Continuous pulling with Ipac

[ddoyle1996]

This is to update my previous posts about this problem.

I have an Ipac connecting my control panel to my computer.  It would work for a short amount of time.  Then, when I was playing games, my character on the screen would randomly start pulling left or right.  Some responses to my prior posts suggested removing applications that I didn't need and remove any joystick drivers.  None of that applied to me.  

While I was doing something else, I had a USB keyboard plugged into my computer so I could work on some other stuff.  To my surprise, the keyboard did the exact same thing.  It would randomly start pulling to the right or left.  I was running Windows 98 in DOS mode, and I had the "USB Keyboard" option enabled in my bios.  Apparently, that was the problem.  I switched the Ipac to PS/2 mode and it worked fine.

[BASSOFeeSH]

I've had problems in several PC games with Keys sticking, but that's been happening since before I knew MAME existed.

[BobA]

Thanks for the info.  Will keep it in mind when I install my ipac.

BobA

[AndyWarne]

Thanks for the update on this.

I can now think what the problem would have been:
In DOS, the USB keyboard support is using the system BIOS code. The BIOS is designed to support a USB boot device (keyboard and mouse) in a very basic form, mainly for getting at the CMOS configuration. It is really slow and prone to errors. This is why the I-PAC is not supported in DOS in USB mode, only in Windows.
In Windows 98, if the USB keyboard support is enabled in the BIOS and Windows has some problem with the USB drivers (eg not installed or some other problem) it will use the BIOS support instead. So the fix is to ensure the Windows USB drivers are working, with no exclamation mark etc in device manager, and disable USB keyboard support in the BIOS.