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Let's Talk About Analog Drift


jackmadrox

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In the last 3 years, I've bought at least 4 or 5 PS4 controllers. Why? As the title mentions, analog drift. This never really was a problem until just a few years ago. These were not third party controllers, all of them were official sony playstation products. These controllers run 65 bucks a pop... I personally can't afford to keep buying a new controller at this rate and shouldn't have to. There's no reason why these controllers should be getting analog drift within the first 2 months that you own it. Is anyone else having experiences like this with their controllers as well?  

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Actually this has been happening to me as well although for me it’s only until recently. The first controller I got a few years ago got analog drift after 2 years and the last one I got just around half a year ago got drift just after a month. Not sure if there is some way to prevent this but yeah it’s annoying. 

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What games are you playing?

 

It's odd that some people suffer from drift all the time whereas others like myself have never had a problem. An issue I have often though is that the left analogue stick will get stuck in the up position, which is because of the all the time I am moving forward in many different games.

 

I can only suggest being a bit more gentle with your sticks.

 

 

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I had one controller for a few years and it worked just fine, then in the summer of 2018 I started playing Trials Fusion and by the fall that year I played it extensively - this game is quite hard on the left stick and requires a lot of abrupt movements - and unfortunately problems with analog drift soon followed. I now have two controllers with left analog drift and one with the right trigger only going to 80 percent of its max pressure. The funny thing is that right now I can buy a PS5 controller for less (on a sale, but these pop up regularly) than what a DS4 costs.

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I had a really odd case of this when I got my controller with my PS4. The right stick would analog drift for short periods but then be fine for a while. It happened now and then so I stuck with my controller and just switched it off briefly when the issues arose and it tended to sort it out.

 

However, after doing the Shenmue 3 catch a 1000 fish trophy which requires you to rotate the right stick a stupid amount of times, I've barely had the problem since then. You'd think it would make the problem worse rather than sort it out, very bizarre. 

Edited by Glorious Fury
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I've been lucky in not having noticeable drifting issues, outside of the Switch but that doesn't count, since the N64 days. Plenty of completely unresponsive controllers, though. Total the buttons do nothing situations.

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I haven't had issues with PS4 controllers so far but my PS Vita got a stick drift within 8 months of purchase and my second Switch I use only in handheld mode got a drift 10 months from purchase. Now I've noticed our launch Switch's other Joy-Con has a drift 4 years from purchase and we mainly just use those Joy-Cons for Fitness Boxing so the sticks don't even get much use. >_> 

 

Aside from Vita and Switch drifts, the only issues I've ever had with game controllers was my PS2 controllers just dying without a reason. Same happened to my friend's PS2 controllers around the same time so we suspected they had killswitches installed at the factory. 

 

Funny how it's impossible to make sticks that would be durable enough for normal use these days, yet controllers from up to 20-30 years back still work just fine... I'd guess the stick manufacturers purposely use poor quality materials to sell more components. Of course the controllers have more technology these days but it's no excuse to sell consumers crap. 

 

Btw, if your broken controllers are still under warranty, send them back to the manufacturer for repair or exchange. Where I live it's possible to return a faulty product to the retailer and they will handle the whole process for you with no extra costs for the consumer. Got my Switch Joy-Cons sent in for servicing and back in under a week.

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The original controller I got with my PS4 still works perfectly fine, but the dreaded controller drift affected 2 out of the 3 extra controllers I've bought so far. Still up in the air if the latest one I've bought will develop it too.

 

When the second one started getting bad drift, I got so fed up, I bought an exact copy of the controller, put the broken one in the box, and returned it for a refund.

 

I almost feel guilty, but for the price these things are, they should last longer than a year. I still have my original NES and Genesis and I was rougher with those as a kid then I am now with my stuff.

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