Hard problem to diagnose in WinXP with gamepad

I'm running Winxp pro with all drivers up to date and have been for a while. My gamepad is old yet Windows detects it when i go to controlpanel/game then add it. Yet when i go to properties, the 2nd button icon is ALWAYS red, which i originally thought it was not working, maybe button 2 on the gamepad was just not working. I pressed buttons in that window to see if anything happened, nothing would detect a button press, so i went into caliberate and the joystick part works, except i have to click next instead of press button. When i go into any game sometimes the buttons do not work at all, sometimes they do, but button number 2 never works. I figured it to be the controller, so i borrowed my friends 6 button gamepad, added it, same thing, second button is red. On this controller, however, I can press the rest of the buttons and it works in games but doesn't let me use the 2nd button still. I've tried selecting different controller types in add game device but the 2nd button just wont work damnit. Both these controllers I tested were using the serial port on the back of my machine. For a long time, the original controller worked with no problems at all flawless. Any update I have done since then has worked. This just popped up one day after things were fine with no driver changes. It's enabled in bios, 2 controllers were tested, different formats were tested, even using the real driver for the controller would not work. It is just button number 2. Maybe my serial port is messed up? I sure as hell hope not. If i get a usb gamepad, if i go to select this option, am i gonna have the same thing happen? Is there any possible way to reinstall game device options in control panel? Thanks

-hadez

Winxp
800mhz
4.37(a)
288mb
AGP40
busmastering drivers
gf2 mx 400 64mb
ac97