Inconsistent Vista HID Driver

I was using a Panther DX joystick which is no longer supported by Mad Catz
(so I can't expect a new driver). Twice when I plugged in the joystick in
the USB port, the device was recognized as a Human Interface Device (HID) and
worked with no problem. But for the rest of many times I tried, the joystick
came up as an unknown device, and it was not recognized as a game controller.
I plugged the joystick to my old WinME machine and it worked every time.

What is causing Vista not recognizing the joystick consistently and is there
anything I can do to solve this problem? Is there a new/better generic HID
driver that will work better (I Googled it but didn't find free ones that are
applicable)?

Thanks.