I finally got it to work. It turns out that the receiver was locked up somehow(and unplugging and replugging from the usb port didn't unlock it). I completely forgot that the little green led on the front of the receiver is also a reset(or something like that) button. If the led flashes consistently, even after pressing rumblepad buttons, you are most likely locked up. I also found that,(and this may be specific to my computer), the rumblepad doesn't like keygrabber(though it sort of works, it's inconsistant), but likes it's own Logitech profiler(the black W), and likes to have Mach started from within the profiler.
Once working, it's very nice not to have a cord, and it works excellent.
Now it's time for me to figure out what to assign the buttons to other than the standard axis movement.
Thanks for all your input.
Eugene