3DS analog stick non-hardware stuck??

[placebo_yue]

Lately, every time i turn on my 3DS the cursor on the home menu is stuck going up or down. It's fixed by moving the analog a little.
that's not much of an issue. But today, while i was playing pokemon gold on gameyob-DS (the specifics probably don't matter, do they?) the character would get stuck going down, or up, after i moved the analog either way. Again this used to be fixed by touching the analog again, but today i got 100% stuck.
When i exited and went back to the home menu, things seemed ok again. But when i tried gameyob again, i couldn't even open the game as the analog would make me scroll nonstop among the menu elements.

What could be causing this issue? i don't think it's hardware since it comes and goes depending on the moment (boot, gameyob)
Any ideas? please help, as it is i can't play much and i can't afford ditching this one and getting a new one at the moment. I'm willing to put some effort into debugging this issue instead, if anyone points me in some direction

 

[placebo_yue]

update: apparently the drift was always there, it just wasn't noticeable sometimes. After some heavy blowing and re-calibrating it's working decently again. Hope i don't have to replace it because i might as well buy a new one if that's the case

 

[ghjfdtg]

It's 100% a hardware issue. The Circle-Pad is relatively easy to replace and replacement parts are available cheaply. Give it a try.