building my first MAME cab- a few questions

[bensnakepit]

Hi everyone,
I'm a super newbie and I just started the process of setting up my cabinet for MAME. I've got a JAMMA cabinet with no monitor, and the guy I bought it from also gave me a J-Pac. My first problem is that my PC won't recognize the J-Pac, and I can't seem to find any device drivers anywhere for it. Everything I can find for J-Pac support says that no drivers are necessary, but my PC is humming a different tune. Can anyone help?
My other question: For now, I just stuck a VGA computer monitor in my cabinet (I'd like to eventually get a real arcade monitor but I won't have that kinda cash for a few months) and hooked it up directly to my PC, will the J-Pac still work for the controls if I just don't plug anything into its monitor port?
thanks for taking the time to read this and offer advice if you can, cheers!