Product Description

There are quandries big and small especially if you're confused about whether you want to use your XBox 360 or your PC for your gaming entertainment. You really enjoy your XBOX-360 wireless controls for your XBOX 360 console. Sometimes you prefer using your wireless Xbox-360 controls for playing PC games. Can this be done? This wireless receiver is a simple adapter that connects into a USB 2.0 port on your PC and lets you use use the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 Wireless Headset, and Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel on your computer. A 6 foot cable lets you conveniently hook it up to a rear or front USB port. Use the 9Z200001 Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows and enjoy game playing every which way. It's a quck and easy solution! Plugs into a PC USB port and has a six foot cable Future drivers available for Windows Vista and Force Feedback for the Wireless Racing Wheel

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1396 in Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: 882224248495
• Released on: 2007-02-06
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Dimensions: .40 pounds

Features

• Will work with future Xbox 360 Wireless Accessories
• Provides up to a 30-foot range for complete wireless freedom
• Use up to four Wireless Controllers and four Wireless Headsets simultaneously with one Wireless Gaming Receiver
• Easily integrates with PC gaming scenarios and utilizes the same binding technology as Xbox 360
• Provides a great value by eliminating the need for additional accessories for Windows-based gaming at an attractive price point

Customer Reviews

Good if you do the work
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.

Works well, and without a headache if you're lucky. Solutions below.
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.

Great device whose value is yet to be unleashed
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.