I Bought 25 BROKEN Xbox Elite Controllers - Let's Fix Them!

thank you to ifixit for sponsoring this video i paid 1750 for 25 xbox elite controllers now it's time to diagnose them and figure out what's wrong and see if i can fix them but first of all i'd like to thank ifixit for providing tools and parts to me as well as sponsoring these videos they've been enabling my bad purchases for months now and they've been providing you with coupon codes so you can get discounts on all your tools and supplies if you want to get your discount of ten dollars off fifty dollars or more go to ifixit.com tronixfix now let's get these controllers diagnosed so i'm gonna test each one of these controllers so i know exactly what's wrong with them and also i know what parts to buy and what all needs to be fixed let's take a look at the first controller okay and this one actually has all of the accessories which is great and first thing i notice is this is very obviously broken off right here so we got one of the shoulder buttons that's broken but there could be other things wrong as well so i'm gonna give this a test see what all's wrong okay and after testing with the gamepad tester i can confirm that this is the only part that needs to replace on this first controller so now i'm going to go through and do that process for all the rest of the controllers and then i'll come back and let you know what i find and what all we need to fix do so i am now halfway done testing and diagnosing them and i can say this is gonna be a big job most of them have at least two issues some of them have three and that's just out of the things i've tested i haven't tested the buttons on the very bottom as i want to get all of the main buttons tested and repaired first one of the problems i knew i was going to have with these controllers is that parts are hard to find and actually extremely expensive so unfortunately these are not something that i'm going to be trying to make money on i knew that going into it but i still love the idea of fixing these anyways and keeping them from going right into the landfill and just like that all 25 of them had been tested and diagnosed there was only two that i didn't find any problems at all the rest had almost all of them had multiple problems so now it's time to get started on the repairs and let's start with number one so it turns out i don't actually have any of the shoulder buttons in stock right now so i am going to have to buy some of those i've got them ordered from amazon i'll leave a link down in the description below if you need to buy them but i'm going to skip any of the ones that need the lb or rb buttons and do all the rest that don't need those number four we've got a rumble motor this week the analog stick is not registering when pressing down on the left stick going to be using a t9 bit to remove these screws and i don't see any problems at all so far this is the analog stick that's given us a problem as well as this rumble motor next i'm going to remove this smaller board so i can inspect this other and this screw size is a t6 now we can pull this up okay i actually don't see any issues at all let me zoom in here for you so it's this analog stick this button is not registering when i press it and then also this rumble motor here so when i press this button we can test this rumble motor and you can see it just doesn't go that fast especially when we compare it to the other side you can see that that goes way faster so i've got an extra rumble motor here i'm going to try and replace this rumble motor with this known good working rumble motor just to see if it is the motor itself i don't think it is but it's worth a try just to see if that fixes it now i'll press this button again and see if this motor works any better and now it works basically exactly the same i'm actually going to use number five this one has a left analog stick problem the rb button is broken and this one the right vibrator motor is weak so this should be an interesting test i'm going to take the board out of this xbox one elite and put it into number four and see what changes so this board is from a different controller that has the right rumble motor not working properly so let's check the left one and see how it works on this controller and here we go still slow this is controller number six i had to take yet another controller apart because the rumble motor in number five actually went about the same speed as number four but i think i have it figured out what's going on so watch the rumble motor in number six when i press this button you can see about the speed it goes but also notice another thing this vibrator motor inside the button also works very well you should be able to hear that through the microphone now let me hook up number four now remember number four what i wrote down on the paper was the rumble motor was weak so let's check the rumble motor on number four and you can see that it spins about the same speed as number six but the one thing that number four does not do is this little vibrator motor up here does not spin at all you should be able to hear that there is no vibration coming from this motor when i took apart number five to use parts off of i noticed that number five also had a rumble motor that went about the same speed as number four so that's why i had to take apart number six and i think the problem is actually this little vibrator motor it just tricked me when i was testing it i didn't feel the vibration from this and that kind of tricked my mind into thinking that this rumble motor itself wasn't spinning like it should so now i'm going to replace this motor here then we'll get to the analog stick issue and then we'll test it all and see if we got it figured out so what i'm going to do is actually connect the vibrator motor from this controller and connect it to this board to see if that makes the vibrator motor work on this controller and if it does then that confirms that it is something either in this wire or the actual vibrator motor itself [Music] so now when i touch this magnet to this component right here this vibrator motor should spin let's see if it does and it does so that tells me most likely this vibrator motor is faulty so i'm going to get that replaced then we'll move on to repairing the rest of this controller [Music] plugged in let's check it out there we go so this vibrator motor some oh and i already found the problem so if i would have been looking closer i would have found that this vibrator motor just has a broken wire and that's the only problem with this one so i'm going to keep this one around so i can use it for parts if needed but it just goes to show if you pay attention sometimes you can save yourself a lot of trouble so this button right here presses down completely normally you can see the button pushing but unfortunately it doesn't register and when i put a different board into this controller it registers just fine that tells me that this analog stick needs to be replaced unfortunately there's not really a great way to clean this type of button and i can't just replace the button itself because it's so integrated into this analog stick so i just have to replace the whole analog stick so i'm going to do that next now i'm going to heat all these solder joints up at once with my hot air station to let this old analog stick drop out the bottom there's several ways you can install the new stick one of them is to just keep all the solder joints liquid and then push up the new analog stick through the holes one of the difficult things about that is that all of this solder has to be liquid all at the same time and all of these little pins have to line up with the holes in the motherboard now if you watch my ps4 controller repair video you watch me just push this up through the holes and that can work fine if you if you get some practice and get good at it i'm going to show you another way to do it where i keep the solder melted one hole at a time and use a solder sucker to clear out the hole and then i will push up this analog stick through the holes and then manually solder each joint these just help keep my hands protected a little bit from the heat [Music] [Music] now i can make sure this analog stick is lined up correctly i'm going to push these all the pins up through the holes it looks like i still got a little bit of solder right down there in that joint and that's causing it to not come up and now all the solder is cleared out of all the holes and i can push this new analog stick up through the holes i do want to make sure that it is aligned nice and flat on the board which this one is so now i can solder all the joints on the bottom of the board and there we go how's the look all of these little joints are all soldered on correctly nice and shiny i did fix this joint i don't see any other problems here so i think now it's time to get it back in the controller and give it a test all right i've got this together enough to test so i'm gonna plug it in see if everything works how it should okay and each time i press them these light up and they also don't drift and all the other functions work fine on this controller so our first fix controller number four is totally fixed i've got to get it all back together then i do need to test the buttons on the underside of it but we have our first repaired xbox one elite controller only 24 more i showed pretty in depth how to disassemble it quite a few of the fixes and how to reassemble at least most of it so i'm not going to show those same fixes or assembling it in the rest of the controllers but i will show how to fix all the new issues and the rest of the 24 xbox elite controllers number seven has an x button that's squishy so i'm gonna get it all taken apart and see what's going on with the x button okay the button pad itself looks good there are no tears anywhere and it is nice and springy so i don't think the problem is there and there's the problem so we got some sticky stuff on the x button so i'll need to clean this button off and then clean off the inside where the button slides through and then this controller will be fixed controller number seven is now done all the buttons have a nice springy feel like they should so now let's move on to the next controller so number 11 has a right analog stick that drifts up one of the things we might be able to do with this one is just clean it so i'm going to show you guys how to do that next and we'll see if it actually works so i'm going to get this one taken apart and now we can look at the analog stick if you watch this part when i move the analog stick you'll see that it moves just like that that's because inside this piece there is what's called a potentiometer and that little potentiometer inside there can get dirty and gunked up and sometimes just worn out so what i'm going to do is remove a clip over here and remove a clip over here and slide this potentiometer piece out so we can get a look in there clean it all up and then do the same on this side right here now with that piece pried off i can remove this piece just like that so this shows the inside piece of the potentiometer there's a little indents right here that contact the inside rings on this part of the analog stick down here so i need to clean all those up and i need to clean these rings up on this part and this part then we'll put it back together and see if that actually fixes it now i'm going to use a cleaning swab that doesn't have any pieces like a cotton one would just to make sure that none of the pieces get stuck inside this ring now with this cleaned off and the rings inside the analog stick cleaned off i can put this one back together and then clean this side okay now both of those potentiometers have been cleaned let's get it hooked up to my computer and see if that fixed it and unfortunately it did not fix this issue so sometimes that's a method that can work but unfortunately in this case it did not so i'll be replacing that joystick along with this other joystick as well as they both show that they are faulty so i'm gonna get that done off camera let's move on to the next controller before we move on to the next controller i did want to show you why sometimes cleaning these analog sticks just doesn't work if you look closely you can see right here these marks on this black track that's where these little pieces of metal ride and that's how the analog stick registers which way you want your character to go you'll also notice these marks right here and right here that corresponds with this metal piece and that metal piece so looking at these marks on the black tracks you can just see how the black part is just worn down there's there's pretty deep grooves on here and right on here and that's right where these metal pieces ride so unfortunately there's just not enough good contact there for the analog stick to register which way you want your character to go so that's why sometimes cleaning these just doesn't work so i was going to replace both the sticks in number 11 but given that there's a lot of good parts on number 11 i'm also going to use that as a parts controller so i can use things like these lb and rb buttons on a different controller so number 11 is also going to be used for parts let's move on to number 12. for number 12 the lb button sticks let's just verify that real quick yep there's no clicking sound you can see the rb clicks fine and moves fine the lb is stuck so i'm going to take it apart so we can take a look and see if it is a problem with this part or the button itself and i do want to know if you don't want to use your fingernails to get in there that can be pretty hard on your fingers so if you don't want to do that you can get a plastic pry tool and just pry right at this corner there is a little piece of plastic right here that can definitely cause that problem so let's fix that right now now let's try it and there we go fixed number 14 only has cosmetic problems it's got bad grips luckily we have two controllers that we're using for parts so i'm going to use one of the grips off of those to repair number 14. uh much better now that 14's done let's move on to number 15. number 15 the left analog stick and lb button you already know what we're gonna do with that just going to save that one for later number 16 has a bad lb button now that i think of it i'm going to use one of the parts off of one of my parts controllers and just replace the lb button and then test to make sure that the buttons are working correctly green button is installed and these clips are on the back of the charge port everything looks good charge ports aligned now this one's done i can put it back together and move on to number 17. so for number 17 the left analog stick drifts i'm going to try just replacing the potentiometer itself which only requires three solder joints to be removed and then soldered back on so let's try that and see if we can get this one working without replacing the entire analog stick so i did just mark right here to make sure i didn't get confused which one i needed to replace so i'm going to flip this over and remove the solder on the three joints that hold it on then slip a new one in and solder it down now we have most of the solder out of the joints i'm going to wiggle this around and should be able to get it pulled out and there we go so that is the faulty potentiometer now i'm going to put a new one in get it soldered in and then we'll test it and see if that fixes it now also if you look right down here you can see there's some sticky gunk right on this pin where the potentiometer goes through and also sticky gunk along right where the potentiometer rests and if you look inside the potentiometer itself you can see the gunk buildup right on that inner ring so i need to clean that off [Music] and here is the new one so i need to go in these holes carefully [Music] okay and the new potentiometer has been fitted so now all i have to do is solder it back on and then we can test it and see if that method works and here we have both of the analog sticks the right one is working well as usual the left one has zero drift so that method definitely works so it's just another way if you're having a problem especially if you're having a problem only one axis that means you can just go in and replace that one specific potentiometer and you don't have to do the entire analog stick now i don't know about you but i'm tired of talking about analog sticks i'm tired of showing it on camera so i'm not going to show any more in this video i'm just going to show the new things that we haven't looked at yet controllers 18 19 and 20 have lb button problems as well as analog stick problems so i'm going to save those for when i get the lb and rb buttons in stock let's move on to 21. 21 and 22 both have left analog stick problems let's move on to number 23. number 23 won't connect to my testing software and keeps disconnecting from my computer we've finally got a new problem so let's take a close look at this and see what's going on and i'm going to take a wild guess that this is at least part of the problem so here we have that same chip that had the liquid damage and if you look closely there are three pads this one this one and this one that basically have no solder on them at least that's very visible this solder over here looks pretty good this component right here is actually loose on the board if i move it you can see that so we need to clean that up so i'm going to put some flux on all this i'm going to clean it up with the toothbrush then put some flux on it see if we can get enough solder on these joints to feel good about them hopefully we don't have to replace this chip but if we do we do so that's what i'm going to do next so that piece that just came off of this circuit right here was the end of this capacitor so unfortunately this capacitor will not work so i will take a capacitor off of one of these other parts controllers i have over here and install it onto this one so not the prettiest soldering job but it is a strong one so this one should be all fixed and it's ready to put back in and test oh it's still not showing us connected in my software though so this is the good board that i removed this capacitor from if we look closely this end of the capacitor is connected right here and it's connected over to this pin right here so this is all one trace when i look at the capacitor on the faulty board i see that the trace is broken right here and there's no connection from here over to here so i believe this is the most likely cause of the problem so we need to create a connection from here over to here to do that i'm going to be using a wiring pencil you can actually find these on my website at tronixfixstore.com this is basically a pencil with a spool of wire at one end that goes down through the shaft of the pencil and then it comes down here and it just makes working with the wire much easier and faster so i'm going to attach the wire over here and then also attach the wire over onto this trace this wiring pencil does have enameled wire which means there is a coating on the wire so you need to remove that coating in order for it to stick to the solder so that's how easy and quick it is to do this type of repair with that wiring pencil now that this circuit has been restored it's time to clean it up test it and see if it works okay and it is actually recognized by my computer now and here we go we can actually test it so that seems to have fixed the problem with controller number 23 23. let's move on to the next controller [Music] oh no this is no good so unfortunately this brand new part that i bought is defective i have fixed a total of 15 and i've used three for parts unfortunately i don't have any more parts here to repair these right now so i'll have to fix the other seven off camera but i am gonna end this video now or else it's just gonna get too long be sure to check out ifixit.com tronic sticks if you'd like to get ten dollars off your order of 50 or more thank you again to ifixit for sponsoring this video thank you for watching and i hope you have a good one

Channel: TronicsFix

Views: 940,456

Rating: 4.9115634 out of 5

Keywords: tronicsfix, tronicsfix controller repair, xbox elite controller, analog stick drift, controller repair, tronicsfix repair, tronicsfix 25 controllers

Id: 9V5ScOuTAbM

Length: 27min 40sec (1660 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020