With Christmas almost upon us, we had to venture outside to carry out the last of the shopping and a few other little jobs that needed sorting.
We had to go to the tip to get rid of the masses of Amazon boxes and packaging, go to Tesco to get some last-minute bits, get the boy’s hair cut, pick up some cupcakes (I don’t know either) and then I had to come home and fix both an Xbox Controller and Nintendo Switch Joystick.
The True Cost of Tesco
Having dumped half the Amazon Forrest at the tip, we headed to Tesco – the queue of cars coming out was massive, but I thought by the time we have been around the shop, it should have cleared.
Having been sent away with the boy (whilst the wife bought me more secret presents one would assume) we headed upstairs to where the games were, this was a big mistake.
Yoshi’s Crafted World
It lead to another strop from my four-year-old as he demanded that he needed Yoshi’s Crafted World on the Nintendo Switch. Having explained that Christmas was just one day away, this was followed up by many screams, then followed by a sit down protest.
This is when the wife appeared. I’m fairly sure that women have a superpower to know when things are going badly for you and then turn up out of thin air to bask in the glory that you are suffering.
Having explained again to the little one that Christmas was just around the corner, she told him that he could have the game as his uncle had given him some money to spend for Christmas anyway.
However, I had to pay for the £45 game and the wife would transfer the money when we get home. No monies have been received to date…
Xbox Controller for Work
There was also a cracking offer for an Xbox One wired controller for just £13.50. As mine at work (yes we play Xbox at work) has been destroyed by many hours of Fifa, I thought I’d treat myself for a change.
The Queue
Having now filled up the trolley like there is a nuclear winter coming, we packed up the car and headed for the exit. This is when we hit the queue to get out. Not only had the queue not disappeared as I had predicted, but it was worse than before.
Game Console Repairs
We finally got home and the spare controller parts that I had ordered had arrived. The night before, I managed to break my own Xbox One controller at home with the rubber bit coming off the joystick and the little one had pulled off the same thing on the Nintendo Switch joystick.
Xbox One Controller
I thought I’d try and fix my Xbox controller first because if I cock it up, it’s only mine but if I cock up the Nintendo Switch, I will get moaned at until the end of time.
So I took off the faceplate from the floor of the controller and was surprised by how simple it is to replace the joystick. Just pull out the old one and push in the new one.
After screwing it all back to together again and fitting all the plastic bits back, it looked good as new. But would it actually work? I fired up the Xbox and tested it out and it was working. Saved myself £50 buying a new control pad.
Nintendo Switch Controller
After my stunning success with the Xbox controller, I decided to plod on with the Nintendo Switch joystick. This was nowhere near as easy.
This is what had actually happened to the joystick. No sure how it got to this state but the rubber on the joystick had completely come off:
But, unlike the Xbox One controller, you cannot just replace the rubber bit. You have to take out the entire joystick unit, including tiny ribbon cables and replace the whole thing.
I thought this wouldn’t be a problem, I’ve worked in IT for nearly 22 years and nothing can be more difficult than replacing a keyboard in a Dell Latitude E6330.
But I was wrong!
I took all of the absolutely minuscule security screws out of the back of the controller and then managed to pull the whole thing apart:
So far so good, nothing is broken, I’ve not lost any of these tiny screws, it’s all going very well indeed.
But the next part was to take out the ribbon cables to get to the joystick unit that had to come out. The ribbon cables are that small inside that you cannot even see them on the photo.
So I grabbed the pair of pliers that came in the fix pack and started to take them out. I managed to get them all out without breaking any.
Then I had to remove yet more teeny tiny screws and finally managed to get the joystick unit out.
Once this was out, I then had to fit the replacement into the unit which was easy enough, but trying to get the ribbon cables back into the slots was a complete nightmare.
I constructed a new work area which consisted of my (now fixed) Xbox One controller, my iPhone balancing on top of that with the torch on, small screwdriver and pliers.
Eventually, I finally managed to get all the ribbon cables back in but it took over an hour to get the three back in. I screwed it all back together and amazingly it actually worked perfectly.
So no need to buy an expensive replacement and I was chuffed that I managed to fix them both without breaking at least something. The Nintendo Switch joystick now looks good as new like the Xbox One controller:
Controller Fix Packs
In case you are interested, I bought two kits from Amazon to replace the Xbox One controller and the Nintendo Switch Joystick and not only did they both come with all the new spare parts, but also with the special “Y” security screwdrivers that you need. Links below for the ones I bought:
Nintendo Switch JoyStick Fix Kit
Both are Amazon recommended and they worked perfectly for me. The Xbox One pack actually comes with two replacement joysticks and the actual joystick unit itself – not just the rubber replacements.
The Nintendo Switch one also came with two joystick units.
Both came next day delivery on Prime so I would recommend these if you are looking to fix your control pads.
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