I've been following this report closely as this is also a huge issue for me. I have a Logitech 3d Pro. The joystick, a wireless mouse and a usb powered headset are the only things in the usb ports (no second controller). Just an interesting discovery that I just made is that when I run the game in windows 7 compatability mode (from my native windows 8.1), the joystick disconnects immediately upon entering a multiplayer game. Whereas just running it on 8.1, I can play with it, but if I go into the "controls" menu a few times, it disappears. The only way to get it back is to restart Arma. I will try it in compatability for XP as well.