XBoxing

Last night I discovered what a pain an xbox is to set up.

Maybe I'm getting soft and expect too much to just work. Maybe I was just unlucky. Maybe I should just stop whingeing and play some games.

OK, first I must admit that I did not read the instructions. I just plugged in cables where they fitted and then switched it on. That worked fine.

What came next proved more difficult.
I squeezed some batteries into the controller and pressed random buttons until something lit up. I then tried to sync the controller with the console.
I found the sync buttons pretty easier (if in doubt, look for small, unlabelled and out of the way buttons for syncing things), but I could not get the controller to sync with the console. I pressed the contoller sync and the light started flashing, so I pressed the console sync and the light started flashing. Eventually they stopped, but there was no connection. I tried in the other order. Same thing. I tried pressing both together. I tried holding one down while pressing the other. At this point I decided to read the manual.

The manual stated they should already be sync'ed (but mine was second hand) I eventually found the right page. It explained what I had already done. I tried again. It still didn't work. I kept trying. On the 4th attempt, the flashing stopped after a shorter amount of time and things moved on the screen when I waggled by stick.

I hadn't even started on the internet connection and half the evening had gone. Still the wired connection to the internet worked (although it seem rather slow to connect, hopefully this is just a first time usage issue) I don't plan on buying a wifi card for it as it costs more than a more generic (and useful) wifi-ethernet bridge.

Anyway, everything seems to be up and running now. All I need now are some games.

And a live gold account to play online.

And, apparently, some microsoft points.

And the wifi-ethernet bridge, of course.