Some users have reported that they received this error message after upgrading
to DirectX 8.

We do not recommend upgrading to newer versions of DirectX when using older
products that may not support newer Technologies. Previous versions like 7.0 
or 7.0a are known to work very well with no problems ever reported. 

If you have to update DirectX you can try installing the joystick as a custom
generic joystick, one that closely matches what you're using. 
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