Learning how to connect an Xbox 360 controller to a PC might sound intimidating, but the process is actually pretty simple. Whether you’ve got a wireless or wired controller, functionality is identical. Although many players insist that a wired controller is a must since there’s basically no input lag.
For software downloads for any Microsoft mouse, keyboard, webcam, headset. Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows Xbox One Controller + Cable for.
Either way, we’ve got you covered below. Plug in your wireless receiver This section only applies to those with wireless controllers. If you’ve got a wired Xbox 360 controller, skip straight to Install software.
For those of you that own wireless Xbox 360 controllers, connecting to a PC isn’t as straightforward as simply plugging the device in. First off, you’ll need to purchase a capable receiver, then run the proper setup wizard. If you don’t already have a receiver, they typically cost between $10 and $20. The official Microsoft version will cost a bit more than that, but that work perfectly well. After purchasing the wireless receiver, connect it to a compatible USB port on your computer (see Figure A below). Once plugged in, a green light will appear on the receiver indicating the device is working properly. Install software For the wireless gaming receiver and the wireless Xbox 360 controller to properly sync with one another, users must download the necessary software via Microsoft’s website, or the bundled installation disc packaged with their receiver.
If you have the aforementioned installation CD (probably not, but it’s possible), insert it into your PC’s main optical drive and follow the on-screen wizard. You may need to restart your computer. If not, you can download from the link; if wired, select instead. Choose which version of Microsoft Windows you’re using — the Windows 7 drivers will work for Windows 8 and Windows 10 — select the operating system language, and click Download. Once the download screen pops up, hit Run and allow the Xbox 360 Accessories Setup program to install the required files. Again, you may be required to restart your computer upon completion of the install.
Syncing the controller If you’re using a wired controller, just plug it in. You’re good to go. Scroll down to Testing the Controller to make sure everything is working correctly. If not, you’ll need to connect the wireless Xbox 360 controller with the receiver plugged into your computer.
To do so, first turn on the controller by holding down the Xbox Guide button in the center of the controller, and wait for the green backlight to turn on. Afterward, press the connect button on top of the wireless receiver (figure B) until it begins to flash green, then press the corresponding button on your controller (figure C). The pairing process should only take a few seconds, after which the light on the receiver will return to solid green and one of the four corners around the controller’s Guide button will light up ( figure D). If you’re still having issues, check for more help. Testing the controller Once the necessary software is installed and the controller plugged in or synced, it’s time to test the connection.
Open the Start menu on your PC, click the search menu, and look for “game controllers.” You should see an option that reads: “Set up USB game controllers.” Now, press the controller’s buttons, pull the triggers, and move the joysticks to ensure the controller is functioning properly. If it is, you’ll see the correlating action highlighted in the application. Don’t worry about which area is lighting up — as long as the system recognizes each button, you’re good.
If the application does not recognize the controller, you can troubleshoot via. Start playing That’s all you have to do.
The Xbox 360 controller is the typical default configuration for modern PC games, so you shouldn’t have to do any special key bindings or settings tweaks in the vast majority of titles. Just make sure the controller is connected when you load the game and it should be detected. In fact, some games can switch to the 360 controller automatically, even in the middle of gameplay.
Wireless Receiver for the Xbox 360 from China has arrived. Wireless Receiver for my Xbox 360 controller (Sometimes referred to as a wireless dongle) from China is one of those tools that has become more and more relevant in the gaming industry with console ports and couch co-ops. Unlike other types of electronics from China; Where it was inferior or simply was nothing more then a piece of plastic or an identifier chip saying what it was but it really did nothing at all. This adapter from china actually does work! But it needs the right drivers! Video tutorial fallback mirrors: In case you have no-script enabled or for some reason cannot see the title video on this website. We have provided direct links for these videos.
WebM – – This is the newest video standard, works great on Opera, Firefox, Chrome, and newer android phones, not good for Safari, IE, Apple. MP4 – – The most compatible codec but also rather large in file size. Make take a while to download.
OGV – – The fallback codec for older PC’s and Linux USB stick OS’s. 1st generation web video streaming based on Ogg-Vorbis encoding.
PDF file available: We noticed a lot of people where saving my tutorials onto the hard-drive. Completely understandable. You may not trust this site being around in the next few months. Or perhaps you are going into a part of the world where internet isn’t fantastic. Or perhaps you are a seller of these receivers and are looking for a document that you can print up and attach to your product. You can now for you to have, print, and read on your hard drive. Introduction: Now for those who don’t know what this little guy does; It allows you to hook up ANY wireless Xbox 360 Controller which operates on a wireless 2.4ghz range to your PC (Up to four devices just like the original Xbox 360) which is useful for playing a lot of Steam games which are coming.
Most of those games all about Couch-Action multiplayer action. This wireless receiver is actually a really nice device to have considering Xbox One is released making the hardware of the 360 obsolete. And when hardware becomes obsolete it gets very cheap! We personally paid for 4 Xbox 360 controllers on eBay for around $55 with shipping included. Which isn’t bad at all! Read on if you would like to know more about this little $8 unit!
Original wireless receiver versus the Chinese version. This is a brief summary and differences between the two Xbox 360 receivers that you will find out on the internet. This is the official Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver. Note the Microsoft Logo on the casing and the tab on Cable. It should be noted it is next to impossible to find an OEM Microsoft 360 Wireless Receiver unless you are willing to fork out $50-60 for a controller and receiver pack. Used game stores such as GameStop will not keep these around and often will not even have a receiver.
GameStop treats odd-ball hardware devices by only offering a few pennies to buy it off of someone. When official receivers show up on eBay. They are typically going anywhere from $15-20 dollars because they are no longer in production thanks to the Xbox One.
This can also be verified by checking the hardware ID in device manager. USB hardware ID for the official receiver is: USB VID045E&PID0719 This is the Chinese Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver with has no indication it came from Microsoft. Chinese receivers will come in cheaper packing (if any at all) and will not say the word “Microsoft” anywhere on the unit or package. This allows them to sell this units in this country without them getting pulled for various intellectual property related laws (And don’t think Microsoft won’t go after people for this! They still throw cease and desist letters to people giving out MS-DOS disks for gods sake!) You’ll also get a CD and that’s about it! No real instructions in the packaging itself.
This can be verified by checking the hardware ID in device manager. USB hardware ID for the third party china receiver is: USB VID045E&Pid0291 for windows 7 or USB VID05C6&PID9244 for windows 10. Where to purchase the China Wireless Xbox Receiver. – Ignore the Malaysian listings as it generally takes three times longer then China. The Malaysian sellers use dirty tactics to get the lowest price such as place a fish hook at a penny to get top listings. Generally 8 to 10 dollars USD with shipping from China.
– More for North American buyers who don’t want to mess with Ebay. Prices are 9 to 13 USD plus possible shipping. – A little more expensive then Ebay in the 12 to 14 USD range. DX however may be more suitable for international buyers. – This auction site initially was not friendly to US buyers with Paypal. But they are about as good as Ebay.
I would only suggest this site for people that are looking for bulk purchases of the third party receiver. Note: Zero commission is made from these links.
These are posted as a service to those reading this blog. Wireless receiver woes: Lets go through some of the issues encountered with the Chinese Wireless receiver. Toss this CD, it’s pointless! An issue with the Chinese receiver is that although it gives you a driver-CD. That CD is absolutely useless unless you have windows XP 32-bit you minus well just throw the thing away!
So if you have a Windows 7 or Windows 8 box. The Screen Below is the typical screen you will get! Now for those who do not beleive me or just want to see what china packed onto this CD.
I have uploaded an archive of my disc which can be downloaded. To access this file. NOTE: This was only uploaded for archival purposes and will not be used in any way during this tutorial. Also, as of 10/5/2017 this archive has been re-compressed to.7z A.K.A for better compression. WinRAR can extract 7z files as well. No driver update, can’t point to the CD because the OS supported is Windows XP.
This is because the China Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver is emitting a different hardware ID then the Microsoft one. USB VID05C6&PID9244 for Windows 10 to be exact. Because of this Windows has no clue on what to do about this and Unlike a wired 360 controller or dance pad where it will simply pull its drivers off of Windows Update. It cannot do anything with our Chinese receiver. So how do we work around this problem? Simple, we force the Microsoft driver down its throat!!!
Acquire the software directly. You are first going to want to dealing with Xbox Controllers. We highly recommend installing this driver as it will load all of the default Microsoft interfaces for this tutorial. Microsoft’s driver will give you a battery utility so when you press your center button for Xbox control it will tell you how much battery is left in your controller. Direct download: This site prides itself on being the one-stop blog for everything you could need in a guide.
However, as our usual disclaimer you should always run a virus checker over any executable you get from a third party site including my own. Do not trust anything unless it comes from the source manufacturer. We will keep things clean as long as the site owner is alive but you may never know! Also note that to preserve file space and for simplicity sake all versions have been compressed into a single solid file. You may use WinRAR or to extract the files in this archive: This archive which is approximately 8Mb in size contains both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Xbox 360 receiver driver. Or click on the icon to the right of this paragraph to begin.
Links will continue to be provided here in the event the company discontinues support. Extract files: The first thing you will want to do is get a copy of WinRAR. Basically any package that is capable of extracting 7-zip files. In this tutorial we shall extract it to C: chinaxbox. You can extract it anywhere you like just keep a note as to where you extracted these files while reading this tutorial.
Notes about the archive: In the following example above we will be extracting everything in the C: chinaxbox folder. This archive contains the following files:. Xbox36032Eng – This is the 32 bit version of the Xbox Driver for those working with Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 8 32-bit, and finally windows 10 32-bit. Xbox36064Eng – This is the 64 bit version of the Xbox Driver for those working with Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8 64-bit, and finally windows 10 64-bit. Xbox360ModXP – This version is made specifically for windows XP 32/64 bit and Windows 7 32/64. Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver driver installation for Windows 10.
For those with the latest windows 10 operating system please continue reading. Software installation. If you downloaded your driver from then you may simply double-click on the EXE file that you downloaded from them. If you used our archive.
Navigate to either the C: chinaxbox Xbox36032Eng or C: chinaxbox Xbox36064Eng folder depending on what OS you have installed and double-click the setup.exe file inside. The very first thing we will be doing is (with administrative rights of course) launch that installation file you have downloaded to begin installing the drivers into windows 10. Check the box to “I accept this agreement” and click the Next button to continue. You may or may not see this window depending if there was another application on your computer that requires this dependency. In windows 10 the.NET Framework 3.5 can be automatically downloaded. If for some reason it does not automatically download for you you may to go to Microsoft’s website for.NET Framework 3.5. If you are working offsite for any reason you may wish to download the Offsite version of.NET Frame 3.5.
Otherwise you can let Windows 10 take care of it for you by simply selecting “Download and install this feature” and give it permission to do so. The only reason why this program requires.NET Framework 3.5 as a dependency is due to the battery and player status tool that comes with this program which you shall see later in this blog. You may now click the Finish button to complete the installation. Plugging in the hardware. Upon plugging in your USB cabling windows 10 will attempt to find the driver for these Chinese controllers.
It of course will not find anything and label the device as “Unknown Device.” If this were a true Microsoft OEM receiver it would have found your driver and installed it ending the tutorial for you. However, due to differences in product ID we have to install this driver manually. To begin you are going to want to go to your device manager. On windows 7 you an click your Start Button and then right-click your “File Explorer” and click on Manage to open the Computer Management screen.
Finally, click on “Device Manager”. From here provided that you have already hooked up your Xbox 360 USB Receiver. We see that we have other devices that the system cannot identify. Right-click the Unknown Device and then click on Update Driver Software of this particular devic e. Since this driver cannot be found by the CD or Windows Update. Searching automatically is a waste of time. Click on Browse my computer for driver software.
Since we are going to inject the driver manually select “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” and then click Next. Note: If you did not install the as stated at the beginning of this tutorial this catagory may not exist.
In my case since I had some Xbox wired controllers Windows Update did the job for me. Select “Xbox 360 Peripherals ” and then click Next. This is the section which deals with only Xbox 360 Controllers. All of these drivers are digitally signed indicating that they come right from Microsoft which is good.
Select “Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows Version: 2.1.0.1349” and click the Next button to continue. Note: Windows 10 by default will have the newer driver v10.0.10240. The software we just installed inserts 2.1.0.1349 into the list. The reason why choosing the old version of the driver will become very apparent when we go and test the Xbox 360 controller later on in this tutorial.
I shall explain why at the end. This is the part where windows does not believe that you know what you are doing. Silly windows.
Click Yes to continue and it will begin installing the driver. It will come up stating that the driver has been successful in installation.
You may now Close this window. To verify the driver is installed.
Go back into your Device Manager section of Computer Management and you should see a catagory dealing with Xbox 360 Controllers. A Xbox 360 Peripherals at the button and inside of this section Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows.
Driver installation on Windows 10 is Complete Sync’ing the Xbox China receiver to the Xbox 360 controller. The steps here will seem really simple for people which have owned an Xbox 360. When looking at a lot of forums this is also the most overlooked step. Resulting in people thinking that they got a bad receiver when in all reality it is perfectly fine!. Turn on your Xbox 360 Wireless Controller. It should have all four corners of the controller flashing indicating that it’s on but it cannot find a device to connect to. Press the button on the wireless receiver and it will begin flashing.
While the wireless receiver is flashing, press the “Sync” button on the front of your Xbox 360 Controller as shown in the picture above. You know it will begin to Pair the device if you see the Green LEDs on the start button of your controller move in a Clock-Wise Fashion. If you have a solid LED light in the upper left-hand corner indicating player 1. Your Xbox 360 controller is now paired up to your wireless receiver. If the LED’s spin in a clockwise circle but then returns to all lights flashing that means that it cannot find your Wireless receiver to pair up to. Special notes about android devices: If you are hooking this up to an Android box. The controller will still flash but at a slower speed.
This is because the Android OS has no official drivers for the Xbox 360 Wireless controllers as for the date of this publish your compatibility will vary from game to game under Android Installing the driver for the Xbox 360 controller. Windows will begin installing drivers the moment the controller is properly powered on and paired up. Provided that your Xbox Controller is an OEM version this process should proceed automatically and without issue.
Testing the Xbox 360 controller. If you don’t want to go into control panel and navigate all of the different windows you can simply type the command control joy.cpl However, for the sake of this blog we will do it the long way in Windows 10 by first clicking on settings. In windows 10 we will first select the Devices tab. Then we select Connected devices and finally select the devices and printers link to open up something that we are more familiar with in the. Lets see if windows can actually see and test our new joystick that we installed.
Click the start menu and click “Devices and Printers”. Right-Click on the Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows and click on “ Game Controller settings”. As you see, inside of the wireless receiver is where all of the wireless Xbox 360 Controllers will reside. Click on whatever controller you would like to see and click the “Properties” button. From here you may now start pressing buttons and moving your joystick around.
You also get to see if perhaps you had any bad buttons, poor analog hats which are badly calibrated or are in need of replacement hats for your controller. Also you get to visually see how terrible the D-Pad is on the X-Box controller.:) More information about differing driver versions within Windows 10. Wait a minute S, you’re telling users to install an older driver designed for windows 7 when windows 10 has it built right in. Why even install the files you provided for Windows 10?
Lets assume that you did install the “latest and greatest” driver that came built right into Microsoft. Will it work? Yes, but you will be missing two things. The first thing that you’ll notice upon using the new wireless receiver driver is all of your Xbox 360 controllers are listed as generic HID-compliant game controllers.
They are not listed as true Microsoft Xbox 360 controllers anymore. In about 80 to 90 percent of the games on the market this will not affect a thing!
There are however some games that are built around the Xbox 360 controller and will map all of the keys for you if it so happens to find a true controller that came from Microsoft. This bug in the new driver is an annoyance and not a deal-breaker. Battery gauge feature. The second bug deals with functionality of the center xbox button. Using the old driver when you download and install the software. Let it install Net 3.5. Normally it places a file known as XboxStat.exe as a startup program for Windows which will listen through the Chinese wireless receiver for any command from that button to give the user information such as what controller is connected, battery life, and more.
This is a nice feature but once again it’s not a deal-breaker. The lights will flash on your controller when the battery is getting low. If you don’t care about this and you want to save about 3mb of memory by not installing the older driver. Then the new driver should suit you just fine.
Summary of driver confusion: As for exactly why Microsoft neglected to put these tools into their OS could end up with a lot of different answers. That they wanted to keep the drivers simple? That perhaps they didn’t bother to talk to the hardware development side of Microsoft prior to releasing their OS? Either way it goes everyone thinks that a bigger version driver means better but you have to take into consideration that this is Microsoft the same company that skipped a version number in their OS because they didn’t like the way it sounded. Version numbers no longer have the integrity they used to.
Notes for critical errors. On 02/01/16 – We had one of the Chinese wireless receivers die on us after a years worth of service bouncing back and forth between devices.
This can even happen to a Microsoft OEM Receiver as the only thing that is really inside your dongle is a microchip and that’s it. The Chinese versions don’t even have a fuse along the 5 volt power lines and in my case the regulator that reduces voltage from 5.0vdc to 3.3vdc for the chip to use was totally fried out. Upon going into device manager we found something similar to this show up. When you try installing the drivers you may receive this description for your Chinese wireless receiver. This is not a good sign. What your system is telling you is that it cannot get a response from the micro-controller inside.
You can try a different computer/USB port but if it keeps saying the same thing then it’s a sign serious hardware failure of the receiver. Check Hardware ID for troubleshooting. Note: Always check the device ID of your hardware by right-clicking on the unknown device and clicking on properties. You can then click on the details tab and then click the drop-down-box for hardware ID to view it. Microsoft products begin with USB/VID045E. Please note that VID045E is Microsoft and this value may differ when looking it up.
USB hardware ID for the official receiver is: USB VID045E&Pid0291 or USB VID05C6&PID9244 depending on your Windows OS build. A dead give away that the receiver died is the Hardware ID in device manager underneath the properties of the USB device and it will display USB VID0000&PID0000 or USB VID???? Depending on operating system. This means your computer can’t even establish communication to the ID chip. Without an ID chip then the drivers will not install and you should begin the process of returning your defective dongle back to the vendor for a refund/exchange.
Although we hope that your adapter does not come to this death. We thought it would be important to document and troubleshoot this because the third party china receiver has no 250mA breaker fuse and thus are more prone to possible DOA from USB power spike upon plugin.
Related Blog Articles: Final thoughts. Besides the driver headaches explained above.
It behaves just like the Microsoft OEM version. The receiver works all the way across our house which is identical to my Xbox 360 console wireless length.
So no real complaints about connectivity or lag issues. For $8(USD) it’s not a bad deal. The great thing with having the wireless receiver is they give you a few feet of cable so you can place the wireless receiver anywhere giving you a possible better reception around the house then keeping it inside of the Xbox 360 console. We hope you find this article useful and hopefully it will keep a few Xbox 360 controllers in circulation. If you have any problems you may leave it in the comments below. Please include OS and hardware ID of the controller you are using. Server protect you.
END OF LINE Categories Tags, Post navigation. I’m not entirely sure what “same issue” you are referring to. But I covered a lot of aspects on my. I also talk about this at the end of my too. In order for the controller to work properly. Root access is required because you will need to inject some.kl files into the root folders of your android OS which needs super-user permissions to do so. Also understand that if your Android device does not have dedicated USB ports like a set-top box then your OTG cable needs to be able to output 150mA for it to even power on.
The joysticks will pair but continue to flash. This is because there’s no software governing over device ID of the controllers. The Android OS will map all 4 joysticks even if you have only one joystick paired. I did ask some users to send me their defective receivers so i could see in detail as to what is all going on out there. But it sounds like you did all of the right steps and it could be the fact that the receiver simply is not transmitting a strong enough signal to pair with your controller. I would try pairing with the receiver right next to the controller to see if perhaps the antennae section is crippled in some way.
You could also try a fresh set of batteries in the Xbox 360 controller just to see if that added power will boost your connection to the receiver. If neither of those worked and device manager is showing you no errors then i would contact the seller for a possible replacement.