*not sure where to put this so move to appropriate section if necessary*
Wednesday last week, after reaching home from a boring day of work i decided to plug in my Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows and take up a rounds of FIFA. Upon plugging it in, i realized the light wasn't coming on and no sound from the pc to notify that my device is connected. I tried it on my laptop, same thing, i tried different usb ports, same thing there. Thinking is was a break in the wire, i played with the cord hoping to hear a sound from windows or see the light come on.... SALT!! Defeat settled in and to amazon i went adding one to cart...
Finally today, persistence stepped in and google-fu laid down the spin kick on Microsoft a$$. Found that the problem was internal, a fuse blowing rendering the device useless. Instructions in this blog
Broken XBox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows, showed me exactly what to do, but i had no soldering iron, so i followed instruction from commenter that used foil paper and electrical tape. The bloody thing worked like a charm, and my device works as new. I'm not sure how long this will last but it saved me 40USD. I'm just posting this info for anyone that has, had or probably will have this problem with their device. Long live Google, Long live the Innanets.