Fallout: New Vegas stopped recognizing my controller

I have a wired Xbox 360 controller I use for all my controller needs when playing a game on my computer, Fallout: New Vegas included. Recently, while playing New Vegas, I accidentally unplugged my controller for around half a second. Now ever since that happened, New Vegas completely refuses to use my controller or even acknowledge that it's plugged in.

My controller is still in working order as it works in all other games I've started up. The issue with New Vegas still persists after restarting the game/my computer.

How can I get Fallout: New Vegas to let me use my controller again?

Solution 1:

Apparently, when my controller was briefly disconnected, New Vegas actually deleted the line "bUse Joystick 1" entirely from the fallout.ini file. This essentially removed its own controller support from the game but I was able to easily fix it by simply adding the line back in and restarting the game.

Special thanks to Mazura for pointing me towards that particular line in fallout.ini. Would not have found this issue for a much longer time without that help.