Ahh I have one of those and didn't have any luck using the d-pad.. I would always end up pressing diagonals by accident. Do you use the analog stick on it instead?
Yeah. Have the same problem with the Dpad so I'm using the analog stick.
But now that I got a little better and I want to do things I wouldn't think of before I seem to get some problems with the stick when I have to move into little gaps. Sometimes it works good, sometimes I move far to much because the stick seems to have sometimes some resistance at first and than start moving.
So I decided that I get myself a nice chrstmas giift and ordered the HRAP 3 after I found out that it works with pc.
Will tell you how it perfroms after it arrives.
Warning Forever
Samidare (frustrating in a formulaic sort of way, but much more satisfying than Ikaruga's chaining system, IMO)
Imperishable Night (good for starting on Touhou)
Perfect Cherry Blossom (equally good for starting on Touhou; a bit more difficult than I.N.)
Warning Forever is cool. But I'm not very good at it yet. But I enjoy the huge bosses
And the other ones are all on there way to me

Hope they will arrive soon.
After my wallet has recovered from the hrap I think I will get Raiden III.
But no reason to hurry... I think I have a bunch of shmups which will keep me busy for some time.