Gamepads all develop phantom movement.

[Tschrom]

As the title suggests, I'm having some trouble with my gamepads developing phantom movements over time.

At first, through a little google search, I thought it was just xbox gamepads that had the problem because that's all I ever see results for, and that's all I ever had before. Now, however, I'm beginning to think this is an issue that windows presents over time.

Here's the thiing, every previous xbox 360 gamepad I've had, has worked fine for anywhere from a month to 3 months before the right analog stick starts developing phantom movement, even when I'm not touching the gamepad. Took the gamepad apart and cleaned it, uninstalled and reinstalled the gamepad, tried calibrating, nothing fixed it. I figured "All right, I'll try a different gamepad".

So I tried a generic gamepad, and again, over a couple months, the gamepad suddenly developed phantom movement in the right analog stick. I think, "Ok, well it was a cheap generic, let's try something else."

So I try a PS4 gamepad, with and without DS4 Windows, and lo and behold, the PS4 controller has developed a phantom movement in the right analog stick after a month or two. Which is what leads me to believe this has something to do with Windows' stupid ass.

Has anyone had this issue? Been able to determine the cause? Been able to remediate the cause? Any help, as always, is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[boju]

Sounds like thumb stick drift, after wear starts to leave the dead zone.

Happened to me on my ps3 controller using motion joy playing sonic on win7. Sonic would randomly turn during important moments and stuffed me up. Very annoying. Was using dpad for movement though and the stick would interfere.

Not sure about xbox or ps4, the ps3 thumb sticks can be pressed in and out. I suppose to allow for different hand sizes. I fixed my phantom stick movement by having the stick in the highest position.

I don't think it's software. I'd say that stick gets used a lot? Try hold one of dpad buttons for a good minute and also try vigorously move the stick in circles to refresh the contacts.

Grime in the inner plastic where the stick ball sits can cause this too from sweat over time.