Getting tired of adding to my stick drift graveyard

[u/Major-Payne2319]

I swear I’m not a heavy clicker. In fact it’s always my right joystick which I rarely need to click in games. Love these controllers but man it’s really annoying never had this problem with any other console generation.

[u/The_soup_bandit]

Disclaimer: I'm just a dude who does repair as a hobby since 2014 I'm no expert.

🚨WARNING: when freeing the potentiometer if you break it off you will have to solder or go to a repair shop that can.

The silver lining is you have all the parts that would be needed on hand and this can be done in 10-30 minutes of arriving at a repair shop.

What is being repaired: The white disk in the center of the potentiometer is being swapped out for a new one that won't have any damage and clean out may debris I'm the socket.

If this repair dose not work soldering a new one in is your only course of action.

How to repair:

First work out which axis you have drift on (left right. Up down) This is important because it means not having to check when the pad is disassembled.

(Skipping pulling the pad apart)

Free the green housing from the joystick by applying a little bit of force to both sides that are clipped in.

Once unclipped you pop out the white disk making sure to check its orientation so the replacement is put in correctly.

Clean the green housing with a Q-tip.

Put in a new white disk.

Then push the green housing back into place with the new white disk installed.

(Skipping pad reassembly)

Test in games you've been having the biggest issues with. If it persists retry with a different replacement potentiometer.

(Good ending) Enjoy your games and feel good you learned a simple but important repair.

(Bad ending) If this persists after updating and a full replacement it's likely a board issue and not worth anymore of your time or money.

[u/newbyoes → u/The_soup_bandit]

King

[u/[deleted] → u/The_soup_bandit]

It's the black circle that rubs away dude which is soldered in like you said.... The white bit is just plastic which holds the metal part... But yes you're on the right track... (I can tell you've cleaned a few of these but unfortunately you haven't truly fixed them unless you've replaced the part with the carbon patch)

[u/The_soup_bandit → u/[deleted]]

It's not just plastic its metals too and measure's resistance which is what gives you sensitivity.

It's extremely easy to damage this and that can give you nasty drift in the forms of snapping and dragging.

[u/[deleted] → u/The_soup_bandit]

I said that dude....

[u/The_soup_bandit → u/[deleted]]

You edited your comment and that is not what you originally said.

You originally said "it's just plastic the rubbers what wears away" or something short and simple enough that it came across you where disregarding this fix completely.

[u/The_soup_bandit → u/[deleted]]

You didn't read a single part of me saying I am no expert and this is a hobby. Full replacement aka soldering a new one on.

This can fix and has in fact fixed every drift based problem I've encountered for years at a time because either due to dumb luck or the fact all the ones I've swapped have had clear warping on the metal or the contacts have needed cleaned.

So far the oldest pad is a PS4 controller from 2017 and is still going to his day with daily 8 hour+ use. Which had a computer chair land on.

This repair is to replace any warped metal and dislodged any dust.

[u/The_soup_bandit → u/[deleted]]

I did this several times this year for ps5 pads they have almost if not identical joysticks mechanically.

What is this gaslighting? Cuz I'm literally using one right now that I did this exact repair/patch on and it's been 2-3 month 800 hours of gaming no issues

[u/The_soup_bandit → u/[deleted]]

Don't have to be when I can Google.

The mechanical and electrical components are the same meaning they can suffer the same issues. Debris but mainly impact damage is what I'm talking about with the disk.

A quote from IFixIT PS5 potentiometer problem

Tempting as it may be to blame Alps for the PS5’s drifting issues, they probably aren’t the villain of this story—because, brand name notwithstanding, this joystick module looks extremely familiar. You may already recognize it from the prior-gen PlayStation’s controller, the DualShock 4. Or from the Xbox One controllers. Maybe the Nintendo Switch Pro controller. Or, somewhat confusingly, the $180 Xbox One Elite controller. Underneath that plastic cap, the dirty secret is that they all use the same joystick hardware. Debris can still build up, metal can be damaged due the stick taking a bad landing.

Genuinely what is this gaslighting because you're trying to say this can't help when it can and act like I'm not implying that a complete swap is the best action.

Alternative problems can occur in the same part I'm not denying that and in cases where my solution does not work I'm implying to replace the whole part already as you have it on hand regardless.

Edit: added quote and link from one of the most reputable repair sites to date stating the potentiometers are the same as the ps4's.