Joystick Broken, Unresponsive

[gamefan999]

Oh well, here we go. My joystick is extremely unresponsive when pushing left, probably 4 out of 5 pushes to the left go unregistered. I blasted it with the air duster can, which made it about 50% better for about 1 minute, probably.

I tried to disassemble the unit, to swab the joystick base with alchohol, but after the four screws are removed, there's still something holding the unit together at the bottom, so I can't get it apart.

So, two requests: 1) has anyone dealt with this problem (broken joystick) before, and if so, how?
and 2) Does anyone have advice how to open the unit completely?

I'm really not excited about returning the unit over something so small, and my distributor was gp2xz.com, so it would probably be very sticky anyway. I'm looking to resolve this problem by myself, if I can. Thanks for any help.

 

[TelcoLou]

Pull the cap out a bit, stick a tiny TINY bit of paper in the hole if need be. It seems like it's hitting the side of the opening. It happened to me ...

* Pats gamefan999 on the back *

 

[yaustar]

Is the cap hitting the edges of the case when you push left?

 

[jbb]

I had exactly the same issue.

Sent it back to GBAX (lucky I bought it there) and they just replaced the cap of the joystick.
I was very doubtful it would work, as I tried myself to unscrew it, renove it etc...
But suprisingly, it works fine now... or at least much better!
(I don't really like the controller and struggle with it anyhow)

So... change the cap maybe?
Cheers,
JBB

 

[gamefan999]

Thanks to you all for your input. It turns out to actually be the cap after all - I pulled it off, and there was a little deterioration on one edge of the pole-base of the joystick. This indeed allowwed the pad to tilt too far, touching the faceplate and not allowing the motion to be fully registered! So the stuffing of a small bit of paper into the hollow pole of the base will raise the pad a little upward, avoiding this problem. Everyone wwas right at the same time! Thanks again, it was a really annoying and troublesome thing. I hope anyone else who has a similar problem can search this thread and get a quick solution.

 

[nubie]

Thanks to you all for your input. It turns out to actually be the cap after all - I pulled it off, and there was a little deterioration on one edge of the pole-base of the joystick. This indeed allowwed the pad to tilt too far, touching the faceplate and not allowing the motion to be fully registered! So the stuffing of a small bit of paper into the hollow pole of the base will raise the pad a little upward, avoiding this problem. Everyone wwas right at the same time! Thanks again, it was a really annoying and troublesome thing. I hope anyone else who has a similar problem can search this thread and get a quick solution.

As long as we are here we need to clear up some possible misconceptions.

Deterioration?? I think that is just the spot where it is broken out of the plastic mold.

The stick will wear in a bit and then you will notice this problem, it is usually not the stick's OR the cap's fualt.

The motherboard can be shifted at the factory, or it can shift over time. I got it from opening the unit, I found that the pattern I tighten the screws in and pushing the motherboard straight will re-center it.

In any case, you want to properly identify the real problem, although the paper trick is a good stop-gap measure.

I am sure many will want to fix the actual problem, and if you take off the cap, loosen the screws and try to straighten the the board while looking at the stick, and then try different patterns to tighten the screws (not too tight), the board will be straight.

The easy way to tell is by looking at the gap from the rim to cap as you try Left and Right, if there is a big gap on one side you have a shifted motherboard, for a comparison look at the gap difference from UP and Down, it should be equal.

 

[gamefan999]

Well, to follow up, I was looking at it a bit more (actually hadn't put the paper in yet, had just raised the stick physically), was *about* to put the paper in, when a whole 1/3 section of the pole piece sheared off. So this apparently was what was making the pushing not connect, it was yielding at a crack, which finally split in two.

I saved the piece, and I will probably try to superglue it back together. It's funny, I was actually thinking I should reinforce the pole somehow, with some strong but thin packing tape or something. I probably will do that as well.

Fortunately, I had bought a spare stick when I ordered, so I just popped that one on. I'll take care not to push too hard! But you know, what with /joystick push/ as a function as well as all the directionals, that little pole really takes a beating. It really does look like the weakest link in the chain.

(Just my 2c, the brass-colored stem which is actually the joystick, looks very sturdy, and the connection into the motherboard also looks fairly well-made.)

 

[nubie]

Aahh, that makes better sense than what I was saying.

Cool, I am glad you had a spare. I made a few out of PSX and N64 controller caps .