I was playing Gears of War on my XBox 360, and randomly, the controller would just disconnect. I’d be in the middle of a firefight, about to p@wn a n00b, and suddenly, my character wouldn’t move, and I’d see the “Please reconnect your controller” appear on the middle of the screen… ack!
At first I thought it was my mic attachment not attaching properly; it’s got a pretty flimsy attachment to the bottom of your wireless controller. Unplugging it, though, didn’t solve my issue. Looking online, I found a plethora of what I thought were similiar issues. It was hard to tell, but I think most were referring to the optional attachments you could get for XBox, not XBox 360. At first, I was happy to know I was not alone. Turns out, they were old forums with the new XBox 360 badges… bleh.
Frustrated, her majesty suggested I replace the batteries. In a foul mood, I showed her the XBox 360 menu said they were at half-power. I replaced ‘em anyway with new batteries since I’m not really in charge anyway. It works now, no problems. Apparently it just needed fresh batteries.
Hopefully this’ll get on Google and be more prominent than the outdated articles that appear to be referring to the problem, but aren’t.
RSS Feed
Been there. Actually, it was my friend who suffered this while playing head-to-head in Halo2. So it was a ton of fun when he said, “Shit, I can’t move.” and then just walking up and giving him a shotgun blast to the face.
I thought it was hilarious. My friend, not so much.
You should look to get the rechargeable battery back for the controller. Works great for me.
Dan Florio
December 17th, 2006
You really needed somebody to tell you that when the controller stops working you have to change the batteries?
Jason
December 17th, 2006
Read the post, n00b! XBox 360’s Dashboard said the batteries were half-full.
JesterXL
December 17th, 2006
Actually I had the same problem and my batteries were low so I replaced them, but then an hour later it did it again and I thought that was odd, I kept playing for about another hour and it did it again and again and again about 5 times in less then 2 minutes so I decided to stop playing, if anyone could help me out please e-mail me.
Neocrophilic
December 30th, 2006
having the same problem on Gears of war. Everytime i play on line my controller disconnects. No way can it be the batteries as they have 3 out of 4 bars in the power meter and i’ve only have them for 4 weeks.
chris
January 23rd, 2007
This is happening to me, i have only had my xbox a week and the controler just keeps disconnecting. I just perserveered with it, and tried to keep playing by reconecting it over and over. At the same time new lights started flashing on the controler, the 2 and 3 would light up then the 1 and 4. I dono what that means, I pressed the reconnect thing on the xbox then the one on the controler. This seems to work for now. Il message again if it happens more.
Laurie
February 16th, 2007
well, i just put 2 new batteries in both my controllers and it still disconnects :@:@:@ think i just got bad luck lol.
Josh
May 12th, 2007
Im having the same problem, batteries are fresh and the control keeps disconnecting (both my controls) dam microsoft, its probably a virus:) I wish macintosh would make a console!
john
July 21st, 2007
I believe it is not the charge in the batteries but the casing. Try wiping off the batteries at their connection points. It might also be a manufacturing error.
@john
I believe the 360 is actually based on an Apple design.
theCurse
August 4th, 2007
it is a problem with the controller itself. My friends controllers when connected have no such problem. It first happened when i brought my controller over to my friends house and it started doing it. My only guess is i mishandled it somehow. Now it does it on my 360. My batter status is at 3/4 so its kinda pissing me off. Sometimes the lights on the controller look like its trying to connect, and others it just shuts off with the console telling me.
neihrick
October 14th, 2007
Ive had my xobox 360 for about a week now and im getting pissed off because my controller keeps disconnecting while im playing halo 3. Its weird because it only disconnects when i hit something or beat someone down. Ill try replacing the batteries but if that doesn’t work ill be taking the controler back.
Walter
October 15th, 2007
First when i was playing NHL 08, a message came up saying my controller was disconnected, I figured it was just the battery, so I recconnected my second controller. about three minutes later the same thing happened! I wonder if it is just a coincidence (sorry about the spelling) or maybe my 360 is just screwed up. And I cant even find any AA batteries in my house.
squirrell man
December 6th, 2007
I just figured this thing out. Turn off the vibrate feature. (Press the guide button, go to personal settings, vibration, and deselect “enable vibration”) It sucks, and I’ve been dealing with this problem for a week while playing gears of war, but this appears to fix it.
Don
December 7th, 2007
My controller has been disconnecting while playing HL2: Episode 1. It usually happen when I had just shot a gun (which made the controller vibrate), which somehow made the controller think the right analog stick moved, moving my vision.
I had 3 out of 4 bars remaining, so I was pretty sure it wasn’t the batteries. So I got on Google and found this. Anyway, Don’s explanation seems to work, cause I’ve been playing for a few minutes without rumble, and has its worked flawlessly.
cloud858rk
December 8th, 2007
I am having the regular disconnect problem as well. I was playing Halo 3 the other night and it started disconnecting every couple of minutes.
My ideas are:
1. The battery indicator in the menu is wrong and the batteries are actually almost depleted.
2. My 2.4(5.8?) gigahertz cordless phone is interfering with the signal to the game system-but not likely since the phone and the XBOX 360 have occupied the same spots since I got the console and it only recently started disconnecting.
3. Something on my coffee table is causing the signal from the controller to scatter or refract-perhaps a glass or a stack of books.-But again not likely as it is a recent occurrence and I have had stuff in the way before.
4. When i can get off my lazy ass, I am going to take a pair of rechargeable batteries and install them in place of the duracells that are in the controller now and see if that fixes the problem.-I will write about the result before I post this.
Well, so far, the rechargeable batteries seem to be working. It hasn’t disconnected yet. But it disconnected a while ago on the original batteries. So the only thing that has changed in the last half hour or so is the batteries. Of course, the on-screen battery meter still shows the batteries as 3/4 full. Which is plausible since the rechargeables I am using now have been used in my digital camera to take a few pics, so they are not freshly charged.
Strange that it would show the energizer disposables as 3/4 full, yet disconnect. Of course, sometimes I can put certain alkaline batteries that are brand new in my digital camera and they can’t even power on the camera.
So it has to do with the amperage output of the batteries.
Obviously the disposables are more of a peak and valley as far as output. When new, they reach that certain minimum output level easily, yet fall below that threshold more quickly than the rechargeable batteries.
So evidently, the answer is to do what I did with my cordless keyboard, mouse and digital camera, which is replace all their batteries with rechargeables.
Marc
December 11th, 2007
When I put rechargables in my controller, when I shook it it disconnected. I now know that the metal tab on the battery case has to be pressed down all the time, and when you shake it, the circuit breaks and the controller turns off. I’ve solved the problem by putting a piece of cardboard over the tab so it gets pushed down farther. Now I can have rumble on and still keep it connected.
cloud858rk
December 14th, 2007
My disconnection problem was solved when I pulled the 360 off the entertainment shelf and put it on the floor. I think it was interference from the metal frame of the shelf. The more I play with the 360 (not mine) the more I like my PS3.
Almo
December 19th, 2007
Thank you very much!!!! i was getting so mad when i was laying halo online , kept getting owned lol anyway, ty!
Jord
January 7th, 2008
im gonna take a shot and ask if your controller thats acting up is the controller that came with the console? cause mine is and i cant find a way to fix this problem
… just throwing that out there
Morrou/Rorrou
January 19th, 2008
Ok, I’m having this same BS issue. But my 360 is inside of a entertainment center as well… so when I get home tonight I’m going to try and take it out and see if that helps…
If it doesn’t, I’ll try the vibrate feature… turning vibrate off… the sad part is the vibrate shouldn’t have to be turned off to make it work correctly. Thanks for stealing my money if that’s the case Microsoft. Need another $70? No problem, I’ll head to the store today! Anything for you!
…..
Big White
February 20th, 2008
Hmmm…i get the same problems….bought new batteries and replaced old ones….doesnt help…..farkin pissed to the shit lol because now i cant play Lost Odyssey without any farkin interference…..ill figure somethin out……well i think my xbox controll pack thing (whatever the bitch is) is a fraction loose? maybe sticky tape or some shit would make it better? well my name is my gamertag on live Andeh666
Add me….catchya
Andeh666
March 2nd, 2008
Yeah people dont worry…if your having the same feeling turn on your controll and then shake it once or twice…it will turn off..>.> fuckin peices of shit…sorry for the language but i got really pissed off….i really wanted to actually get further in the game XD lol
Andeh666
March 2nd, 2008
LOL its just a bad case of loose battery pack ;P stickytape the bitch down =DDD
Andeh666
March 2nd, 2008
i had the same problem, changed the batteries over to rechargeable ones until i have enough cash to get 2x battery packs and the charger thing.. i love having my controls wireless so there’s no way i’m using a wire to charge it up
but yeah, so far the flashing lights and cutting out seem to be working.. will post back if there’s any more problems.. better work, my 360 elite’s only 2 weeks old!
spidercallum
March 10th, 2008