help! wireless xbox 360 controller for windows through bootcamp!

[cbjones1989]

I'm having trouble hooking up my 360 wireless reciever onto my macbook running bootcamp.. the version of windows meets all the requirements and it works fine on my brothers acer laptop. the wireless controller just keeps searching and searching for the signal and won't connect. When googl'ing if read people mentioning that running it works fine but i can't seem to get it to for me. thanks in advance (p.s. i'm a recent apple convert so be nice )

 

[aki]

hmmm... ok well i also use the xbox wireless controller (wonderful controller btw, best I've used, very impressed), with an imac, under Windows 7 under bootcamp.

Here's what I suggest. First, make sure you have installed the (latest version of) the xbox 360 controller software from the relevant microsoft site, and reboot. I'm presuming you've done that already?

Of course it's worth just checking bootcamp and windows are fully up to date as well.

Oh also make sure the batteries in your controller are good - if it works with your acer then I presume they are.

Now when you say "wont connect", what does that mean exactly? With mine, once the driver software is installed and everything, I plug in the USB dongle thingy, then press the big grey "X" button on the controller, and the four green lights cycle around in a circle pattern for a second or two, and then it stops on one light, and I think Windows throws a "connected" type message as well. Are you saying, you just get circling green lights indefinitely?

I can tell you, in hardware terms, it definitely works. So there must be something up on the software end.

Hope you figure it out!

 

[cbjones1989]

thanks for the info, the green lights cycle indefinatly but i think they are interacting because when i press the synch button on the dongle the lights on the controller change pace and if i press the synch button on the controller as well it cuts out almost straight away, as if it had connected. I used the CD that came with it first, i'll look for updated drivers.. windows is XP and fully up to date (never did like vista..)

update: when i turn the controller on all 4 lights flash at the same time and occasionally diagonal lights will flash if i press the synch button a single light flashes in a circular patten which cuts out at the same time as i flash the synch button on the dongle. which leads me to believe they are interacting just not *quite* connecting.

 

[aki]

hm to be honest I'd completely forgotten there was a button on the dongle thing. shows how long it is since i set it up.

definitely check online for updated drivers. i cant remember now if mine came with a cd, i guess it must have, but i definitely remember i downloaded my drivers manually.

xp is sp3?

trying to remember what else I did out of the ordinary.

oh one thing - did you buy an xbox 360 wireless controller, or an xbox 360 wireless controller for PC? Apparently they are different (somewhat), with the "for PC" ones having different firmware. If you bought a regular controller that could conceivably be a problem.

sort of out of ideas. it's weird it works on the asus. is that running the same OS etc?

one last thing - have you tried different usb ports/without a hub? I have heard that on mac laptops different usb ports give different power and so some devices work less well or not at all off particular usb ports. (Youd think something important like that would be well documented but apparently not.) Anyway worth a try.

Or you could trying reinstalling Windows (fun times).

sorry i can't be more help

 

[cbjones1989]

XP is SP2 which may be causing the issue? I'll look up sp3 and let you know on that.. the acer is running Vista x32 and i really don't want to switch to vista!! re-installing windows wouldn't be a problem but i don't think that'll solve it immediately.. does bootcamp support windows 7 properly? I'd be willing to 'upgrade' to that.

 

[aki]

yes i run windows 7 under bootcamp. it runs as well as vista did (meaning, more or less perfectly - was some messing about to get bluetooth to work).

 

[cbjones1989]

argh

backing everything up isn't an issue... looks like i may have to bite the bullet and switch to vista *gasp* to get this thing working... i've installed sp3, all drivers for the controller are up to date and i've changed ubs ports too and still no love.. managed to get it to connect once and that was it. i've read on other help topics it tends to be a bit hit and miss on native windows PC's sometimes. I don't think its supported very well for XP.

Thank you so much for your help anyway!

(after i booted up SP3 for the first time it did connect to something, but my macbook didn't do anything to suggest it had to the wireless adapter)