Hardware Joycons malfunctioning? Keeps moving in direction

[Chrisssj2]

So each time I play a game the analogue sticks or d pad (i dont know really) keep moving in my game. Drifting and drifting.
Making my charachter move and menu's pretty much inaccesible.
Then I try to go up and down left and right with the anologue stick till it's gone. Sometimes it takes like 20 or even 30 seconds till the effect is gone. But sometimes it's like 5 secs and it's gone.

Very annoying. This makes playing video games very hard.
Im using the the joycons in handheld mode connected to the switch. So no wireless.

Any idea on what this problem aught to be?

 

[Itsuki235]

That can happen sometimes. Have you tried recalibrating it? That solved the drift issue for me on some third party joycons/controllers.

System Settings -> Controllers and Sensors -> Calibrate Motion Controls -> Calibrate COntrollers

 

[CrazyRach82]

If the above dosnt work then get yourself some wd40 contact spray, it works.

 

[Fernand]

friendly suggestion, change it 7$ in ebay for 2 with the tools, i did it to mine and im golden right now there are lots of tuts on how to do it as long as you're comfortable in doing it and have some time you can do it if not take it to a techie friend that can do it

 

[Rfire]

I had this problem on a BRAND NEW set of Joy-Cons from Amazon. Ridiculous. Instead of paying for shipping to get it repaired by Nintendo I used WD-40 Electrical Contact Cleaner (NOT the regular WD-40, using that will kill your controller, but the 'Specialist' kind labelled for use on electronics/circuitry) and it cleared up.

Buy a can of it, it will last years even if you have to respray it once a month. Lift up the dust cap and spray a little under the rubber cap using the yellow straw on the can - it doesn't take much, then move the stick around to get the solution to move around. It evaporates pretty quickly and is non-conductive so you don't have to worry about shorting it -- but do it while its off out of an abundance of caution if you'd like. Oh and shake the WD-40 canister well before use.

There are other, cheaper brands of electrical contact cleaner as well, but not all of them use solvents that are OK to use on plastic or rubber. The WD-40 branded one uses solvents that do not corrode rubber or plastic or metals.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

If the above dosnt work then get yourself some wd40 contact spray, it works.

Do make sure that you only use WD-40 contact cleaner and not any other WD-40 product as those are not intended for cleaning contacts and will make the problem worse. Really any contact cleaner or electronic cleaning product with a precision spray nozzle can work.
@Chrisssj2 If you get contact cleaner simply lift up the rubber skirts that protect the JoyCon analog sticks from dust and spray it right in there so it gets into the stick a little and move the stick around to spread it.
It's a temporary solution, as what actually happens is the graphite material that is used to sense the stick position wears away over time, then you are left with loose graphite dust inside the stick that causes a false reading and causes it to drift. Spraying contact cleaner into the stick will not really get rid of this, well maybe a little, but it will continue wearing away over time making the problem worse, and eventually the pads may be completely worn away and you no longer get a reading at all. Replacement sticks (likely 3rd party and lesser quality) are only about $2.50 though so once the problem gets bad enough that reapplying some contact cleaner doesn't help anymore you can replace them cheaply.
I have no idea about the quality of those 3rd party sticks, but until Nintendo change their design so this is no longer an issue, I'm not paying way more for first party replacement sticks, and I don't recommend anyone else do that either.

 

[boktor666]

I think in general that these solutions are good. Was about to start a thread for myself, but this has the required info. I wonder why ninty hasn't been able to get this design flaw out of the joycons. It's annoying for sure.

Replacement sticks (likely 3rd party and lesser quality) are only about $2.50 though so once the problem gets bad enough that reapplying some contact cleaner doesn't help anymore you can replace them cheaply.
I have no idea about the quality of those 3rd party sticks, but until Nintendo change their design so this is no longer an issue, I'm not paying way more for first party replacement sticks, and I don't recommend anyone else do that either.

The replacement sticks make me actually wonder about something... Is it possible to, perhaps, take apart the JoyCon and clean the thing on the inside? Like cleaning the stick properly. Or is a stick in this situation just a worn out piece of garbo (like the N64 days)?

 

[Clydefrosch]

I had this problem on a BRAND NEW set of Joy-Cons from Amazon. Ridiculous. Instead of paying for shipping to get it repaired by Nintendo I used WD-40 Electrical Contact Cleaner (NOT the regular WD-40, using that will kill your controller, but the 'Specialist' kind labelled for use on electronics/circuitry) and it cleared up.

Buy a can of it, it will last years even if you have to respray it once a month. Lift up the dust cap and spray a little under the rubber cap using the yellow straw on the can - it doesn't take much, then move the stick around to get the solution to move around. It evaporates pretty quickly and is non-conductive so you don't have to worry about shorting it -- but do it while its off out of an abundance of caution if you'd like. Oh and shake the WD-40 canister well before use.

There are other, cheaper brands of electrical contact cleaner as well, but not all of them use solvents that are OK to use on plastic or rubber. The WD-40 branded one uses solvents that do not corrode rubber or plastic or metals.

why didnt you just return it to amazon?

also, before using WD, I'd always start softly. most of the time, drifting will be gone if you just wipe the dustcap with a slightly moist cotton swab.
if that doesn't help, canned air under the cap.
and then wd 40.

or get a couple of replacement sticks. it'll take about 20 minutes with tools, just be careful with the ribbon cables.

 

[Rfire]

why didnt you just return it to amazon?

also, before using WD, I'd always start softly. most of the time, drifting will be gone if you just wipe the dustcap with a slightly moist cotton swab.
if that doesn't help, canned air under the cap.
and then wd 40.

or get a couple of replacement sticks. it'll take about 20 minutes with tools, just be careful with the ribbon cables.

Because it's a hassle to do since I'm disabled and so dropping it off is an ordeal and here UPS charges to pick it up. Plus there's no guarantee the replacement wouldn't drift out of the box either. Plus this way there's no waiting if I fix it myself.

They hooked me up once though. Because they were so late in shipping my DualShock 4 they refunded the DS 4 and let me keep the controller and gave me an extra month of Prime on top of that. Same day shipping ended up taking a week basically.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I think in general that these solutions are good. Was about to start a thread for myself, but this has the required info. I wonder why ninty hasn't been able to get this design flaw out of the joycons. It's annoying for sure.



The replacement sticks make me actually wonder about something... Is it possible to, perhaps, take apart the JoyCon and clean the thing on the inside? Like cleaning the stick properly. Or is a stick in this situation just a worn out piece of garbo (like the N64 days)?

You can take it apart but it has small parts and can be a bit of a hassle to assemble back together. Not too bad though. Mechanically it's very similar to the N64 sticks, just a lot smaller. Electrically, it uses completely different technology, but somehow it still suffers from similar problems.

 

[Clydefrosch]

Because it's a hassle to do since I'm disabled and so dropping it off is an ordeal and here UPS charges to pick it up. Plus there's no guarantee the replacement wouldn't drift out of the box either. Plus this way there's no waiting if I fix it myself.

They hooked me up once though. Because they were so late in shipping my DualShock 4 they refunded the DS 4 and let me keep the controller and gave me an extra month of Prime on top of that. Same day shipping ended up taking a week basically.

Actually, drifting out of the box is the absolute exception and while I understand that your specific situation might returning something more complicated, I fear that wd will eventually stop working and you're going to have to buy a new one.

You can take it apart but it has small parts and can be a bit of a hassle to assemble back together. Not too bad though. Mechanically it's very similar to the N64 sticks, just a lot smaller. Electrically, it uses completely different technology, but somehow it still suffers from similar problems.

from what i could tell, it's borderline impossible to disassemble that little box of metal and plastic and put it back together seamlessly.

here's a video for those interested (also going into what exactly causes joycon drift in almost all cases)

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Actually, drifting out of the box is the absolute exception and while I understand that your specific situation might returning something more complicated, I fear that wd will eventually stop working and you're going to have to buy a new one.



from what i could tell, it's borderline impossible to disassemble that little box of metal and plastic and put it back together seamlessly.

here's a video for those interested (also going into what exactly causes joycon drift in almost all cases)

I saw that video and it didn't look that bad tbh. He said it reminded him of N64 analog sticks which is exactly what I was thinking but those were simple to (dis)assemble and this is about the same number of small parts as that had, only here they're smaller.