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Controller S Gone Bad


HDShadow
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This is new to me - I had a Controller S go properly bad yesterday.

It was one of those which had developed stick centering issues but I'd thought I'd fixed that using some plastic friendly lubrication. At the same time I also replaced the sticks as the thumb-pads were badly worn.

The controller worked perfectly for six weeks after that but I had suspicion things were not quite right a few days ago when the Xbox booted and it would start scrolling through the main dash menu on its own again. Re-centering problems returning you'd  think and that appeared to be the case because if I rolled the sticks 360 degrees a few times and then rebooted all started behaving normally again.

But last night something else went wrong: the attached memory card was continuously being reported as corrupt (its not) and the main dash menus were not auto scrolling up or down as they had before, they were actually stuck. You could move the menu down using the d-pad but selecting a particular menu item was very difficult. It would shift up one and then just wouldn't launch.

Removing the controller and rebooting appeared to fix the problem but shortly after I started a game I discovered the left trigger was not working and some other buttons too. Rebooted again, tried a different game - all good initially but the same faulty behaviour soon reappeared.

Using another controller quickly confirmed this was a specific controller issue not a controller port or Xbox console one.

Anyone else had a Controller S go bad like this?

 

 

Edited by HDShadow
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It sounds like a bad solder joint on the board or possibly a hairline fracture on the board.

You could try resoldering the board and see how it goes.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.
 

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Thanks. I'll take it apart again and have a look.

Its playing beat-em ups that do the damage - I worn out the button contact pads of probably 10 PS/PS2 Dualshocks over the years playing Tekken 3. It always seemed to be when playing that the controller started having problems.

I've done a lot of DOA2 Ultimate and DOA3 recently and I wouldn't be surprised if the button bashing that involves has been the cause of this problem too. 

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Update - took it apart and discovered two things.

Some how the rubberised contact pad under the d-pad had moved slightly. Its not secured in place there are two attachment holes roughly top and bottom which locate over casing pins to keep it in the right position. The top one had come off the pin so that the pad had skewed very slightly out of place meaning the Up and Right d-pad contacts points on the PCB were out of line with the contact pad and so didn't work. Down and Left still worked fine.

I guess this might have happened during some heavy handed DOA3 play but still a bit weird.

The other thing was that I did find a cracked solder point. Just to the right of the left joystick mount on the top side of the controller's PCB are three solder points arranged in line next to the memory card port housing. The bottom one of those points had a typical roughly circular crack in the solder around the pin. I've see the same thing in TVs and the front LED array of the Xbox, where the solder has dried and cracked like that under stress.

Reflowed the solder and added a bit more, put the controller back together and tested it pretty thoroughly and all the problems appear fixed. Yay!   

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That's good you here you have it sorted, dry solder joints can occur in any electronics and sometimes they are that fine that to the naked eye you can not see it.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

 

 

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With my eyesight I have to use a pretty strong magnifying glass when looking for problems and soldering. I use a x8 photographer's Lupe for checking stuff like this. Half the problems I have with soldering Xbox stuff are due to needing a high magnification aid.

'Helping hands'  is useful but I need more magnification than it provides so have found some old telescope lens elements which when placed on top do the job OK. But because of the high mag' it needs to be pretty close to the board so often gets in the way. I really need some other solution.

I was wondering what other people here use, assuming that I'm not alone in needing such visual aids.  

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I just picked this up from Amazon 2 weeks ago for my first tsop and it's great ,and I'm able to keep it about 8-12 inches from the working surface. I myself upgraded from a 20 yr old set of helping hands with scratched lens and its night and day comparatively 

Dylviw Bright Light Desk Gooseneck Magnifier Lamp with Metal Large Clamp, Magnifying Glass with Adjustable Light 

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Interesting - I've been skimming through Amazon UK for similar products and there are plenty there including other 'helping hands' types with illumination and higher than the x3 mag than the one I use.

The thing I'd want as an improvement over the one I have is not just higher magnifier and lighting, it must have longer reach. Those with long flexible necks and sufficiently counter-weighted or well clamped are just the job. It could get above all parts of the PCB you're working on without having to move the whole thing or, what I do: jury rigging a very dodgy G-clamped system involving a heavy paperweight, a wooden batten and gaffer tape.  

Problem with these requirements is that puts it at the expensive end of the ' helping hands' spectrum. I found one that fitted those criteria perfectly but the price: £80/$100+!!!! Too rich for my pocket.               

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Board startup date: April 23, 2017 12:45:48
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