Pete
Many thanks for prompt response.
I have checked the USB power option and can confirm that they were checked to turn off to save power I have now unchecked them (not tested FS yet though).
Apologies for the poor explanation of what is happening with assignments. Hopefully this will make more sense!
I initially assigned each lever as described previously, play FS and use them, then closed FS. At the next restart of FS the levers did not perform the tasks I had assigned to them (did not throttle, operate gear or spoilers) so I opened FSUIPC and went to axis assignment. I pressed clear then rescan and then moved the black lever, at that point without doing anything else FSUIPC showed the assignment I had previously made in the window on both the left (axis throttle) and the right ones (move up throttle inc, move down throttle dec). Similarly when I clicked rescan and moved the blue and red lever FSUIPC showed what I had previously assigned (gear and spoilers). I then click OK go back into FS and they work again. This has happened each time I have closed FS.
Kind regards
Sidders