I recently, (earlier this year), upgraded my computer significantly and it’s become a gaming machine once again. I am however a console gamer at heart and prefer a controller when I can use one for most action/adventure titles. I hooked up a spare Xbox360 controller and Windows picked it up and everything went off without a hitch. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover that a lot of titles in the last few years have an automatic setting to configure for 360 controllers which I appreciate greatly.
I’ve had one issue though…
A number of games seem to have a problem with the vibration function. More than one game I’ve played in the last few months has this problem where the rumble will start and it won’t stop. The motors just keep spinning constantly and it seems to be more of an issue with rumble heavy games. (New Alice game I’m looking at you.) I have to physically unplug the controller to get it to stop. Any idea what’s going on here? Is it a driver issue? Is there anyway to disable the the vibration short of cracking open the controller and removing the motors? I’ve tried googling the problem but I can’t find any relevant information on it.
It seems like such a minor issue but it’s annoying as hell when it happens.
On an only tangentially related question - is this a wireless or wired Xbox controller? (And another related question: Is it possible to purchase a cable to connect a wireless controller WITHOUT using one of those strange charge-and-play cables, since I’m not using Microsoft’s mysterious proprietary rechargable battery packs.)
Just to clarify this was a wired controller that I had lying around that was not being used.
As far as connecting a wireless 360 controller to a PC, the only way I know how is to use a cable or by buying a wireless receiver like this one. Of course that leaves you still using a pack or actual batteries.
To clarify, I don’t mind if I have to use batteries (I just use ordinary rechargables) but I’m concerned about the Play’n’Charge cable working with said batteries. (i.e. I don’t want it to try to CHARGE them.)
I COULD just buy a receiver, but I’d rather buy a $5 cable than a $30 receiver.
I’m pretty sure you need to buy that receiver if you’re set on using wireless. I didn’t even know such a thing existed, actually. The cable for wireless controllers only charges, it doesn’t transmit data.
Wired is probably going to be a cheaper, better bet for the computer.
Yeah, the play and charge cable won’t work: when it’s plugged in, it’s only providing power, the controller is still talking to the XBox wirelessly. Since it’s a proprietary wireless format, you need the receiver to talk to a PC.
Though I don’t think the charge cable will try to recharge normal batteries, since rechargeable packs use a totally different set of contacts than the normal AA batteries do.
Hate to follow up on my own post, but digging further into things, it appears that the standalone receivers at Amazon that were linked to above aren’t actually real Microsoft products, even thought they say Microsoft or Xbox 360 on them.
In fact, I’m having a really hard time finding anyone selling the real “Xbox 360 wireless controller for windows” anymore, and a lot of reports that the product was kind of a dud to begin with.
Probably better off with the wired controller. Costs the same as the knockoff receiver anyway.
I have the wireless receiver linked to in the earlier post. You have to download updated drivers for it, but it works just fine with a wireless controller. Mine just has batteries and I keep spare sets of rechargeable batteries around.
I also have the periodic endless rumble and I just remove the batteries.
That said, if I were to buy an extra controller or were thinking of doing this without the benefit of controllers left over from a POS XBOX360, I’d buy wired.
As far as the play-and-charge cable, it’ll work fine with a normal battery pack. In fact, while using it, your controller won’t run off the batteries and will run off the power going through the cable instead.
But if you’re that worried, you can just pop your battery pack off. As long as you are using the play-and-charge cable, you don’t need batteries or a rechargeable pack at all.
Microsoft decided to get greedy and stop selling the wireless receiver alone, and instead bundled it with a controller you have to buy, jacking the price up from $20 to $50. They know very well that lots of people have xbox 360 controllers already that they can use, but they want to force you to buy the whole package.
You can probably find the receiver only on ebay. With windows 7 there’s no need to install any drivers - everything fires up and works right away.
The play-and-charge cable is just a way of accessing a power source other than batteries/rechargeable pack. In particular it uses the power “channel” of a USB port. It doesn’t ever transfer data.