[Kraezymann]

Regarding your pads, I saw this comment linked in a different thread on reddit the other day. He's essentially creating a new control box using a USB encoder and vga cable cheap off eBay. Worked for him and there is a pin Diagram available for reference. You might be able to fix it with that, otherwise toward the end of the year there will be a brand new set of metal pads released that are supposed to be as good as they get, though you'll want to save up a bit for it.

Regarding packs, in GD's thread of everything stepmania you should definitely download all of mutes packs and the r21 packs, plus anything that has the star next to it as those are meant to be easier files.