DJ Hero Cable Crumble

From the Eish! Department Just after Christmas we went to the local Makro to pickup some stuff.

As usual I do a pass in the music and game section to see what bargains can be found.  Low and behold there is a DJ Hero kit for Playstation 3 for only R399.00.

So I grab one (they also had XBox 360 and Wii bundled for the same price) and pay.  I get home and put it on my “Inbox” aka Sleeper Couch to look at when the I have a chance.

Anyway fast forward to Saturday 8 January 2011 and the opportunity arises to play a little DJ Hero.   I carefully take off the plastic off and look at all the goodies.

While taking the receiver part of the bundle I feel like there is oil on my fingers from it. The next thing I see that the plastic rubber of the USB cable is starting to disintegrate in my fingers!  What-The-Frikkadel?

Here you can see the whole receiver and where the protective covering is coming off  (the white area’s).

Here is a close-up of the USB end of the cable.

A quick Google Search and I find one post (but for Guitar/Band/Drum Hero) where other users are complaining of the same thing! Link Here is what they had to say:

Re: Drum Pedal Cable perished!!

by frankieknuckles14 » Fri Dec 10, 2010 5:27 am
got my Drum Kit with GH:WT just over a year ago and its been well looked after and used speradically

Over the past months I used it again but when I was packing it away, I found several ‘sticky’ bits of plastic all over the floor.. After I examined the kit, the source was obvious.. It was from the cable which connects the Pedal to the drums.. The outer sheath had rotted/perished and turned into a sticky mass which was just falling off.

I have worked with electronics equipment for 20+ years and I have never seen anything like this.. Perishing Rubber is a problem, but after 1 year? I have cables all around the house (in the suite ) which are exposed to a huge range of temperatures/conditions and they have not done anything like this in over 6 years.. Where as this cable has been kept at room temperatures and never been cleaned with any kind of chemical…

Activision tell me that “its out of warranty so buy another”.. . But if its happened to me, it MUST have happened to someone else!

Another post said:

by tumbleweeds » Sat Dec 25, 2010 3:29 am
Same situation here. ****? The insulation is coming apart and turning into a tar like substance. Seems to me there’s an obvious defect and Activision should step up and replace this garbage. Their lack of customer support has left a sour taste in my mouth. I’ll never buy another Guitar Hero game or accessory. Guess I’ll switch to Rockband.

And Another:

by angieerickson » Wed Dec 29, 2010 11:00 pm
The same thing happened to me.
I bought a barely used set for the xbox 360 with the game, a guitar, drums, and mic.
I bought the warriors of rock and another guitar, a guitar stand, and pads to help keep the drums in good condition.
I set everything up on Christmas Eve for my son and the drum pedal cord started falling apart. It was fine two weeks before, when I bought it and then it just started crumbling. What’s the deal with that? Hello – can Activision say RECALL!

Eish!  Time to see who imports the DJ Hero into South Africa… Google says Megarom does.

I have fired off an email to both Activision and Megarom to find out what now, as I really do not want to go thru Makro’s painful 6 week repair process…

A friendly guy called me on Monday to say that I could I return it to Makro or they would replace it.  When I asked him if this was a common problem he stated that he “had replaced quite a few of them for that problem” … lets see how long they take to replace it.

Anyone else out there experience this with their DJ Hero?

MadMike posted at 2011-1-11 Category: Eish!, Playstation

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