Why won't my Rock Band guitar sync for the Wii?

October 6, 2009 12:34 PM

On Rock Band: Beatles Edition for the Wii, my guitar keeps losing its sync to the USB dongle.

It'll sync, and then a short while later, it'll lose the connection and the USB dongle will start flashing its light. It doesn't seem to make a difference how close I stand, it keeps losing the connection! Is this a manufacturing issue or something else?

posted by tumbleweedjack to technology (5 comments total)

Have you tried changing the battery?
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 12:37 PM on October 6

I have this issue with Rock Band 2 and Rock Band Beatles edition. By any chance do you have a wireless router nearby? I've got an Airport Extreme router very close to my Wii and the attached dongles, and have noticed that I lose connection to the drum kit every time the wife starts surfing on her laptop upstairs. Infuriating, particularly when I haven't missed a note yet.

Haven't tried them out, but I've found a solution on various message boards that call for attaching the dongle to a long USB extension cable (and thereby getting it further away from the robust source of the wireless signal and subsequent interference.) Me? I just had the wife stop surfing and join me. Now she plays guitar, I play drums, and we're both hopelessly addicted.

But yeah, look for nearby sources of signal interference between the guitar and the dongle.
posted by Rewind at 12:50 PM on October 6

FWIW, I have the same issue. The dongle is not near anything wireless other than the Wii. I am standing 2-3 feet from the Wii, with nothing between the dongle and the guitar (other than my hands).

It re-syncs by itself, sometimes within seconds.
posted by Four Flavors at 2:45 PM on October 7

I tried changing the battery- it got a little better for a while, and then after a couple of days the situation promptly began again! I wrote customer support, and I'll post here what they say.

Four Flavors: seconds!? When I'm rocking my 8x multiplier in the middle of an expert guitar solo, I do not have seconds to wait for resyncing!! ;)
posted by tumbleweedjack at 5:44 PM on October 12

I seem to have fixed the issue by replacing the batteries and standing further away from the dongle.
posted by Four Flavors at 2:04 PM on October 29