PS3 RB2 Drums; Green Drum plays random notes

[riskbreaker927]

Just picked up the Special Edition of Rock Band 2 today for my PS3. Everything works great, which was really good news for me since I had to return 3 sets of RB1 drums to get one that worked -passably-. The one problem I did have is as follows:

The green drum on my set just goes off randomly from time to time. Sometimes it's once every few minutes, sometimes they're seconds apart, but every once in a while the game picks up a note from the green drum, even if no one is within 5 feet of it. This is very frustrating in menus (and equally frustrating in-game as I lose streaks for no reason on a regular basis.)

It's not a software issue either; it happens in XMB as well. As long as I have the dongle plugged in and the drum is switched on, the green drum will go off.

Please, PLEASE someone tell me this is fixable. I really, REALLY would not like to have to return another set of drums for ANOTHER GAME.

[someguy8]

I am having the same problem as posted in my other thread....and I agree that i dont want to go through the trouble of returning it...

[riskbreaker927]

Sorry for the double post, but I just unplugged everything and shut off the console, then started rock band 2 again with just the drum plugged in. It took approximately 3 minutes for the game to make it to a song on its own.

[Ode1st]

Yep, I posted a thread about this too. Having the same problem. I'm really, really happy with Rock Band 2 so far. No preset calibrations, the calibration tools don't seem to work well enough (Rock Band 1 worked fine for me on this same TV), and greens randomly hit. Took about a minute and a half for the game to choose a song for me with just the drums plugged in like the above post. My two other friends aren't having trouble.

I'm trying my old drums right now to see what happens. I'm super happy that I paid 200 bucks to use my old instruments.

I have the SL model drums, which are supposedly the bad ones.

[riskbreaker927]

Let's try to consolidate posts about the topic in this thread... not to knock you or anything Ode1st, just that you named your thread before you actually knew what the problem was.

Anyway, it seems more and more likely we're all going to have to RMA our drums. That's a shame, these drums are so much better, I just wish things would be easy for once.

[Ode1st]

The support.ea.com/rockband page doesn't even let you get to the RMA steps at the moment.

"Rock Band 2 and the Rock Band 2 hardware are currently unavailable. For release dates and availability please check your local retailer or online at www.rockband2.com."

[LocuraNiner]

The problem with my drum set has evolved. Now the yellow, blue AND green pads hit randomly. I tried unplugging, replugging, and resetting everything and nothing has worked. The EA troubleshooting & warranty site they gave in the game is not even available yet.

I hope whatever is causing these glitches can be fixed by a patch, because if I have to replace yet ANOTHER drum set I am going to be extremely pissed.

[someguy8]

Wow...I hope they can release a patch to fix it as well...

[Peril1701]

Juat got mine about an hour ago....green notes playing by itself. Can't get RMA info on a sunday I guess.
I guess I used up all my luck getting a decent RB1 kit.

[PDXtreme]

Having the same problem, here. Really hope I dont have to RMA them, cause my RB1 drums are shot...

[ssracer]

We just started playing with ours. Same problem. Random hits of the drum pads for no apparent reason. Really ticks me off too since my set from RB1 has cracked pads and I was really looking forward to the new set.

[Ode1st]

Just called and did the RMA thing. The guy was nice and helpful, and said other people called about this problem. You have to provide a receipt now, so you have to fax or mail it to them, and once they get the receipt, they'll send you the new stuff like the RB1 RMA process, which was the express or the regular mail.

One of my friends who just got a PS3 RB2 drumkit (in the bundle) that works, checked his serial number for me, and it ends in QM and isn't printed in white like mine which ends in SL. He said it's carved into the plastic and he had to put it under the light to see it.

So, I suppose QM kits are fine? Didn't even know about QM kits.

[riskbreaker927]

Everyone, check your model numbers and post them. We may be able to get more information about the problem from that. Mine is "24708SL" - in another thread I was looking at, they said "SL" might be a common thread for this problem.

[someguy8]

Mine is 24908SL, so I believe you are right about the SL models...

[Ode1st]

Mine: 24078SL (printed in white) - Getting the random hits.
Friend's: 25398QM (carved into the plastic and not colored, he said he can barely read it) - Works fine.

[ssracer]

24908SL here as well...I think we may be on to something.

[PDXtreme]

24808 QM, so there goes the "Its the SLs" theory. =\

[cptchipjew]

I've got the exact same problem. Mine ends in SL. Way to go HMX. $205 down the toilet.

What's the phone number to call to start the replacement process?

[Remij010]

yep, same thing for me with my drum set....very annoyed. I was so looking forward to having fun with my friends today with this game....

SL model for me aswell.

[riskbreaker927]

Well that's quite bothersome if QM kits are also affected, but let's see if we can get some more data.

(For the record, my drums have been in use for about 3 hours, and the problem now affects the yellow drum too, so it seems like that one guy whose whole kit does this isn't an isolated incident.)

[Airek]

SL here. Not having note registration problems, but my kit does completely stop working randomly at any given time.

No word from HMX? Very professional.

[ssracer]

I also noticed that any time we exit the game or go into the game, the drums will blink and re-assign the controller number.

The random hit problem affects all of my pads.

[Ode1st]

I switched and started using my old RB1 drum kit. Works fine, no random hits. Has some holes and cracks in it from friends who play aggressively and still works better than the new pretty kit.

[PDXtreme]

Didnt this problem occur with the first wave of RB1 kits, as well?

[LocuraNiner]

25708SL

I'm just wondering how could HMX have made such an enormous screw-up?

[riskbreaker927]

Not that I know of. Of the 3 RB1 kits I had (all for Xbox 360, for the record) this was not in the list of problems I saw.

[Ode1st]

Yeah, the only widespread problem I remember from RB1 hardware were the guitars did a double strum.

[riskbreaker927]

Well, the first 2 drums I had were unable to pick up fast notes - if you played two 16th notes together, it only registered one. This made songs that had rolls and 16th note cymbal patterns literally impossible.

Thankfully this is not the case with the RB2 drums I ahve, but I'm concerned if I RMA mine I'll get one that DOES have that problem. Murphy's law, you know.

[Scionblazer]

Maybe it's more profitable for them to have the drum sets made cheap somewhere else, and then warranty the bad ones, than to have them made right the first time? Pretty common business practice, not sure if that's what's going on here.

I've got a PS3 SL set, and not yet having any random note hits, actually the opposite. For example, tried playing Joker and the Thief on RB2, you know that snare roll right before the signer starts singing? I must've played that song on RB1 50 times, and that part never gave me trouble, but now RB2 is telling me I'm not hitting it right.

I know I can do it. I know it's not latency, spent an hour setting mine up. That just leaves...

Man, these kinds of disappointemnts are so deflating. I wonder if GH4 is gonna have these types of problems...I'd much rather stay w/RB, I can't stand GH, but if by the 2nd installment of this game, I still can't get equipment that works right, what am I supposed to do?

[Peril1701]

SL kit here.

[cptchipjew]

I spoke to support and they suggested blowing some compressed air under the green drum. I tried this and it DID NOT work, but YMMV.

It looks like they're willing to replace the drum pads no problem, AFTER faxing the receipt. ARG!

[Scionblazer]

And.....my kit finally did the whole "cut out in the middle of a song thing."

Where can I find the number to call them, to set up an RMA? This is just plain unacceptable.

[someguy8]

ugh, now my drumset is dropping out too....this sucks...

[njerald]

Anyone tried returning/exchanging at the store?

According to EA's FAQ (http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=19756), "all authorized Rock Band retailers are participating in our warranty program for faulty items and would be happy to assist you should you decide to return the item to its place of purchase."

If the drums are defective out of the box, why should anyone have to go through the RMA hassle, especially now that EA says you can go to the retailer?

[someguy8]

Thanks I'll probably take it back to wal-mart later...in the box it did have that please DO NOT return any rockband hardware perpherals......

[Camdog916]

Oh wow I thought I was the only one having this problem. I posted about this earlier today too. I took mine back to Gamestop and got a whole new bundle. This set works fine so far. Crossing fingers!

[ssracer]

Mine just completely quit working in the middle of a song, but still showed a connection to the PS3. Thanks Harmonix, I think I may just take this back and pick up Guitar Hero World Tour instead.

I mean WTF, do they do any quality control at all, because clearly this isn't just a small isolated problem? Or maybe this is a ploy to sell more of the Ion kits.

[Absydion]

Yeah, mine quit working in the middle of the song too. The dongle showed a connection while the drum kid did not. I turned the drums off and on with the switch and they began working again, only to have the issue repeat. The kicker is that, since the system isn't detecting the disconnection, the song continues playing without the drums working. <irony> That's FANTASTIC EA/Harmonix! </irony>

[gogostevie]

Same problem here, with the wireless dropping out on the drum controller, but not on the dongle (flashing lights on the drums, solid on the dongle). I really didn't think about the song continuing as the drums dropped out at the time, but totally had the same experience.

The drums won't hold a connection for more than 10-15 seconds at a time.

SL series o' drums.

We were really excited about the new version, and we're awfully disappointed that it's not working right. Thankfully the RB1 drums seem to work well, but it's a bummer to spend this kind of money to use our old controllers.

[gooney0]

I got my RB2 / PS3 special edition today and I'm having the same random green pad issue.

Very rarely the blue pad will go off as well.

I called EA about a replacement. They could take my credit card over the phone and ship me a new drum set but there is a catch. I have to show them a receipt first.

I suppose I could take a digital photo of the receipt and email it.

I'm beginning to wonder what percentage of these sets have some big flaw. I don't expect a professional quality drum set or anything but I don't want to wind up with another bad set.

[bernux]

same problem here with the yellow pads, so back to rb1 drum ;-(
SL kit

[Ode1st]

For anyone wondering (someone might've mentioned this earlier and I just missed the post, if so, sorry), you can't return it to some retailers. GameStop specifically will not deal with Rock Band bundle returns. However, I'm sure you could've bought that protection plan from Best Buy and abuse the hell out of it and just return things to your heart's content.

I did the RMA thing, and scanned a copy of my receipt and did the steps to RMA through email. I'm currently using my RB1 drums (which are somewhat of a mess, sadly) and after a handful of hours, there's no problem whatsoever. Also, there are other instruments :P.

[Zoglog]

I ended up just returning the entire set to bestbuy. I'm guessing this was similar to my problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZU70AyGZGo

[Remij010]

I wonder what Harmonix/EA are thinking about this? And I'm wondering why they haven't issued an official response yet.

[Zoglog]

I wonder what Harmonix/EA are thinking about this? And I'm wondering why they haven't issued an official response yet.

because it's sunday ;)
and even after awhile it takes them a whole lot longer to address the situation.
Given the economy, a recall on equipment would cost them a whole lot of money, so even if they've internally managed to acknowledge the problem, I'm sure they'll take a decent amount of time to stew over the cost/benefit analysis on how to handle the situation.

I'm not saying harmonix won't address the issue eventually, I just personally lost patience w/ the whole issue and don't want to deal with the headache when i'm plunking down $200, esp with the slew of good games coming out this holiday.

[Rumi-Nation]

its my blue pad. . . good to see i am not alone

[someguy8]

If anyone bought it at wal-mart, try to return it. They accepted and I exchanged it for a new one, and lo and behold, it worked....I must mention the new one is a SL as well...

[Remij010]

because it's sunday ;)
and even after awhile it takes them a whole lot longer to address the situation.
Given the economy, a recall on equipment would cost them a whole lot of money, so even if they've internally managed to acknowledge the problem, I'm sure they'll take a decent amount of time to stew over the cost/benefit analysis on how to handle the situation.

I'm not saying harmonix won't address the issue eventually, I just personally lost patience w/ the whole issue and don't want to deal with the headache when i'm plunking down $200, esp with the slew of good games coming out this holiday.

well, you'd figure that since this game is realeasing on a sunday...they would atleast have a representitive looking at the forums to see all these issues...plus the fact that people have been calling them....

I just figured by now they would have put out an official statement that they are looking into it and will have a better idea tomorrow.

[bigsilvs]

well, you'd figure that since this game is realeasing on a sunday...they would atleast have a representitive looking at the forums to see all these issues...plus the fact that people have been calling them....

I just figured by now they would have put out an official statement that they are looking into it and will have a better idea tomorrow.

You would think, but I guess that would be to easy. I don't expect these MASSIVE ISSUES to be fixed for a very long time. These people weren't even smart enough to play the finished product for about 10 mins to see if there were any issues with the game...

[winseck]

I called Rockband support and did the RMA thing. I'll fax over my copy of the receipt along with the the RMA number they gave me tomorrow from work. I supplied them with a credit card number for security issues. Seems pretty simple. They told me that I'll receive my new drums in 3-5 days after they receive the faxed receipt. And my credit card will never be charged as long as I return the old drums in a timely manner. They said to just put the old drums in the box the new ones come in and flip over the address and send it back. All shipping is taken care of. Since so many people are having this problem and Rockband is quick to send a new kit, I don't think this is anything anyone can just fix on their own. I'll just use my RB1 drums in the meantime.

[Zoglog]

You would think, but I guess that would be to easy. I don't expect these MASSIVE ISSUES to be fixed for a very long time. These people weren't even smart enough to play the finished product for about 10 mins to see if there were any issues with the game...

well I wouldn't make it as clear cut as that. Things might work in design but in mass produced mfrs, things can go wrong that are unforseen and they're often shipped directly to the distributors.

[bigsilvs]

well I wouldn't make it as clear cut as that. Things might work in design but in mass produced mfrs, things can go wrong that are unforseen and they're often shipped directly to the distributors.


That might be an acceptable excuse for the wireless Rock Band 2 drums not working, but what about the Rock Band 1 drums not working with Rock Band 2? The fact of the matter is that the game is flawed.

[Ode1st]

A fellow in another thread of mine about the busted guitars (yay) said he took off the green pad and put a piece of foam on top of the batteries and the green pad stopped doing the phantom hits. So, I guess it's like the cardboard slip thing from the RB1 guitar issues. Ah, memories. Mine's already going through with the RMA process, so I'm not sure I want to take apart my drums to try just in case there's one of those sneaky void stickers somewhere.

My friend has another bundled SL model and he's having the desync issue with the drums, where the hits stop registering, but the lights stay on and stuff. He says every time that happens, he changes the batteries and the drums start working again. So, he thinks the problem is that the wireless drums just eat batteries way too fast.

Worth a try for people who have the desync issue to pinpoint the exact problem.

[cdnsir]

My green pad also registers randomly, and my blue as well but less frequent. It's from the ps3 bundle and serial ends with SL.

[Rumi-Nation]

anyone know why the rockbandservice.ea.com thing isnt working for ps3?

[Ode1st]

No idea, but if you call them, a service rep will do the RMA process with you, and show you how to email the scan of the receipt if you don't have a fax. Normally, you'd just do it through the site that isn't currently working. But since it's not working, you have to do it through your EA account thing.

[dobyblue]

Don't know if anyone's tried this, but a poster from the Blu-ray.com forums had this work for them.


I was having this issue with my drumkit, and I did manage to fix mine myself (well, at least so far...). I don't recommend my fix though, if you don't want to violate your warranty.

I discovered that the green pad would hit at random times when my kickpedal was plugged in, and the problem went away when it was unplugged. Upon opening up the bottom, I was able to discern which set of wires were connected to the kickpedal port and followed the line back to the circuit board. There was a big glob of glue that was being used to keep the wiring from moving around. The glue was covering several wires, and the connectors they were soldered to. I broke up the glue around the wire leads, closed it up, and my drum pads have been behaving ever since.

Now, I don't know how conductive the glue was/is, but it seemed to be enough that when
the kickpedal was plugged in, the closed circuit signal would send impulses to other wiring that it's not supposed to. Just a thought, but I figured I would throw this out there.

Seems quite logical to me, but I don't know if you'd want to void your warranty trying it unless one or two RMA's doesn't fix your issue and you get fed up.

[Zoglog]

hey doby, I think that is a very reasonable theory.
I too noticed that when you unplugged the kick pedal, it would stop triggering hits automatically.

[chollas]

Mine has been doing the same thing since i took it out of the box. Looks like it's going back to walmart today for a refund.

[chollas]

Interesting side note.

I pulled out my drum kit last night to see about the "conductive glue" problem. While i was removing the back panel I had the drums upside down on my lap with the bass pedal chord looped over the battery door and down to the floor. When the chord was near the batteries the green pad was going nuts with phantom hits. When I moved the chord the phantom hits stopped. Also unplugging the bass pedal all togeather stopped the phantom hits.

So I fired up the game and played a few songs with the bass pedal chord looped around the legs of the drum kit (as far away from the battery pack as possible) and wouldnt you know it, no phantom hits.

Thay being said im still returning the SE bundle

[cdnsir]

^^
Very interesting indeed!

I've already started the RMA process, but I will for sure try wrapping the cord around the leg tonight. It would be nice to be able to play cuz who knows how long it'll take for them to send us a non-defective one right?

[jdredd]

my green goes crazy but rest go off once in a while too.. pedal or no pedal, and new batteries.

Also the up arrow will go by itself too..

[PDXtreme]

Oh, yes, this is fantanstic...
Dropped my drums down my steps in the process of transferring my set up (full band and PS3) to my new LCD.

Now the blue pad wont fire AT ALL
Red pad is like, once in 4
I didnt bother with the yellow, nor green

Yeah, totally knocked something lose...I hope I can get this RMAd...

[cdnsir]

I tired the foot pedal cord around the leg stand trick, no dice. But did confirm that if I unplugged the pedal, the phantom hits all stopped! It seems like that is the cause of our problem, but now what can we do to solve it?

[riskbreaker927]

Well, breaking up the glue may be worth a shot. Is there a sticker that lets them know you've opened up the drums? If not, I'll def try it.

Anyway - can you post some pictures of what you did to fix it?

[riskbreaker927]

Don't know if anyone's tried this, but a poster from the Blu-ray.com forums had this work for them.

Seems quite logical to me, but I don't know if you'd want to void your warranty trying it unless one or two RMA's doesn't fix your issue and you get fed up.

Sorry about that, I misread your post and thought you had opened it yourself.

Anyway, if anyone has already given it a shot, or intends to, please take some pictures to document the journey.

I plan to give it a shot later in the week... but only later, what with all these pesky college courses getting in the way.

As for the cord-around-the-leg trick. As an Electrical Engineering major, I can pretty authoritatively say there is no scientific basis for why that would work. So there's something else going on there, or just dumb luck.

[Bobbel20]

Hi all,

I just want to share my experience about trying to fix the random-notes-played-by-the-green-drum-issue by myself.

Right out of the box I had this annoying random pressing of the "confirm button" so to say, so RB2 was klicking itself threw the menu. Soon I noticed that detaching the foot paddle stopped the problem. But why? What I think happens is, that the drums give the signal by closing a contact, but the foot paddle by opening the contact. Which means as long as the foot paddle is attached there is a current on its wire inside the controller main unit.

So I opened the casing lit underneath the drum set and noticed that when I fiddle around with the small wire connecting the foot paddle to the circuit board, the green drum goes off! So I managed to fix mine, just by closing the lit again with making sure that the foot paddle wire is not pressed against or close to the circuit board!

If this is the real cure, or something else happen by opening and closing the drum set lit I can't tell, but my green drum behaves ever since!!!
Of course I can not recommend to do this, if you don't want to loose your warranty on the hardware!!!

Finally I'm very happy with RB2 now, playing the song "Perfekte Welle" all day long!!!:D:D:D

[riskbreaker927]

So I opened up the drums, but I didn't have any luck. Found the globs of glue they were talking about, but it didn't really make a difference. I jiggled with every cord in there but couldn't get anything to stop the intermittent signals. Maybe I missed something, but the long and short of it seems to be there's something not-obvious going wrong with these drums, and unless you are really lucky you should probably just RMA them.

[nonsvch]

I opened up my drums last night and saw the clump of glue holding the bass drum wire to the circuit board talked about above. Removed it, no help. Green pad still goes off every 15 secs or so. I did notice that they routed the bass wire from the jack through the yellow pad casing then across the circuit board to where it connects to the board. I removed the yellow and blue pads, opened up the plate beneath them and rerouted the bass wire through the blue pads casing. That way it doesn't cut across the circuit board or near the battery pack. Helped a lot. Now I only get a green hit every few minutes or longer.. maybe 1 or 2 hits a song at most. So the question now I guess is: How do we stop the interference? Shield the bass wire, the circuit board or the battery pack; and with what? Is electrical tape a good enough insulator?

[Neekap]

You know I haven't had a single problem with my first Rockband I bought. Now here comes this new wireless kit and wouldn't you know the same pad problem all of you guys are having. I did an RMA and apparently there won't be new pads in the factory for another week on top of the week I already made my RMA claim. So 2 weeks no new drums and have to wait about 3 or 4 weeks for them to ship me a new set of pads out. I don't know about you guys but this is some friggin bull****, next week I'm going to buy Guitar Hero World Tour and never looking back on this Rockband crap what a joke!

[ph4rm3r_3d]

I'm also having issues with the green drum pad hitting randomly - its especially bad in the menus!

Anyways, I've tried unplugging the bass pedal and that does nothing. Moving the bass pedal wire inside the box appears to do nothing as well.

Has anyone come up with a solution? I've started the RMA process... who knows how long that will take.

[wuzhennin]

I didn't read the previous posts to this but I noticed that this problem won't be fixed since it's a hardware issue.

I plugged the drums to the pc and used the drum machine and the green pad goes off then..

I also plugged this while playing ghwt and it goes off then too...which means it's hardware problem...

unless someone is willing to void their warranty to make a tutorial for the wiring issue...you're going to have to RMA it...like i did

but theres a back order on these drums at the factory right now and on the other thread it says that they will come this friday
11/7..

hopefully they get a bunch and they ship them all...hopefully

[2ndaryfermentation]

Thought I'd come in here with my experience. First off, thanks to the guys who posted about their potential fixes for the Green Pad Random problem.

I picked up an RB2 Drumset (PS3) on craigslist for 20 bucks. The guy said it was "working fine -- he just didn't need it anymore". I knew to expect something, since 20 bucks is a bit absurd. Got it home and plugged it in, and immediately noticed something was wrong. Went to the Freestyle Drum Trainer and quickly diagnosed it as a possessed Green Pad.

After reading through this entire thread, I decided to open it up and have a look at this supposed Glue problem. I didn't care about the warranty since I wouldn't have a chance to return it anyway, at least not to EA. I figured if I couldn't fix it I'd just call the guy back and see if he'd give me my money -- and if not, oh well, its 20 bucks.

So I immediately noticed the same problem. I should've taken pictures, sorry that I didn't think of that till now. I honestly didn't think it would work. So there was a huge ball of glue directly on top of the Bass input on the board, and also strung along the wire, which was (I assume) inadvertently being held against the black plastic casing with that extra bit of glue.

I removed the extra glue danging on the wire, freeing it from its "touch" against the box. As Bobbel suggested, I made sure it wasn't pressed, glued, or touching anything it shouldn't be. I then removed the massive amount of glue sitting on top of the Bass input. As someone suggested a few pages ago, the glue actually could be a conductor, accidentally holding signals and randomly transmitting it. I closed it back up, put it back on the Freestyle Trainer, and didn't hear a peep until it went to sleep.

I played through a few songs and never heard or saw one accidental random green hit. Problem solved? Give me a tough play session over the weekend and we'll see.

Any questions on the process or what I saw, feel free to PM me.