So I found a guitar hero 360 controller in a gamestop dumpster...

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KevySaysBeNice

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So, I found a guitar hero 360 controller in a gamestop dumpster, it was in the packaging and as far as I can tell was brand new.

HOWEVER, the cable was cut (a clean cut) the breakaway connector, but before the little "knot" in the cable (it's the little bulge in the cable where I'm assuming something important is).


Now, when I got home from the ol' dumpster the night I cut back a bit of the shielding around the cable and started ghetto soilder (however you spell that word, it should be "sodder") the wires back together (i.e. I took of the shielding and wraped the two ends together, then covered them with duct tape). Now, when I got to the white wirte and started taking the shielding off the white wire just pulled away from the guitar (basically from where the little black thing is in the controller). I really didn't apply much force to it, and when I looked at the end it didn't look like it was broken or anything, it looked like it was never connected.

SO, here are my questions:

1) Is that little black thing very important?

2) Is it fixable?

3) I'm assuming Gamestop must have thrown this away for good reason, right?


I don't have a 360, however I figured that I might use this controller with my MacBook Pro to play guitar hero when it came out...

Thanks for any help!

p.s. I am at work and can't FTP to my webspace, and I'm not sure were people host images these days (as I always use my webspace), so sorry about this horrible image host!

bonus! diagram!
c78623717a75.jpg

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Somebody has to ask, what the hell were you doing in a gamestop dumpster?
 
They tossed it because it was faulty- a lot of companies throwing out electronics will cut cables to prevent just what you did. ;)

The black "knob" is probably just a ferrite cylinder to minimize interference. It's actually not all that necessary.

I doubt you're going to get that thing working again in that state. Maybe you could sell it for parts on ebay or mod it or something, but I doubt it's fixable, even barring the reason they tossed it to begin with.
 
If you're talking about the black buldge on the cable on the outside, then it's not really important. That should just be the Ferrite core around the cable. Basically, it reduces "electrical noise" in electronic components. It shouldn't stop it from working, just keeps it from possibly interfering with other electronics, but the chance it would interfere is remote.

As far as the white wire...I don't have any information on that one for you.

Good luck!

::::: EDIT :::::
 
aramis said:
They tossed it because it was faulty- a lot of companies throwing out electronics will cut cables to prevent just what you did. ;)

The black "knob" is probably just a ferrite cylinder to minimize interference. It's actually not all that necessary.

I doubt you're going to get that thing working again in that state. Maybe you could sell it for parts on ebay or mod it or something, but I doubt it's fixable, even barring the reason they tossed it to begin with.
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Thanks for the reply :)

I'm thinking that MAYBE I'll get lucky, and perhaps the reason they threw it out is because the white wire was not orginally connected properly. I was hoping somebody would say, "OMG, the white wire was probably why they thought it was deffective!".

pigpen said:
Somebody has to ask, what the hell were you doing in a gamestop dumpster?
Click to expand...


Dumpster diving. Last year we found a bunch of game posters (worthless) and a few kool little bits of garbage. We had much more luck at Bed Bath and Beyond and Peir 1, we found a bunch of 50$+ vases (sp?) in perfect condition, as well as a pair of perfect bar stools that were good enough for my mother to use in her newly remodeled house.
 
lol, I do the occasonal dump dive. When ever I have to drop stuff off at the local dump I always walk around and see what I can find and you'd be amazed. Last time I was there, I found a gameboy advance that worked, only had a dimmed screen and a box full of sega gen games :). My father in law found a brand new starchoice HD dish still taped in the box, he sold that for a few bucks lol. One guy I was talking to found 2 Brand new GH2 games still in there plastic.

As for the white cord, I would just cut off the black buldge and see if your white wire is still there, if it is use it and see if the guitar works (use it on someones copy of GH2 or 3).
 
just wire a regular USB cable up, color for color, to the wires on the guitar. should be black, white, red and green IIRC, with one mis match wire that doesnt matter :p just plug it in and go. if its broken, its probably the strum or whammy that are dead...
 
Guyver03 said:
If you're talking about the black buldge on the cable on the outside, then it's not really important. That should just be the Ferrite core around the cable. Basically, it reduces "electrical noise" in electronic components. It shouldn't stop it from working, just keeps it from possibly interfering with other electronics, but the chance it would interfere is remote.

As far as the white wire...I don't have any information on that one for you.

Good luck!

::::: EDIT :::::
Click to expand...


Yes, he is correct. Its just for interference and noise.... caused problems on my ps2 a/v cable... nothing serious, just made the signal a bit dirty by removing it when i had to splice the cable some time ago....
 
Ragenrok said:
lol, I do the occasonal dump dive. When ever I have to drop stuff off at the local dump I always walk around and see what I can find and you'd be amazed. Last time I was there, I found a gameboy advance that worked, only had a dimmed screen and a box full of sega gen games :). My father in law found a brand new starchoice HD dish still taped in the box, he sold that for a few bucks lol. One guy I was talking to found 2 Brand new GH2 games still in there plastic.

As for the white cord, I would just cut off the black buldge and see if your white wire is still there, if it is use it and see if the guitar works (use it on someones copy of GH2 or 3).
Click to expand...

You guys make it seem like dumpster diving is normal! Maybe I should do this on my spare time...
 
Tzzird said:
You guys make it seem like dumpster diving is normal! Maybe I should do this on my spare time...
Click to expand...

Go check out the hot deals forum and then the freebies subforum. There is a huge thread about it in there.
 
NOT THE RED WIRE!

Heh, congrats on the nice find though. I should DD sometime...
 
pigpen said:
Somebody has to ask, what the hell were you doing in a gamestop dumpster?
Click to expand...

For some odd reason, people like to go into dumpsters to get free crap.

I personally do not want anything in my house that has been inside of one of those dumpsters. i perfer the items in my house not to have been on top of, underneath or just inside a dumpster that currently, or recently, has people's waste inside it. Call me crazy, just not something I am into.
 
SC385 said:
Go check out the hot deals forum and then the freebies subforum. There is a huge thread about it in there.
Click to expand...

At the malls here where the gamestops are the trash bins are in an enclosed area where a key is handed out to all stores/employees.

Plus I do not think security would take kindly to this action.
 
roaf85 said:
At the malls here where the gamestops are the trash bins are in an enclosed area where a key is handed out to all stores/employees.

Plus I do not think security would take kindly to this action.
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If you actually look at the DD thread, you'll see that kind of action isn't condoned. You don't go where it's locked away. Once something is discarded- left on the curb, left in a publicly-accessed dumpster- it's technically not their property any longer. Breaking into a locked area is tresspassing and is different and isn't condoned by most DD'ers.

I don't personally DD but I think it's kind of cool.
 
aramis said:
If you actually look at the DD thread, you'll see that kind of action isn't condoned. You don't go where it's locked away. Once something is discarded- left on the curb, left in a publicly-accessed dumpster- it's technically not their property any longer. Breaking into a locked area is tresspassing and is different and isn't condoned by most DD'ers.

I don't personally DD but I think it's kind of cool.
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Yep, we never break into anything and if the dumpsters are fenced in we never jump over the fence or anything like that. That said, if the dumpsters are in an an OPEN fenced in area and nothing is locked sometimes we'll take a quick look. Of course we ALWAYS leave the place as clean if not cleaner then it was before we came.

We've yet to get in trouble, though we have been yelled at to ask what we are doing. We just say, "Looking for good stuff". I'll admit I'm not really looking forward to the day the cops come, but I'm sure sooner or later it will happen.

Last time we went we went after all of the dumpsters in the area were emptied and we sort of lost out, though we did find a totally open Staples garbage (most of them have compacters and are locked tight) and we found a bunch of leather bound notebooks. I took my little sisters also and they found a bunch of slightly stained clothing that they washed and now always wear (at least last time I was home they did).
 
I dunno if the guitar is fixable, but chances are if you can repair the cord it will still work. I know that at gamestop, probably other places too, if something is returned as defective and they take it, then they are required to pile up all the defective stuff and wait for the district manage to come and he will smash shit with a hammer or otherwise make it unusable. So there's no employees grabbing stuff out of the dumpster and whatnot.
 
Tzzird said:
You guys make it seem like dumpster diving is normal! Maybe I should do this on my spare time...
Click to expand...

I never said I go into dumpsters, I go straight to the dump lol, and I only go whne I missed garbage day or if im moving and have alot of junk to throw out ;) But yes I don't think theres anything wrong with looking around for stuff. You can find some very neat things and with a good wipe and dissifectant its good to go lol.
 
JonnyK said:
I dunno if the guitar is fixable, but chances are if you can repair the cord it will still work. I know that at gamestop, probably other places too, if something is returned as defective and they take it, then they are required to pile up all the defective stuff and wait for the district manage to come and he will smash shit with a hammer or otherwise make it unusable. So there's no employees grabbing stuff out of the dumpster and whatnot.
Click to expand...

That is bullshit. I do not know where you heard this. I used to work at a Gamestop and even worked at some other locations as well in addition to the primary location.

If the item is defective it is put in a box and either sent back to manufactor, which Gamestop then gets refunded, or the company tries to repair the part themselves and sell it as refrubished.

I am willing to the bet that some dumb customer tried to modify the guitar and in the attempt failed and then tried to take it back to Gamestop as an exchange. Therefore the item never made it into inventory.

Or it was a demo unit and demo units were always in inventory. Then again anything from Nintendo wasnt exactly ours either.
 
I'll take pictures tomorow maybe, but the guitar looks totally new and 100% untampered with. All of the cables and chords were wrapped and unoppened, and still had that "fresh and opened" feel to them.
 
roaf85 said:
That is bullshit. I do not know where you heard this. I used to work at a Gamestop and even worked at some other locations as well in addition to the primary location.

If the item is defective it is put in a box and either sent back to manufactor, which Gamestop then gets refunded, or the company tries to repair the part themselves and sell it as refrubished.
Click to expand...

Depends on what the items were. I also used to work at a GameStop, and as a manager when we sent defects back, you have to manually scan them into the system and add the item to shipping carton. If it's an item the home office doesn't want back, usually 3rd party stuff like crappy used MadCatz controllers or AV cables or controller extensions...etc., the system tells you to save the item back and specifically adds it to a category called Field Destroy.

Basically, anything that was Field Destroy would be tossed in it's own box in the back. Then, the District Manager would come and go through the box and check off items to make sure they were all there and take them to the dumspter himself, or just call and tell me to do it. Just another way to audit and check up on the store. He only came in and did the box about once every three times it needed to be done. If you never saw that then you either A) Had a DM that didn't care about that or B) Super trusted all his managers or C) You weren't around when they did it. But it actually is (or was at least last year) policy for DMs to work your Field Destroy list and account for items.

roaf85 said:
I am willing to the bet that some dumb customer tried to modify the guitar and in the attempt failed and then tried to take it back to Gamestop as an exchange. Therefore the item never made it into inventory.

Or it was a demo unit and demo units were always in inventory. Then again anything from Nintendo wasnt exactly ours either.
Click to expand...

Dumb customer is the more likely scenerio. Maybe they tried to return it and the store rejected it, so they just traded in the game itself. Or, they could have had a defective guitar in the demo machine and it was replaced and the old one was tossed because the comapny didn't want it back, so no inventory adjustment was needed. Could have been alot of different ways...

Since I'm dangerously close to a bunch of tl;dr replies and am derailing the topic, I'll just close by saying get those pics up and hopefully someone can help with the wiring.
 
If there wasn't so much nice/cool crap thrown away everyday ...we'd probably have less homeless people (In L.A. anyways)


 
I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the "white" wire is just insulation material. When you cut some wires open, that have multiple smaller wires on the inside there is white insulation stuff that just protects the smaller wires some twists and bends. I dunno if there is actual metal stuff within the white wire, if there is, then I'm definitely wrong.

I say connect whatever wires you can back together and try it out.
 
All you "dumpster divers" out there, please tell me you all dont live in trailers ? as thats the picture that comes into my mind when you lot are speaking about DD, typical trailer trash who cant be bothered to work to pay for their goods, so they have to go free diving instead.

I am not saying this is the case with anyone here, but to me as soon as I imagine what DD people look like, I imagine a redneck who lives in a trailer with jeans that have holes and a T-shirt thats ripped and out of shape and with a cap with the Texas flag on the front, aka My Name is Earl :)

No offense to Texas and any texans, but thats the image that springs to mind when I hear about DD's, basically a typical stereotype which may or maynot be true, but its something which personally I wouldnt do as I couldnt even go through my own trash without getting a sick feeling and the immediate urge to shower, never mind going through someone elses trash as that shit would freak me out.
 
Since the white wire wasn't connected there is actually a good chance that it is why it had problems in the first place. Cutting it further up and connecting all the cables is a pretty good way of trying to get it working. I'd say it was thrown out because it didn't work and the white wire was why. Maybe it got bent too much and broke the wire.
 
The black thing is a ferrite core, you can find them on many wires or cheap electronic places. It's just to reduce electromagnetic interference.
 
pigpen said:
Somebody has to ask, what the hell were you doing in a gamestop dumpster?
Click to expand...

Dumpster Diving is a common thing done by alot of people. Especially bored college students haha =P. That was when I was first taken on my first run. That was 7 years ago. Things from old Atari Games up to Computer Systems (mostly older gateways, dells, etc) were found. This laptop that I'm typing on was actually found on a DD run. A Dell Inspiron 8500, found it in the summer. A new battery & adpater purchase later, & it works perfectly =).
 
The firm i work for shut down its offices a while back and they threw out most of the pc's. They were old dells with 1.8ghz p4's 512mb ram and 40gig HD's. I picked up 10 of them just lying in the dumpster. Cleaned them up and they work fine. Gave 5 away to friends who didnt have a pc and use the rest as a render farm and NAS. I also got a lifetime supply of ball point pens. :D

Thats the only time i've ever raided a dumpster. But it was a very productive one.
 
Another thing here folks, is that most DD'ers aren't going and jumping in residential dumpsters. They're going into dumpsters behind electronic or furniture stores- it's not like you're going to find soiled diapers and rotten food throughout those. :p

There's actually something to be said about that form of "recycling" over just letting it rot because someone else threw it out.

Let me posit this question- if you saw a nice desk out on the curb, would you consider grabbing it if you had need of it? I would. Hell I did that back in college when my school decided to get rid of a lot of desks it had for one of the old dorms. Had that desk for years afterwards.
 
i dive so people who dont have pcs can have one. yea and corporate/electronic places are paradise for diving.
 
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