A Fix For Unresponsive Xbox Wireless Headsets
It was a cold Sunday afternoon when my son, with a rather sheepish look, told me that his Microsoft wireless headset had stopped working. He was adamant that it wasn’t anything he’d done – yeah, right! If you’re a gamer, then you’ll know how important your headset is – a key piece of equipment in your gaming hardware arsenal. When it isn’t working, you are at a major disadvantage having lost realtime comms with your team and the stereo audio that just isn’t the same through TV speakers.
Anyway, I digress, a couple of minutes after telling me that it was nothing he’d done, he told me that he’d been charging the headset, pressed the power button as he was pulling out the cable, the light flashed and wouldn’t turn on again – no lights, no sound, no nothing. He’d been charging it for a good while via cable from his Xbox following this but there was no charging light and it still wouldn’t turn on. I plugged it into a mains USB C cable as sometimes a little boost of power can kick hardware into action if it’s the battery that has completely drained, nothing happened.
I thought about the obvious – is it a loose connection? has the power button broke? I couldn’t see anything externally that would suggest anything was broke and the power button was still clicking which indicated the microswitch was still connecting to the button and ok. It’s a little over a week until Christmas and a ~£100 headset replacement is the last thing I need. Being a keen tinkerer though, I was sure I could fix it somehow having already fixed a broke mic joint on it once before, an almost invisible fix, if I do say so myself.
After having a look on the internet, I managed to find a reset method which was certainly worth a try before taking the whole thing apart to check for loose wires and broken switches, but I was sure if it was a simple reset then there should have been at least some life there – the LED wouldn’t even flash to indicate charging or the slightest bit of power. To my surprise and I’m sure my sons, this method actually got the headset working and likely saved the cost of a new headset as we were both sure it was kaput.
If you find yourself with a Microsoft wireless headset that won’t turn on, doesn’t light up when charging and just seems totally dead, then try these steps to reset it, you may just be able to bring it back to life.
Steps To Fix (Hopefully)
- 1. Power up your Xbox.
- 2. Plug your USB C charging cable into your Xbox wireless headset, not into the console.
- 3. Hold down the Power and Mute buttons on the headset, keep them held down and plug the charging cable into the powered on Xbox.
- 4. Do not release the buttons until you hear a sound come from the headset and the lights flash.
- 5. You should hear the usual power sound and the headset should be reset and work as normal.
- 6. As the headset has rest, you will likely need to resync with your console.
With any luck the steps outlined above will have fixed your headset issue, if they didn’t then it may be time for a new headset.