don't know about the F310, but I tried the F710 (Wireless) and it didn't work. I am curious myself about the F310; if it indeed does work, I'd buy it for my own Win98 rig.

I also noticed the F710 is available too (with rumble support/wireless), and I wondered if anyone had any experience getting this to work with 98 too?

I tried it again, but the F710 (in Direct Input mode) shows up was Logitech Wireless F710, and windows cant find any drivers for it. I have the Logitech software (4.60 i think) installed, but cant seem to find any drivers for it.

Logitech F710 (at least, the one I bought recently) seems to be buggy for old Windows versions (I tried 98se and 2000), so the receiver ignores the joystick mode switch and works in Xinput mode even when it is in DirecInput. But, after some experiments, I have found the way out: you should not only put the switch on the joystick in DirectInput mode but hold any button on it (for example: "X"), while inserting the receiver into the USB port, then it will work in DirectInput mode until you turn off your PC (works even after restart).

I just bought the Logitech F310 controller, when I had initially plugged it into my Windows XP machine, device manager had detected the model of the device but it wouldn't install drivers even when having it briefly connected to the internet. There is a switch on the bottom of the controller labelled X & D. If you're having issues trying to get it to work in Windows XP make sure the controller is in the D position, and you might have to unplug it first put it into the D position then plug it back in, and Windows XP should detect it as a Logitech Dual Action device. I don't have a 98 system to test it on but if you have the controller in the D position you might be able to use some older Logitech game controller drivers and it might work.

Lostmeis,

Under WinXP, make sure you've installed the XBox 360 controller drivers. You should be able to use the controller in XInput mode with them. You can get them here.
https://archive.org/download/xbox-360-64-eng/ … ox360_32Eng.exe

Also, scroll up:
Re: Logitech F310 on Windows 98?
Re: Logitech F310 on Windows 98?

Also Also, I just took a look at prices on Amazon for various gamepads. Holy crap! Prices have gone crazy! The Buffalo/iBuffalo SNES-style gamepad is now a whopping ~US$60. The other Buffalo/iBuffalo BSGP1601BK gamepad I mentioned previously is going for ~US$50. Fortunately, the F310 is still available for ~US$17. I thought it was a really good gamepad years ago when it was commonly available for around $15. Now I think it's the absolute best gamepad available for the price.

Just wanted to post this for verification. Found that I had to hold the button upon each fresh boot to get the driver to load up right as well, but it works fine otherwise!

Also, if just using the USB HID drivers, rumble won’t work. If you use the Logitech software mentioned earlier in the thread, it’ll work just fine. I’ve tested it with 4.60 and it sees the game pad correctly in DirectInput mode.

https://youtu.be/YJb2uWokFBI

The Logitech F310 and it's predecessor with the same design are my go-to gamepads for Windows/Linux. The F310 has been recently discontinued in favor of it's wireless replacements, so grab one or more, while stock is available.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2022-02-20, 16:02:

The F310 has been recently discontinued in favor of it's wireless replacements, so grab one or more, while stock is available.

Where did you get this info? Logitech's site mentions "sold out temporarily".

It was put on clearance in physical retail stores some time ago, before being marked as "no longer available" through website purchases and when I checked with Logitech after finding it to be unavailable for purchase on their website, they said it was being discontinued in favor of the F710. Some retailers have large amounts of them in their warehouses, which is why the price is now so low and other retailers have removed it entirely from their listings.

Interesting. I wonder what possible reason could be for making this move now, considering the fact that it's been running in parallel with F710 for over a decade, while the F510 had been discontinued rather quickly.

The DAGP, F310, F510, and F710 all use the same parts (same design platform). If I had to say why the F510 went away, it's because Rumble wasn't a feature that people necessarily wanted and the demand for the parts required to implement it is driven by the console control manufacturing, as it is a standard feature in console controllers and games. So, dumping the F510 was good business, as it was more expensive to make than the F310 and likely the F710 as well, if not equivalent in manufacturing cost. Replacing the DAGP with the F310 was just a slightly updated design and coloring switch. Moving from the F310/F510 to the F710 makes some sense because more and more gamers are using laptops, with a dwindling number of USB ports and the keyboard/mouse side of the industry has also moved (almost entirely) to wireless, particularly in Logitech's portfolio, so the discontinuation of the wired products certainly makes sense when you account for that, as the Logitech products share the same wireless hardware in their construction, which means cheaper manufacturing cost from buying in large quantities.

Interesting take. I guess it is a plausible theory.

I'm aware that the Logitech F-series are slightly updated versions of the classic Dual Action (F310) / Rumblepad 2 (F510) / Cordless Rumblepad (F710). The new pads even identify as the old ones when in DirectInput mode. In addition to adding XInput support and colored buttons to match the Xbox 360 scheme, Logitech also changed the analog stick sockets from squarish to round, and increased the dead zones. Boy, did the last part get many players upset.

There is actually an older version of the Logitech Dual Action - with a different style d-pad, and no d-pad / left analog switch button (along with a couple of cosmetic differences). You can see both side-by-side here. I wonder if any other Logitech pads had used that d-pad design.

I have the older Dual action and an F310, and I am really glad I do. They work absolutely great on Windows 9x.

murrayman wrote on 2022-02-20, 15:52:

Just wanted to post this for verification. Found that I had to hold the button upon each fresh boot to get the driver to load up right as well, but it works fine otherwise!

Also, if just using the USB HID drivers, rumble won’t work. If you use the Logitech software mentioned earlier in the thread, it’ll work just fine. I’ve tested it with 4.60 and it sees the game pad correctly in DirectInput mode.

https://youtu.be/YJb2uWokFBI

I found your video through youtube and came here to check out the thread. Thanks so much for this. No driver needed. You rock!

I can confirm that LGS v4.60 works for the F310 in Win98SE, and LGS v5.10 works under WinXP. I imagine it works for the F710 as well. I do miss the rumble but "quality of life" seems easier on the F310 so I may purchase a second as a backup.

On the other hand, I'd like to stand up for the F710, as I really love it. I've used my first one for probably more than a decade and I have bought more for retro builds and even android devices (RetroArch on Chromecast). In this time I've learned some solutions to it's quirks:
- In some cases (perhaps sometimes on Windows 10, surely more often on Windows 7) the controller is not identified and drivers are not installed. The drivers for XInput mode, as stated, are the Xbox360 controller ones. But that sometimes fails, because the hardware ID of the F710 is not the same than on the Microsoft controller. This can be fixed editing the .inf file:
https://blog.plee.me/2013/12/installing-the-l … -xinput-driver/
Perhaps there's also another recent problem, I just noticed this project: https://github.com/mrsilver76/Logitech-F710-Windows-driver
- Sometimes, although the gamepad has the switch in DirectInput position, on boot the PC sees it as the XInput F710. You must press a button on the gamepad once so it communicates with the receiver, the receiver notices and switches to DirectInput mode. Usually reinstalling the driver fixes the problem.

On a sidenote, although the XInput mode works with many old games, you'll lose force feedback (at least on Windows XP, I haven't tested on following versions). For instance as I use my F710 on DirectInput mode on my XP build, I recently rediscovered force feedback effects on NFS: Underground (for instance when driving over sidewalks), and later noticed this on some more games. Also if it's too weak, have in mind you can tweak force feedback effects strength to 150% on the Windows control panel.

In my experience, once you get the controller to behave on your system, I have found it very durable and pleasant to use for years.

I have to say that the quality of F710, which I bought in 2019 is very poor. Approximately after six month, once, when I used d-pad actively it became sticky to one side. Then it became sticky to the other side. When I disassembled the gamepad, I noticed, that contact rubbers were broken. The same bad result I got only with unknown chinese gamepad.

Fx10 series also suffer from sticky soft-touch coating after about 1 year of use. Overall not good experience, but early parties were at least built robust enough, before Logitech dropped the gamepad business. But hey, meme controller!

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-02-27, 15:53:

Fx10 series also suffer from sticky soft-touch coating after about 1 year of use. Overall not good experience, but early parties were at least built robust enough, before Logitech dropped the gamepad business. But hey, meme controller!

Not F310, though. It doesn't have the soft-touch coating. F510 definitely does (mine was so bad that I scrubbed all of it off). F710 probably too, but I never handled one.

Man, I hate that stuff. dr_st is right though; none of my F310s have it.

In the past when I've encountered that stuff and attempted to clean it off, I've used 99% isopropyl alcohol and an old sock or towel. If you're using the towel, it's fine on its own. You'll want to turn the sock inside-out though so that you can increase its scrubbing effectiveness. Either way, whether you use a sock or towel, you'll be throwing it out when you're done. It'll be caked with that nasty sticky crap, and putting them through a clothes washer won't get it off. It might even get inside your clothes washer and stick to other items, so just throw them away when you're done.

KT7AGuy wrote on 2025-02-27, 18:14:

In the past when I've encountered that stuff and attempted to clean it off, I've used 99% isopropyl alcohol and an old sock or towel. If you're using the towel, it's fine on its own. You'll want to turn the sock inside-out though so that you can increase its scrubbing effectiveness. Either way, whether you use a sock or towel, you'll be throwing it out when you're done. It'll be caked with that nasty sticky crap, and putting them through a clothes washer won't get it off. It might even get inside your clothes washer and stick to other items, so just throw them away when you're done.

Regular medicinal alcohol (or consumer alcohol) + paper towel would also work. Even wet wipes would. It would take slightly more time, and elbow grease, but you don't need to throw away any clothes in the end. 😜

dr_st:

A good example are my Logitech MM28 speakers, which look like this:

Aside from the clear cover on the front that doubles as a stand, the entire plastic enclosure was covered in that nasty sticky "flocking" crap.

I would have gone through three rolls of paper towels to clean that off, there was so much of it. It's much easier and cheaper to just use an old sock that has holes in it. Clean that junk off, then chuck the sock in the trash. Same goes for any old apparel with holes in it. Repurpose it, use it for cleaning, then chuck it.

Am I the only one who does this?