Starting MaLa breaks USB Joystick input (WinXP)

[rally25rs]

I'm trying to get MaLa set up for the first time on a Win XP SP2 machine. I'm having a strange problem though...
I have a PS2 to USB converter, that takes 2 PS2 DualShock controlelrs and turns them into USB joysticks for the computer.

This setup works fine in plain Mame (no frontend) and in AtomicFE frontend, and the windows xp control panel properly shows the input button presses.

However, as soon as I run Mala.exe, all USB joystick input no longer registers.  If I alt-tab back to windows, open the Game Controllers in the Control Panel, then it still shows my USB joysticks as being connected and in 'OK' status, but none of the button presses register. This issue persists after exiting Mala. The only way I can make the inputs register again is to unplug the USB cable, and plug it back in. Windows the re-detects the joysticks and they start working again.

It makes no difference if I have "Use Joystick" enabled or disabled in the mala configuration.

Has anyone else ever seen this issue?
Thanks for any help!

[loadman]

Have you tried this tool?

You can use it to remap the Joy to 1/0 that MaLa will pick up


http://www.wingmanteam.com/latest_software/gadgets.htm#JoyIDs_Utility:

[rally25rs]

I hadn't seen that tool before, but I'll give it a try. I have my doubts though, because no application on the computer, including the Windows Control Panel, the Mala Configuration Test screen, Joy2key, the Atomic FE frontend... none of them can detect any input from either joystick after mala.exe has been run.
Still, I'll give it a try and post the result...

[rally25rs]

The JoyIDs Utility didn't help any. The gamepads are both listed with IDs 1 and 2, both before and after running mala.exe.