Blogger at THEBBPS Jim Squires was in for a rude awakening while playing
Rock Band when the included 4-port USB hub began fuming during a 10-minute play session. Playing with four instruments connected and plugged into an open wall outlet the device began to smoke as the wires burnt through the casing. Upon notifying the EA Support site of the situation Squires received a form letter -- which is basically an automated response -- urging him to plug the unit in and try again.
"Congratulations EA, your form letter just killed me," Squires wrote in his story about the problem. A second reply pointed Squires to an automated replacement site ignoring his request for information regarding the electrical fire. Let's hope that warranty isn't expired otherwise he may be forced to pay for the luxury of another blaze.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-20-2008 @ 4:40PM
Momer said...
Wow that's pretty wierd. I've played for well over 10 mins in a row with 4 instruments and nothing happening. Also, Xav, did you make it to Gaming Invasion?
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10-20-2008 @ 4:44PM
Roto13 said...
I think it's pretty save to assume that this isn't a very common occurrence. I hate automated customer support, though. That's a huge pain in the ass.
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10-20-2008 @ 4:48PM
bigmac375 said...
or he could give them some bad press....
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10-20-2008 @ 4:55PM
Dan said...
Jim's a buddy of mine; thankfully everything's okay with the family, but that automated response form is clearly out to lunch...
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10-20-2008 @ 5:22PM
Timur Tabi said...
Since he plugged it directly into a wall socket, there's a chance that he had a power surge.
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10-20-2008 @ 5:52PM
Tony said...
Yeah, I was honestly wondering how much of this had to do with how his power is... I've not heard of this happening to anyone else so far.
That doesn't mean it hasn't, but it definitely doesn't remind me of the Xbox power cord recall or anything.
10-20-2008 @ 6:00PM
Drew Green said...
I love Rock Band and all, but that USB hub that came with it is a POS. Two of the ports don't even work on mine, right out of the box. I wasn't too worried about it since I had enough ports to plug my controllers in, but I do remember looking at it and and thinking it was junky.
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10-20-2008 @ 6:23PM
Mr.U2 said...
ha, leave it to EA...
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10-20-2008 @ 6:42PM
vidGuy said...
Since USB can provide power itself, I just bought a $8 hub from newegg and never have to plug it in for power. Sure beats the crappy setup they ship the game with.
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10-20-2008 @ 10:58PM
xenocidic said...
and now you're pulling too much power over USB from the 360
10-21-2008 @ 9:08AM
Brian said...
You are taking to much power from the USB. Which will result in the USB port going bang or the device thing you bought going bang and burning
10-21-2008 @ 7:21PM
vidGuy said...
Really? The USB port that came with the game lasted two days. The one I bought has been used for somewhere around 300 hours with no problems. Hmmm....
10-20-2008 @ 6:44PM
Hoffer said...
I felt that usb hub was a piece of crap when I first saw it. I'm not surprised it started a fire.
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10-20-2008 @ 7:10PM
TVGenius said...
So how exactly did a 'fire' start in the USB CABLE between his 360 and the hub, yet the instruments still worked while it was smoldering, and no damage was done to either the 360 or the instruments, apparently. USB = 4 conductors and a shield, and cannot carry more than 5 VDC. It seems that enough to melt the cable would have killed either the instruments or burned out the 360's USB interface first.
I find this odd...
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10-20-2008 @ 8:59PM
BrokenMonkey said...
Yes I believe the person in this story started the fire to get attention because never have I heard of any USB device starting a fire, whether it be a cable or powered hub or anything. The only way the fire could start in that spot is if the 360 somehow put out way too much current but I really doubt that since all of the instruments continued to work fine. The fact that it was plugged in didn't have anything to do it because it's not feeding electricity back into the 360 via the USB cable.
10-20-2008 @ 9:16PM
Zulef said...
The power comes from the wall socket not the 360. It could have travelled through the hub and into the wire which burnt out like a fuse would, more current than it could handle. Also I used to work building PC's and the wire looks similar to what happens if you wire up a USB wrong and power up the PC, which I accidentally did a few times.
10-20-2008 @ 9:31PM
BrokenMonkey said...
It couldn't travel up through the wire because the power from the hub goes into the instruments not the 360.
10-21-2008 @ 12:11AM
yolarrydabomb said...
This is why I try not to roll my wire or twist my wire as much because they short or cause something like this.
but shit hard tho to keep wires straight and organize.
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10-21-2008 @ 3:29AM
BFBeast666 said...
Technical issues aside, that just goes to show how EA treats their customers and what customers mean to them: Bags of cash.
Not that it's news. I've had enough grief with EA customer support since the earliest Ultima Online games.
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10-21-2008 @ 8:26AM
SaNcTuS said...
Oh wow. And to think I was going to use it last night. I looked at the usb hub's box(It's still new in its wrapper) and thought about it and said no. One second your playing drums and the other your beating the flames off of you.
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