My X-plorer won't work anymore

[italianstal1ion]

Ok, so I bought GH3 for PC. Guitar works great. Played it on FoF a lot. Worked fine, used the drivers and everything.

Ok, so I've got it plugged in and I bring my computer back from stand-by, and out of nowhere my computer pops up with a little bubble from the start bar saying "New hardware found" Then very quickly afterwards "Installing new hardware.." then "Hardware is installed and ready to use".

But it's not.

The light isn't on, the computer now doesn't even recognize it as a controller, or ANYTHING for that matter. I'll plug it in and it'd be like I hadn't put anything in at all. It doesn't even recognize it. I check the USB ports to see if it says something like hardware at least, and it doesn't say anything. All my USB ports work fine, I tried them with things the computer does recognize and they all work.

So I figured it was the xbox driver. Looked through the help file, no good. I figured the computer at least recognizes something is in the USB port, even if it can't run it, but I uninstalled and reinstalled the xbox controller driver anyway. No good. Still, nothing happens when I put the controller in, no lights, no recognition, nothing at all.

I just bought the controller, it worked fine until this incident, the USB isn't worn out or anything(as far as I know) so it should work. I haven't been able to check it on other computers.

This really pisses me off that my computer could ruin my guitar. Does anyone know why the hell my computer would install something on the guitar, or if thats even possible? Is there any way to clear the guitar's memory or erase it or something? Or would I have to get a new guitar?

[adthrawn]

Try the guitar on another computer or with the Guitar Hero game for the 360. Does it work there?

[italianstal1ion]

Tried on a 360, completely unresponsive. In fact, if I have it in the the first slot, the controller in the second slot is treated as first player. It doesn't even realize its there.
It's also not the small USB to xbox controller adapter. I switched mine with a friend's that worked and it still didn't work.

[xbox360922]

Yes it is 100% completely possible to "download" something onto your guitar. Why Windows would do something like that, I don't know. Does the guitar show up in joystick properties? Does it show up in device manager? Heck, does it show up in my computer?

[italianstal1ion]

Guitar controller doesn't show up anywhere. It's like I put nothing into the USB port.

[poopsticker]

sounds like the electronics went bad - I would return it for a replacement if you can

[italianstal1ion]

Yeah, I'm going to return it, its just that I would like to know why something like that would totally screw up the controller. Guess I'll probably never figure it out..