Customer Reviews

Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows

5 star:		(127)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

As you can see from the other reviews, this device works very well for some, and not so well for others. Putting aside the interference problem with other 2.4ghz devices such as mice (2.4ghz wireless routers will NOT give you problems), I believe there is a single solution to almost everyone's problem, which I will outline below.

After installing the device & software, I couldn't get my black wireless xbox360 elite controller to sync with the receiver. The ring light on the controller would rotate while trying to connect to the receiver. The light on the receiver would blink attempting to locate the controller. After a few seconds, the ring on the controller would stop rotating, and start blinking. A connection could not be made.

After some research, I found the solution. The issue is with USB power. The receiver needs A LOT of it. If you have other devices on your USB, especially high powered USB keyboards or mice, the receiver might not work. Try removing all USB devices and rebooting your PC with only a PS/2 mouse and keyboard connected. The receiver and controller should sync up immediately, even before you finish booting into windows. This fixed my problem.

If this is your problem, there are two solutions. 1) a USB PCI interface card, or 2) an externally powered USB hub (NOT BUS POWERED). I believe the receiver needs a lot of power because its capable of syncing to four separate devices. The USB on most motherboards simply isn't strong enough. Hope this helps.

First off, the receiver and controller/accessories connect very easily and work great. No issues with lag or bad connections.

The downfall here is that unless your game can specifically be setup to map controls to a gamepad/joystick, you're out of luck (kinda). Microsoft doesn't include any mapping software at all, which really doesn't make a lot of sense, since so few PC games would be naturally compatible with the remote.

Luckily, there is a great piece of software called Pinnacle game profiler. It allows you to specifically map each button to a movement/function in any game (customizable by game). You get a free 30 day trial ($20 after that), but it's worth the money. After spending about 15 minutes setting this up, it works great. I have tested it out on Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R. and Call of Duty 2 with no issues.

If you have already bought this item skip to `The work around' to get the device to work

My Story:

I purchased this item because my original Microsoft receiver stopped working after the manufacturer's warranty time of 90 days. The device simply was not working one morning. So I searched online for a replacement and thought I was getting the original Microsoft Xbox 360 receiver because it was advertised that way. Unfortunately the product did not work right off so I had to contact Microsoft gaming for support. Then after trial and error we discovered that Microsoft did not produce this rip off of their product.

So how can I prove this? Well first off the pic #2 and #3 are legit. but the 1st pic if the rip off. Microsoft NEVER prints the Words "Xbox 360" without first printing "Microsoft" to read "Microsoft Xbox 360." Behind the word Microsoft there will be an 'R' in a circle and behind the words Xbox 360 will be a small 'TM.' This product came with a receiver and packaging that looks VERY similar to the real one but it is not.

So that's the bad news, but there is good news too........

The good news is, that this product does still work. I have now had mine for way longer than the original Microsoft version, and it still works with everyday usage. (Originally ordered in Feb. 2010 and it is now July 2010)
However the installation was not as simple as the real one. They send the receiver with a driver disk that doesn't work at all with common Operating Systems or OS.

The work around:

Is to use your common driver by Microsoft already installed on your Windows or Vista Disk Drivers area and install the driver manually. Unfortunately this also means you have to reinstall the driver each time you unplug it.

Go to:
Start Menu and open Control panel

Then open
'Hardware and Sound' from control panel for Windows users
for vista users
select 'Additional options'
then from the left hand side open 'Hardware and Sound'.


Then open Device Manager for windows or Vista

Then click on the "Unknown Driver"

Then click on search for additional options and manually install the driver yourself

Then select the 'Microsoft Common Controller for Windows class'

Then it will give a list of drivers for you...... pick the one from Feb of 2007 and install that one.

Then you are good to go and able to play the games you want using your Xbox360 controller.

I was pretty angry when I discovered that this thing is NOT the genuine article but rather a Chinese third-party device. However, my controller connects to it and stays connected without any problems.

Here's how to set it up:

1. Go to Device Manager
2. Select the "Unknown Device"
3. Choose to update the driver under the Driver tab
4. Choose the 'Browse for a driver' (not the exact words but close)
5. Tell it that you want to pick from the list of device drivers
6. Choose the "Microsoft Common Controller for Windows Class" option
7. Pick the Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver
8. Enjoy

This is how I set it up under Windows 7 x64. Other versions of Windows may differ. So far I haven't experienced any problems or issues. Both Devil May Cry 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV, along with all of my emulators work superbly with it.

However, I do plan on getting the real deal. I don't trust this thing to keep working very long.

As of this writing, the best value for this device is yet to come. Xbox 360 owners will enjoy being able to reuse all types of Xbox 360 wireless controllers on their PC games, but there are two major hangups that will have to be corrected with time.

1) It has been reported this item does not work with Vista yet. I can't comment on this.
2) The "Games for Windows" brand is just getting off the ground. As this brand evolves, each game with this logo on the box will support this controller natively. There won't be any need for mapping software. That means, for old games... you'll have to find something to map the controller.

If you are interested in XNA, get this. XNA (nutshell) is MSFT's platform for future game development, and it includes tools hobbyists can use to make games at home and play them on Windows or their Xbox 360. That makes this item a must-have if you plan to join XNA Creators Club and deploy your games onto your Xbox 360.

Still, the potential of this is really yet to be realized. XNA is in its fledgling state, even though to this point it has to be considered a success. "Games for Windows" has just a couple of titles on the shelf as of this writing, but is intended to explode by the end of the year. It might be that if you're willing to pony up for the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset and Racing Wheel, you may get more value out of this and you can use those items on your PC.

When I compared buying a wired controller versus buying this (I already had two wireless controllers), this is obviously the better value. Just consider the facts above, and look at how things have changed since this writing, and decide for yourself.

This is a very handy device and well worth your money as ou favorite games can now be played with the comfort of the Xbox 360 controller.

A word of advice though, if you have Windows 7, getting this device to work is very tricky. When i got it, everytime I plug it in Windows 7 attempts to find a driver (online search also), fails and then says 'Failed to install un-recognised device' something similar, and it remains an 'Unrecognised Device' under Control Panel. If this happens to you even if you install the drivers, you have to do the following:
Plug it in, go to Device Manager and it should come up as "Unknown Device" or something similar. Right click on it, go to 'Update Driver Software' then select 'Browse for driver software on your computer' then select 'Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer', scroll down and select 'Microsoft Common Controller For Windows Class' and hit Next, then select 'Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows' (if there are more then one, select the most latest) and hit Next. I did all of this on my Windows 7 32bit after installing the drivers and no more 'Uknown Device' business, works perfectly now.

I have been using this device for several months now and have never experienced any of the problem people are complaining about. Also, in one of the reviews someone said it doesn't work with Vista... thats simply not true. Yes, the driver disc doesn not contain Vista drivers but then again it doesnt need to.. simply plug it in and Vista will go off and find the drivers for you.

I've used this device on both XP and Vista and on 3 different PC's (including a laptop) and have not had any problems on any of them. This is a great product.

It's a nice product considering it less than 20 bucks. I've had no problems using it and am very pleased at how well it's working. The battery monitoring feature is nice. And it's actually quite small, the picture is kinda deceiving. It does not have a mapper, but there are many free good ones on the internet, so that's not that big of a complaint. All in all, it's well worth it, especially since it's cheap and works quite well.

I had a lot of difficulty getting it to work. I tried unplugging everything, powered hub, reinstalling drivers, etc but nothing work. I found this on a form and it works great.

"I had the same problem. Here is what I had to do on Windows 7 64 bit.

Download the drivers from 'microsoft's website'

Choose Controller > XBOX 360 Wireless Controller for Windows > Windows 7 64 bit > English

Don't run the drivers. Save them to a folder.

Right click the Xbox360_64Eng file in the folder you downloaded to and click "create shortcut"

Right click the shortcut you created. Select Properties.

On the compatibility tab, click "Run this program in compatibility mode"

Chosse Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 1 as the compatibility mode.

Click "Run as administrator"

Apply.

If you already have the software installed, go to programs and features and uninstall Microsoft XBOX 360 Accessories 1.2.

Click the shortcut to install the software. Restart the machine.

Go to Device Manager. You should see Microsoft Common Controller for Windows Class. If you do, you have arrived. If you don't, try this.

Right click the unknown device that shows a problem.

Update Driver Software > Browse My computer for Driver Sofware > Let Me Pick from a List of Drivers

Choose Microsoft Common Controller for Windows Class > XBOX 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows

Ignore the warning.

Should work now.

Proposed As Answer byowyouareonmyhair Friday, July 23, 2010 7:21 AM"

Had no problems finding drivers for this device running Windows 7 64-bit.
Works even better than I had hoped. The range is great and the controllers are very responsive.
The device synced with no prompting to Windows Live enabled games.
Easily customized with 3rd party software (xpadder) to function with any program.

On an unrelated note:
Amazon NEEDS to stop mixing reviews of unrelated products.
Some users are doing it by mistake, but amazon has also conglomerated certain product reviews inappropriately.
It's not hard to find examples, 2tb WD hard drive reviews mixed in with the 1tb reviews...