Product Description: The P3000 Wireless Pad and Docking Station gives you more freedom of movement, without costing you more money in batteries! Includes 2 rechargeable NiMh battery packs and Smart Technology for programming buttons
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Great idea with serious flaws
Saitek has a very good idea, overall. Unfortunately, there are some serious flaws with the gamepad. Wireless distance is one; I don't believe I ever experienced half of the 30 foot range they advertise. This isn't a big deal unless you're intending to sit across the room from the PC (as in a gaming system hooked up to a TV).
The issue that ends the usefulness of this gamepad, however, is battery life. If it does use NiMH batteries, then there is either a problem with "quick charging" it constantly, as the base does, or a flaw in the construction. It simply stopped holding a charge after a month or two of use; both batteries would trigger a light in the base, yet neither worked in the gamepad, no matter how long I let them charge.
Rating: - love it
i was amazed to see that this has such a bad rep. ive used mine for about a year now with no problems at all. i mean none. but at least now i know what to do if my battery starts acting up. i did also have the thing where characters ran in a circle, but only after starting a game with the pad asleep. not a problem at all. take both thumb sticks and circle them full around a few times fast and the pad wakes back up and recenters. also as someone already said, the programing software for this thing is awesome. you can do most anything on your comp with this. even use it as a remote to open specific apps that have shotcuts mapped to them and then use the sticks as a mouse. i use it in conjunction with my media center remote and surf from the couch.
i had a great experience with this product.
hmmm... sucks to be you. hahaha
Rating: - The batteries WILL break. Here is the solution
Saitek made an interesting battery operated wireless game pad. I like how one charges while the other one is being used so that you always have power. The problem is that the batteries can get loose inside the battery holder or that they have a problem with being overcharged. If your batteries stop working, you can get a free replacement from saitek but while you are waiting, you should just open the battery holder. Stick a small flat head screw driver into the front part of the battery. (The part that has three metal parts)Stick the screw driver on the upper left and upper right part of the battery. ( Where it curves) Open up the battery. Inside are two smaller batteries that look like short AA batteries. You can go to a dollar store and get 12V alkaline replacements or if you are not lucky, a more expensive store like radio shack. Now you can get back to playing games! If you don't want to go through all this, just don't buy this gamepad.
Rating: - Saitek P3000 Wireless Game Pad
In the box this thing comes with your standard paperwork, a CD with the drivers, the usb "docking station" that charges the batteries and receives the rf signal, the controller and two rechargeable batteries. Out of the box one of these batteries didn't work at all. Plugging it into the charger would not turn on the charging light and plugging it into the controlled would not power it. The other battery seemed to work fine and for a time (about 4 days) this controller did its job very well. After a couple of charges, however, the second battery went the way of the first.
I have called their tech support and they should be sending me new batteries shortly. Assuming that this solves my problem I have no other complaints about this controller. It plays my emulated console games rather well will full analog functionality (when it had power that is). If I hadn't had this battery problem this pad would have got 4 or 5 stars.
Rating: - Shoulda read the reviews
I got two of these as a gift and right out of the box I had problems with them.
I've owned 2 P880's (the corded versions of this controller) for over 2 years now and they are great, the included software for Saitek controllers is brilliant as well. The controllers are well designed and fit comfortably in my hands, they're like the perfect balance of Playstation and XBox size. The only downside is that they only have 1 shoulder button instead of 2, but you get used to that.
So why not go wireless?
Well the only reason I wouldn't recommend these is that the batteries are very poorly designed. Saitek has even recocgnized this on their site and will ship you a free pair of batteries. I got mine a couple weeks ago.
However that still wont solve the problem and like most reviewrs I've tried and tried to get these pads to work with little to no avail.
The individual battery packs actually contain 2 batteries inside; one for the wireless connection and one for the controller display.
The problem is that if one baterry is full when the other is not the charger will not continue to charge the drained battery. so while you may get a display on the controller, you wont get a connection to the PC or vis versa.
There is no easy solution to this problem either. The user must find a way to drain the batteries without damaging the battery pack and hope that they stay in sync after that (which is very unlikely).
If you really like Saitek (like me) I'd wait for a newer model of wireless controllers. Till then stick with the cords or go with a different brand.
As of this date Saitek has seemingly started to release newer versions of their game pads so hopefully there's a more functional version out there soon if its not out already.
Be warned that the 2.4GHz version of this pad is prone to the same problems.
- Great idea with serious flaws
- love it
- The batteries WILL break. Here is the solution
