Faulty Guitar Hero II Controller Fix
   07/04/2007 at 11:47       Richard Horne       14 COMMENTS.
 - 
Red Octane confirmed today via its customer support team that unfortunately there is a batch of Guitar Hero II X Plorer controllers for the Xbox 360 with a faulty whammy bar. The problem causes whammy bar movements to either not be registered withint the game, or for there to be a slight delay before you whammy bar movements are represented on screen.

Red Octane has promised that unsatisfied customers can exchange their controllers at their place of purchase, or if purchased via their online store, can submit an RMA request and have the faulty controller exchanged.

The problem is isolated to two specific models of the controller, the numbers of which are 95065 and 95055 and which you can see an example of below:



However all is not as bad as it seems as we have discovered a remedy to this problem which is as simple as loosening two screws and which does not void your warranty.Carefully follow the simple instructions below and click on each of the images in order to view larger high resolution versions.

First off, you need to place your X Plorer controller face down on a table or sturdy suface and remove all 11 of the black screws from the white body of the controller. You will need a long and thin posidrive screwdrive in order to do this.



Then once you've removed the back from the controller you need to locate the whammy bar's sensor mechanism.



The next step is to slightly loosen the two screws that hold the sensor in place and rotate the whole mechanism by only a slight fraction in a clockwise direction before tightening the two screws back up again, and replacing the white cover and tightening up the 11 screws again.



And that should fix the whammy bar problem and rather helpfully also not void your warranty as there are no intrusion prevention stickers that need to be broken in order to fix this issue. It really is that simple and seems somewhat of an oversight on Red Octane's part.

On a final note and following up on our story earlier this week about the rumoured effects pedal future addon for those of you still not convinced, I present the following photograph as conclusive proof:

User Comments:

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bored911 - on 09/04/2007 at 04:18 wrote:
 
can you post a guide on how to fix the tilt sensor controls. Mine seems to have a problem whereas my whammy bar is fine.
 

HairyArse - on 09/04/2007 at 12:05 wrote:
 
I would if I knew how to fix that. I'm having problems with mine too, it doesn't seem to be a very well made unit, which is rather unfortunate as it has the potential to spoil somewhat, what's otherwise a ridiculously brilliant game.
 

decompiler - on 10/04/2007 at 03:46 wrote:
 
i knew someone would figure this out soon! thx, hairy!

and yeah, seriously... why would you go through all the trouble to make one of the most brilliant and entertaining games ever, get all these excellent song licenses (except warrant... X-P), and then hose up the controller!?
 

Neagerwat - on 10/04/2007 at 08:39 wrote:
 
Ok, first off awesome fix for those of us with the faulty units.

Secondly, i did this relatively easily tonight, but after twisting the sensor a fraction clockwise and reinserting the screws, im now getting the 4 blinking lights on the controller, and the 360 does not recognize the Guitar anymore. The other guitar still works fine, and all my controllers are also recognizing.

Did I inadvertently hit something? or am I missing something minor?
 

Tiger_Walts - on 10/04/2007 at 11:56 wrote:
 
Neagerwat, The only thing I've seen that makes a controller blink all 4 lights is when it's searching for the host Xbox360. But that's for wireless controllers.

Maybe you should re-open the controller and check the USB cable going in isn't detached anywhere.
 

Tiger_Walts - on 10/04/2007 at 11:58 wrote:
 
Also, I've just noticed in one of those pics that the controller draws a whopping 400mA.

USB ports only supply 500mA so if you are using any sort of non-powered USB hub you may have problems if multiple devices are connected.
 

w00t - on 10/04/2007 at 12:56 wrote:
 
This article has hit Kotaku, btw.

Kotaku

 

HairyArse - on 10/04/2007 at 12:57 wrote:
 
Yeah and Engdget, Digg.com, Joystiq and Xboxfront.de!

:D

17,000 visitors in two days because of this article. I had to reduce the size of my images last night to save bandwidth as one of the images was a whopping 1.5mb.

:D
 

Salaman - on 10/04/2007 at 13:49 wrote:
 
Now all of the world has seen your Hairyarse!
 

Neagerwat - on 11/04/2007 at 06:13 wrote:
 
I feel ashamed to admit that the cable was simply detached at the break away point. Sigh im an idiot ;) )

Thanks again for the awesome fix, works awesome now.
 

Spin Dr Wolf - on 17/04/2007 at 17:30 wrote:
 
I have one of the effected model numbers, although my guitar seems to work fine, at least i think its fine.

I need to play another one for comparisons !
 

FHBigBoss - on 02/06/2007 at 01:03 wrote:
 
It doesn't work for me, what am I doing wrong?

I removed the screws, loosened the ones on the whammy bar and rotated it.

I tried 3 different positions and none of them work.
 

tom132 - on 29/11/2007 at 02:15 wrote:
 
My star power wont work when i tilt the guitar ihave to press select and i fail every time
 

christopher89918 - on 20/12/2007 at 06:29 wrote:
 
my xplorer guitar doesnt have any of the whammy bar problems but what it does is whenever its plugged into my xbox the fret buttons go crazy and spaz out like all flash at once and it thinks im pressing them... so during the game u can see how frustrating it is to try to get 5 stars on expert and not be able to hit the easiest of notes.... any suggestions
 


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