I have a question that seems like it’s stupid: how can I use my wireless 360 controller on my PC without buying the stupid PC Wireless Receiver thing? I had (wrongly?) assumed that I could plug the play and charge kit USB into the computer and have it work. Is that not the case? The device was detected, it claimed to install the 360 controller driver and tell me that my device was ready for use. Much to my dismay, it doesn’t appear to do anything – the controller doesn’t get powered on, and if I try to turn it on, it (obviously) turns on the 360. How do I sync the wireless controller to the PC via a USB cable? Or can I really not?
You can’t. The plug and play cable only transfers power via usb, not data.
Yeah its unfortunate, its doesn’t even have the wires necessary to allow you to use it USb (the play and charge kit that is).
And if you do get the wireless receiver read this thread, and pray it doesn’t happen to you. Dam thing is nigh un-usable for me.
Er… what’s the problem in that thread that renders it unusable?
I can’t really make heads or tails of whatever is going on in that thread that he linked, but Xbox 360 controllers on the PC do tend to have minor to serious issues with games that only support the old DirectInput API. Maybe that’s what he means?
Games that use XInput (which is pretty much all new games for the past 2 years or so) work fine though.
the receiver also comes bundled with the pc gray/black version of the 360 wireless headset (lifechat something)