encounter sound

Since I Googled an unbelievable amount for this and never did find it, and since I rarely use this blog space, I figured I’d help the other hopeless Googlers trying to use their XBox controller or remote control on their PC.  If your situation is similar to mine, maybe this will help:

My controller WAS working, and then sud denly, it didn’t.  It still showed up in USBView, and everything looked right, it’s just that when I plugged it in, Windows XP (Home Edition) preferred to call it “USB Device” and do nothing with it, instead of what I wanted it to do (work).  I read the forums on the redcl0ud site, and couldn’t find anything that worked with my situation, but I did keep seeing a term that I didn’t fully understand:  Refresh your USB Stack, or Refresh your Driver Stack.  I am, like most geeks my age, completely a self-taught geek, and some things you just rarely come across in fixing all your friends and parents’ computers.  This is one of them for me.  If you’ve uninstalled and reinstalled, checked all your solders, and otherwise exhausted your options, REFRESH YOUR USB DRIVER STACK!  Here’s how to do it:

• Unplug all your USB Devices (excepting your mouse, if it’s USB, since you kind of need it for the process)
• Open your Device Manager (Right-click My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware (Tab) -> Device Manager (Button))
• Go to Universal Serial Bus Controllers
• Choose “Uninstall” on each of the devices listed, starting with the “Root Hub” devices
• Restart your PC.

I can’t make any guarantees, but this little refresh was just enough to convince my PC that it really did want that XBCDRC remote to work after all!