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 1)
Momer @ Oct 20th 2008 4:40PM
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?
Roto13 @ Oct 20th 2008 4:44PM
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.
bigmac375 @ Oct 20th 2008 4:48PM
or he could give them some bad press....
Dan @ Oct 20th 2008 4:55PM
Jim's a buddy of mine; thankfully everything's okay with the family, but that automated response form is clearly out to lunch...
Timur Tabi @ Oct 20th 2008 5:22PM
Since he plugged it directly into a wall socket, there's a chance that he had a power surge.
Tony @ Oct 20th 2008 5:52PM
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.
Drew Green @ Oct 20th 2008 6:00PM
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.
Mr.U2 @ Oct 20th 2008 6:23PM
ha, leave it to EA...
vidGuy @ Oct 20th 2008 6:42PM
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.
xenocidic @ Oct 20th 2008 10:58PM
and now you're pulling too much power over USB from the 360
Brian @ Oct 21st 2008 9:08AM
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
vidGuy @ Oct 21st 2008 7:21PM
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....
Hoffer @ Oct 20th 2008 6:44PM
I felt that usb hub was a piece of crap when I first saw it. I'm not surprised it started a fire.
TVGenius @ Oct 20th 2008 7:10PM
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...
BrokenMonkey @ Oct 20th 2008 8:59PM
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.
Zulef @ Oct 20th 2008 9:16PM
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.
BrokenMonkey @ Oct 20th 2008 9:31PM
It couldn't travel up through the wire because the power from the hub goes into the instruments not the 360.
Agamous Child @ Nov 7th 2008 9:15PM
Voltage has almost nothing to do with it.
http://www.interfire.org/features/electric_wiring_faults.asp
yolarrydabomb @ Oct 21st 2008 12:11AM
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.
BFBeast666 @ Oct 21st 2008 3:29AM
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.
SaNcTuS @ Oct 21st 2008 8:26AM
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.
MDJ2010 @ Oct 21st 2008 8:40AM
Bit of an over reaction, you hear one story out of all the people that have boughgt it and you aren't using it anymore. Ive played hours upon hours with the hub and its fine. I will take hat back when I am on fire though, lol
SaNcTuS @ Oct 21st 2008 6:07PM
well I don't use it because of these kind of articles but I just don't have use for them. I use my hd dvd player for the extra port I need. So when I was going to use it, I didnt and the next day I saw this article. so yea...
jon.sue97 @ Oct 21st 2008 8:44AM
Like any electrical cord, if the wire was damaged by a sharp kink or partial cut that allowed two of the wires inside to touch without a protective coating between them, it will short and either trip your breaker or, if the short does does not cause a large enough surge to trip the breaker, get hot. I wonder what kind of shape the cord was in and how long he had it before it shorted out.
Thrombo19 @ Oct 21st 2008 10:56AM
I have used my hub a bunch of times, and just on Friday played for a couple hours with it with 3 instruments plugged in, and the fourth plugged into the other USB port on the front of the 360.
So if you are worried, I have had no problems with that setup anytime I have used mine.
yolarrydabomb @ Oct 21st 2008 9:39PM
If you are worried about this.
1. Unplug when not being use or at home.
2. Buy another one at wal-mart.
I think all kinds of USB hubs would work.