Huh? (Gaming)

by Dundre, Norway, Wednesday, February 21, 2018, 06:01 (2265 days ago) @ Morpheus
edited by Dundre, Wednesday, February 21, 2018, 06:05

I´ve actually been thinking about the Elite a lot lately. Microsoft hardware has generally been good for me (mice and keyboard and such). If you were an early adopter like me, you may have gotten a bad one because they clearly had not ironed out the kinks in production. My Elite had a lot of issues too. If you have a bad board, then you are pretty much screwed.

Dundres guide to the Elite:

The Rubber problem: I glued the rubber back on, but it came off again.. Then I crafted some padding with a sleeve that I slapped on it, but my kids have started finding my controller in a drawer and keep disassembling everything (not knowing what it is). They leave a trail of parts all over the house, and I have since lost my very custom grips:P

Solution? Gey some official side panels if you can source them. I am considering the side panels Bionik sells, because maybe I can use them on my next controller too when my Elite inevitably stops working entirely.

Really bad Sticks: Four of the exchangeable heads fit snuggly, but two are horribly wobbly. So, I don´t use those two. The early molds of the sticks, I gather, were maybe hit or miss.. Of the two joystick bases (or whatever you want to call them) one did not sit properly on the little plastic pins. I had to open the controller and jam a piece of something in there to be able to snipe properly. I assume it is not a design feature exclusive to the Elite to have this weird uneven joint that made this unnecessary mechanical deadzone. That fix worked. Speaking of deadzone, unless I had a large deadzone in the software, I experienced drift. This was actually the facefront (or the plastic top cover) sort of hugging the joystick a bit too tightly.. I just loosened the screws on that cover just slightly, and it was okay. I don´t like loosening anything that may bring rigidity to the whole construction, but there you go. The springs are more sloppy than when it was new, but the sticks are pretty responsive now. This seems like a wear and tear part, that needs to be replaced at some point. But, it should work out of the box, you know? But, don´t worry. Something else will inevitably and critically collapse before it comes to this!

Pragmatic fix? Buy a new controller.

Connectivity issues: My controller worked fine in this regard for about thirteen months. Incidentally that is the warranty period in my country. It disconnects all the time now.. That can result in input lag, or the really annoying "your controller is disconnected" prompt. It does not like it when my rechargeable batteries are low (less then three bars). Then it freaks out. I think the battery connectors are a bit loose too, but I don´t feel it is safe to do some kind of macgyver fix. The real bummer is that the usb connector actually *also* have bad tolerances. I never used it until it started running unreliably on batteries, so I never noticed before. I have one or two usb cables that kinda works with it (the cable that came with it is not even the best one).

Realistic solution? Read all the support stuff about software, and drivers, resetting and recalibrating your device. Then give up. Wireless is just a lot messier than it use to be. Maybe buy a quality battery pack, with a proprietary connector. Maybe they use the different set of pins. Turn the xbox on before the controller. Hold the battery pack while you turn it on, for good measure, while it syncs. Then, maybe it will only disconnect once every hour. But, this is speculation. At least I can use it on my next controller, when my elite inevitably fails.

Shoulder buttons are stuck or don´t register: This has happened to a few of my friends, but not to me. If your shoulder buttons don´t work, you probably need to change this little plastic piece the sits like a spring on top.

I love my Elite. It is such an amazing heavy beast of a controller. And it has great features.. The ones that are intended. And impressive build quality.. Well, mostly. If it had better parts it would be the best thing ever... Possibly.

Pro tip! After tucking the kids in, consider tidying for ten minutes. Don´t have your better half throw it out in the garden after you have been using it obsessively for two years, because you need to do the dishes. That really doesn't help the situation with the controller. Do your dishes! They should put that on the box.