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xbox 360 controller question (lights)

Harkamus

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 30, 2001
Messages
4,293
What does it mean when my controller shows the 'circular' light that rotates?
 
Battery is getting low, but it will sometimes give that flash 10-20 hours before the battery really dies.
 
yeah run em till you get input delay/it turns off. Sometimes theres a lot still left in em.
 
Yup, I wouldn't replace them until you either notice a difference in performance, or your game suddenly pauses and you have a message saying to connect a controller.
 
if you have not, buy a play and charge kit, I have the Nikko brand and love em, have not bought batteries in 1.5 years for my controllers.
 
I've heard (granted from a salesperson who was trying to upsell me) that the Nyko batteries are pretty good quality. Hopefully they're better than the MS brand rechargeable batteries which suck balls. I had one completely die in 6 months, and the one I replaced it with barely holds a charge after another 6 months. I don't even play 360 games that much, so it's pretty sad.

I think I'm going to go with rechargable AA when my last MS battery pack finally dies...
 
btw... as others have stated, the spinning light happens waaaaaay before your controller actually dies. An annoying consequence of voltage levels in rechargeable batteries. If I could, I'd turn the stupid warning off.
 
Rechargeable batteries is the way to go. Also, to get the most life out of them... run them as dead as you possibly can. They will last longer charge after charge. I know the newer batteries aren't supposed to suffer from that, but it's been my experience that they still do... though to a lesser extent.
 
I would highly suggest AGAINST Nyko products of any sort. I bought their charger last Winter when I got my 360 and the batteries would work in some of my controllers and not work in others. Using google, I found this was a problem many others were having. I returned the set and bought the Microsoft branded charger. I haven't had a problem since.

On a side note, I borrowed a controller to a friend and it came back with a Nyko battery in it! He refused to believe that he (or a friend) had switched batteries and now that battery doesn't work in my main controller. How a simple battery doesn't work in some controllers baffles me.
 
Rechargeable batteries is the way to go. Also, to get the most life out of them... run them as dead as you possibly can. They will last longer charge after charge. I know the newer batteries aren't supposed to suffer from that, but it's been my experience that they still do... though to a lesser extent.
This is true with NiCad and NiMH (the latter are what you would want to use as AA alkaline replacements). This isn't the case, however, with lithium batteries (the types in your cell phone, MP3 players and such) and, in fact, decent batteries of that type have a limiter in them that will prevent you from running them truly dead.

The bottom line is that using NiMH AAs is usually going to be the most economical option. You should be able to buy a couple of sets of AA batteries and a charger for less than the price of the 360 controller-specific setups. Plus, if you spend a little more for a universal charger you can move all your batteries to rechargeable and reap the benefits everywhere. No battery will last forever, but in my experience they easily last enough to replace standard alkalines at least 10 times over.
 
my play and charge kit (bought halo3 edition) battery didn't last very long. about 6 months of heavy playing. i recently bought the nyko cradle with the batteries that you can charge w/out removing (the cradle thing) and i'm pretty happy with it
 
yeah run em till you get input delay/it turns off. Sometimes theres a lot still left in em.

i do that all the time.... funwhen your in the middle of a play in madden09 and it pauses and asks for the controller to be connected.... lol
 
my rechargeable battery kit that came with my box is awesome. charges very quickly.. maybe in about 1 - 2hours. but my other rechargeable battery... well it doesnt charge at all anymore. in fact it completely dies. i think it might be the controller actually.

i bought a 2nd controller, it doesnt charge my batteries. the light starts out red to show that its charging, and then turns green within 2 minutes. battery doesnt even have enough power to turn on a controller.

not sure what happened there.

but yea, as these guys said, that spinning light thing means that your controller is starting its final countdown. once it does a complete circle every 14 seconds, your xbox will explode, and/or rrod will appear.

it also means that your battery's charge is low and needs to be re-juiced.

you should try some gamer grub. i hear the action pizza is awesome.

p.s. does anyone know where i can get the glass bottles of Mana Potion energy drink?
 
eh the way i see it for 20$ i can get around 100 AA batteries...so thats 50 sets for a 360 controller....and that pretty much means a supply thats going to last me 3-5 years of average use.....
 
dont aa batteries die after 3 years of sitting around?
Alkaline batteries do discharge over time when they go unused (well, all batteries do), just like a car battery will go dead if the car isn't run.

So, a 3-year-old battery won't last as long as a fresh one, though it will still be usable (barring improper storage). The best guideline is probably to buy no more than the number of batteries you're going to use in the next 6 months. Alkaline batteries aren't a good long-term investment tool. ;)
 
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