Xbox 360 controller causes USB headset to freak out

[GCI]

Hi there everyone.

I'd like to start out by saying that it's been a long time since I've been here - I completely forgot the site's address till I remembered that my password manager had saved it! :P It seems like lots of good changes have occurred, though.

Anyhow, here I am, with my xbox 360 controller for windows. Quite an ingenious idea, giving console-like controls to powerful personal computers.

So I get it Christmas day, and plug it right into my computer. No hassle with the drivers, they install right away. I launch up Left 4 Dead and shoot up some zombies, learning the new controls while I'm at it.

I then feel like asking some friends what they got for Christmas, so I fire up Ventrillo, start talking, and get responses like "What's up with his mic". Thinking that was odd, I try again, but it seemed at that point that I wasn't making much sense to anyone.

I then open Audacity to test it for my self, and sure enough, that wasn't my headset at all - it was pure static when I turned on microphone monitoring.

Past that point, I've spent several weeks trying to diagnose it. The issue isn't fixed by updating my Realtek ALC888 drivers, by updating the xbox controller's drivers, or by switching the usb ports that both devices are plugged into. (I should mention that they're connected to the back of my computer, supposedly where the more powerful hub is.) I know for sure that the headset isn't broken from a hardware standpoint; it works fine in the Windows XP computer next to me (and ironically enough, works with the controller plugged in as well. That computer is a decade older than this one, with the problem).

After searching around for what seemed like forever, apparently other people who were experiencing this problem, were able to fix it by plugging the xbox controller into an external, powered USB hub. Sure enough, opening device manager, I find that the xbox controller is drawing the maximum allotted power (500 mA) for its USB port. Despite that, I should not be experiencing any issues, since my hub should be receiving more than enough power from my 585W power supply. I only have a single nvidia 9600 GT, two SATA hard drives, two 1GB memory sticks, and an intel core 2 duo processor.

Even with the controller unplugged, my headset (A Dynex Mono Headset, I should mention) continues to produce this issue. Also, I receive similar audio corruption when I set my system to only feed audio through the headset (rather than my desktop speakers), where in the headset, all sounds sound as though they are coming from an NES console (very 8-bit like sound, almost monotonous).

The Dynex headset does not provide custom drivers, it makes use of the Windows USB Audio device driver on my system, dated in 2001.

I'm on a Windows XP Home SP3 machine.

Does anyone know what I can do here, to fix this issue?

[HX1]

Is there anything in any of your settings for allowing 24 Bit.. and in selecting the sound driver...( for the device )? Probably going to a matter of getting the right selection of settings down and possibly rebooting... For instance if I turn on 24 Bit playback on Winamp.. I get buzzing noises... I can use Dither and Surround but not 24 Bit... for whatever reason... this happens when using certain plugins that were created for older systems in mind.. and/or have not been updated for awhile.. So I would start looking there.. I also have opted to use the Primary Sound drivers not a specific one.. seems t work best..

I have had controllers in the past like this.. when testing for a system compatibility to run WipeoutXL years ago.. and the controllers sometimes caused some strange issues.. I only ever found one that was close to being right... BUT regardless.. this should probably be easy to troubleshoot and work through.. unless there is something else n the routing and usage of a driver which both of them would need..

Just a few things.. someone else may have something better to offer you in the way of a solution however.. :)

[LeetPirate]

I think this is an electrical problem that won't be fixed with drivers but by buying a good sound card. Get an Asus Xonar, one that uses power from the computer power supply. I have the same controller and I don't share your issue but sometimes when I move my USB mouse around I hear static on the onboard audio.

Using current from the motherboard for sound always picks up interference, Xonar has addressed these issues and believe me the Xonar produce more audiophile quality for under 50 bucks than those overpriced rubbish from creative, none of their fatality nonsense line of products could stack up to the quality of a Xonar. I won't go into technical details but just to know the basics, the Xonar uses superior audio chipsets and high quality Japanese capacitors.

You can try this, I know you said you updated the controller drivers but you did not mention how you did it, the microsoft gaming website does not give the latest, you have to run windows update while the controller is plugged in and it will find the latest drivers for it.

[GCI]

Thank you for the replies, guys.

@heath28b:

There aren't any global, system-wide settings allowing me to set (bitrates?), that I know of. I have played around quite a bit with the default sound device configurations, and here's what I've found:

• Having desktop speakers (using integrated audio), and headset mic and input device: All system sounds, music files, video, etc. all sound perfectly normal. Headset mic, however, sounds strange.
• Having headset earpiece for output, and headset mic for input: Everything; music, video, the microphone; everything sounds strange in the earpiece.

That would seem to indicate that the headset is failing at a hardware level, although I can still say that it works on the other computer.

@LeetPirate:

You seem to be leaning on the onboard audio as the cause of the problem... I'm not so sure, I wouldn't point my finger at that. Perhaps my bulleted list may clear up the results of my testing?

Also, Microsoft does not seem to have anything to say in the form of Windows Updates for me, however there was some software that they distribute on their hardware site for the controller, although that didn't fix anything.

[LeetPirate]

Hmm, if possible you should see if you can pick up a new headset mic in walmart. I find their stuff to have better prices than worstbuy, lol.

Strange that windows update does not find the gaming controller drivers though, whenever I install my controller on a pc all I do is plug in the cable then go on windows update and it finds the latest drivers for it.

[GCI]

Hmm, if possible you should see if you can pick up a new headset mic in walmart. I find their stuff to have better prices than worstbuy, lol.

Strange that windows update does not find the gaming controller drivers though, whenever I install my controller on a pc all I do is plug in the cable then go on windows update and it finds the latest drivers for it.

I didn't know Microsoft had even released any updates for it 0.0 Do you happen to have driver version 2.1.0.1349 for the xbox controller, if you have it? Also, what OS do you have?

[LeetPirate]

Ok I didn't have it installed so I had to find it. I plugged it in and Windows automatically installed the following driver version which is the default driver from Windows 7.

Then I went on windows update and it found the latest one. After I installed it, turned out to be that same version you mentioned 2.1.0.1349. I use it without the gaming software that they want you to install, I only install the driver because the software itself does nothing except run in memory waiting for you to press the X button on the controller so it can launch some xbox software that is useless. The software can be found on this link.

I don't have the cd because I bought a regular xbox360 controller as it was cheaper than buying the one branded for PC which was just a retail version with a cd and manual but the controller itself is exactly the same.

Maybe it's the launch software causing your problems, you could probably try uninstalling it and just install the driver alone from windows update.

[GCI]

Ok I didn't have it installed so I had to find it. I plugged it in and Windows automatically installed the following driver version which is the default driver from Windows 7.

Then I went on windows update and it found the latest one. After I installed it, turned out to be that same version you mentioned 2.1.0.1349. I use it without the gaming software that they want you to install, I only install the driver because the software itself does nothing except run in memory waiting for you to press the X button on the controller so it can launch some xbox software that is useless. The software can be found on this link.

I don't have the cd because I bought a regular xbox360 controller as it was cheaper than buying the one branded for PC which was just a retail version with a cd and manual but the controller itself is exactly the same.

Maybe it's the launch software causing your problems, you could probably try uninstalling it and just install the driver alone from windows update.

Ya, I've been running without the software for awhile, still gives me issues.

I'm going to try and fix up my Vista installation on my external HD, then I'll return and see how things go on that. (I'll be surprised if it works, especially considering that this external hd runs over USB.)

[GCI]

Well, lo and behold, everything is working fine on vista. I can't quite explain why.

I did notice that the usb audio device driver seems much newer that the one on xp, perhaps I could somehow use that with XP :\

So, my guess would be, that there's some sort of bug in XP's USB Audio Device driver. Here are some screen caps:

[LeetPirate]

Strange indeed, glad it works somehow though, I guess we can narrow it down to something in XP as you mentioned. What if you removed the realtek drivers and use the default windows drivers, would that work for your soundcard in XP?

Wait why does it say USB audio device? Ok I just read over your first post, you said dynex mono headset, can you tell me if the jack for it is separated into 3 metal sections or just 2?

[GCI]

Strange indeed, glad it works somehow though, I guess we can narrow it down to something in XP as you mentioned. What if you removed the realtek drivers and use the default windows drivers, would that work for your soundcard in XP?

Wait why does it say USB audio device? Ok I just read over your first post, you said dynex mono headset, can you tell me if the jack for it is separated into 3 metal sections or just 2?

Unfortunately, after cleaning off the realtek drivers in XP, XP did not seem to have any default sound drivers for my soundchip. It still retained the USB Audio device drivers, which was how I discovered in the first place that the headset earpiece was generating this odd static for everything.

Would it help if I uploaded a clip of what the microphone sounds like?

I'm not sure what you mean by metal sections, but I'll take some pictures of it, hopefully that can help.

Top

Bottom

@fl0ppy: What?

[HX1]

I think maybe he meant inside .. the connector has prongs..

[GCI]

I think maybe he meant inside .. the connector has prongs..

I can see four metal contacts, if that's what you mean.

[GCI]

how can i hook up PS3 controller to PC with ALL functions enabled :dance:

I think you ought to ask that in a different topic, fl0ppy.

[LeetPirate]

Ohh it's a USB connector for the microphone, I thought it was a regular audio jack. I wanted to see if the regular audio jack had the 2 sections instead of 3 which normally means it is shorting out a channel when inserted into a 2 channel audio port. That will not apply here since your headset/mic is a usb one. I have a feeling this can be solved if you buy a regular headset/mic that uses the audio jack instead of usb. Should be a few dollars for one.

[GCI]

my bad ADMINS erase all data i have created in this thread thanks in advance WIN95 style baby! :D

Umm... sure...

Ohh it's a USB connector for the microphone, I thought it was a regular audio jack. I wanted to see if the regular audio jack had the 2 sections instead of 3 which normally means it is shorting out a channel when inserted into a 2 channel audio port. That will not apply here since your headset/mic is a usb one. I have a feeling this can be solved if you buy a regular headset/mic that uses the audio jack instead of usb. Should be a few dollars for one.

Ah, that's where the confusion was :) Again, that's more shelling of the cash :)

I'd like to get a good mic if I was so forced to, so I think I'll wait on that until this one official breaks, and try to solve the problem at hand if that's ok.