What the heck is wrong with SNES Mini's Controllers L and R?

[evil_ash_xero]

I have bought two minis in the last batch of months. Both of them have had controllers that looked GREAT. Almost new.

The L and especially the R button are very wonky. They barely register when I hit them. Even when I push VERY hard on the middle of them, I only get it to work about 85 percent of the time.

I had changed one of the PCBs in one of them once, to see if that had something to do with it. It did not. I thought it might have been a fluke in the way the shoulder buttons were made for that controller. But the last system I got had the same exact problem.

Is this common or what? I'm going to send them to a modder, and see if he can make the shoulder buttons a bit "thicker" with something, so they don't have so much trouble hitting the pads.

[TheDrifter363]

Have you looked at the rubber pads for the shoulder buttons? You can try swapping them out for a snes controller that you know has good shoulder buttons and see if you're still experiencing the issue. Also I believe you can use the rubber contacts from third party snes controllers as they should fit the dimensions. Whatever you do, don't get the ebay ones. At least they didn't work well for me. Not the 3rd party controller but these rubber contacts from ebay, I had bad luck with them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/X2-Super-Ninten ... 2a26f41c01

That is an example. I've had bad luck with those rubber contacts. They appear to be a lot thinner than the official snes ones. Instead I used a dpad rubber contact from a third party controller and put it in my offficial controller. The 3rd party controller apparently had better rubber contacts than the ones I just listed on ebay. The controller was a pelican.

[evil_ash_xero]

I did try changing the rubber pads in one, with pads from a controller that had good working L and Rs. I had the same problem.

It's bizarre.

[mickcris]

I did try changing the rubber pads in one, with pads from a controller that had good working L and Rs. I had the same problem.

It's bizarre.

They may be bootleg ones. Check the pics here to see:

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messagevie ... adid=53919

[evil_ash_xero]

That's a touch misleading, as the SNES Minis controller, does have the embedded Nintendo logo as well. It's not just knock offs.

[mickcris]

That's a touch misleading, as the SNES Minis controller, does have the embedded Nintendo logo as well. It's not just knock offs.

Sorry, I found one with better pics. What model number is on the ones you have? I think only the sns-102 should have the embedded logo. If they are SNS-005 and have an embedded logo then they are probably fake. There are some better pics of the fake ones here about half way down the page:

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messagevie ... tartRow=26

Not sure if there are any fake SNS-102 controllers out there.

[evil_ash_xero]

Couldn't tell you right now, actually. I sent them to a modder today.

I'll see what's up when they get back. I think they're legit though. I checked out the systems they came with, to make sure they weren't fakes, and they were both good. So, I would guess the controllers are good too.

[TheDrifter363]

Strange. I recently bought snes mini controller and so far its in great condition. Then again I haven't used it much but testing out the shoulder buttons for a little bit in super metroid, they worked great. Also if you're worried about authenticity, open them up and take a look at the pcb. Nintendo controller pcbs for the snes, usually look intricate and I believe they have nintendo's logo and other stuff printed on the pcb. I have a pelican third party controller and that looks like a piece of shit. There's a big black blob in the center, usually a hallmark of cheap pcbs (for me at least), and the traces look less detailed. Also the dpad has lines for the contacts instead of the half moon shape that they normally have. Supposedly the half moon shape is better for anything dpad related. I've seen sega controller pcbs online and they have the finger like projections, lines, instead of the half moon shape. I read on nfggames I believe, that the moon shape prevents accidental input of different directions when you're using the dpad.