in as far as possible. The resulting intermittant behavior of the switches causes the user to press down hard on the tophat to get it to work. Which in turn presses the switches even farther apart causeing them to be even more intermittant. Which brings us to the second problem for the Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 Joystick only. Eventually the user presses down on the tophat so hard that the plastic pivot point breaks inside the joystick. I broke my first one in less than two weeks. Even after solving the intermittant switch problem I broke the tophat's plastic pivot point again 3 weeks later just because the plastic is thin at that point.

The Solution:

 If your joystick has broken the plastic pivot point:
   I've tried to fix this without any luck. You need to call Microsoft for a free replacement. It doesn't matter weather you registered the joystick or not. The Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 has a one year Manufacturers warranty. The Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro isn't prone to breaking the pivot point, just intermittant tophat switches. You can call Microsoft at 1-800-360-7561 for a free replacement of your Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2. Have the joystick with you because they will ask you for the serial number on the bottom of the stick. Every joystick has a unique serial number. They will mail you a new joystick free of charge and you don't mail them the broken joystick or anything like that. I keep the broken ones for parts.

 If the plastic pivot point hasn't broken: (Part One)
   This can be fixed on both the Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 and the Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro. Do this at your own risk. I can't be held responsible if you mess up and melt your joystick with a soldering iron or in any other way distroy it. There are two parts to this fix. Here is the first part:
   Take apart the handle and take a peice of solid core wire and wrap it around the 4 tophat switches, twist it togeather at where the ends of the wire meet... and keep twisting with a pair of long nose plyers untill you can see that the 4 switches are being pulled very slightly closer togeather from the wire wrapped around them. Make sure you can insert the tophat shaft into the hole in the middle of the switches without depressing any of the 4 switches. Then solder the twist so it never gets loosened. You need to solder the wire to the edge of two apposing switch housings to keep it in place. Only hold the soldering iron on the switch housing and wire long enough to melt the solder into it. If it is held on too long it could melt the plastic of the microswitchs. I havn't had this problem, but I can see how someone could hold it on there too long. I used 22 guage wire for this even though it looks alot bigger in the blown up picture. A single stripped wire from a short peice of CAT 5 or phone wire will work nicely. You need to add this wire even if you havn't had any problem with your tophat in order to keep from having the above problems in the future if you use the tophat alot.

There is another fix that is specific to the game Descent 3 called the No Dead Zone fix. Descent 3 automatically puts a (dead zone) in the center of all axis so that your ship doesn't drift when you let the stick go.The Dead zone is an range of joystick movement that doesn't result in any movement of your ship in the game. This dead zone makes it allot more difficult to accurately aim at a moving target. To eliminate this dead zone for the Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 Joystick, download MSPP2.zip and unzip it into your Descent 3 directory. To eliminate this dead zone for the Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro Joystick, download MSPP1.zip and unzip it into your Descent 3 directory.