DualShock2 Controller Glitchiness...

[TJ_Kat]

So, something weird happened today.

I was playing a game on the PS2 when the phone rang. So I get up to answer it and shift my grip on the controller so my right thumb was on the seam of the 2 halves of the controller around the right analogue stick. Walking to the phone, I get what feels like a pretty intense static shock between my right thumb and the controller 2 or 3 times.

When I looked down, the analogue light had gone out. I push the analogue button, and the light comes back on. I try to unpause the game, but the start button doesn't seem to work. So I reset, start again, and try pausing with no luck. This time I turn the PS2 right off and back on, and press start to skip the intro sequence, and that works. I get into the game, try pausing, and it still doesn't work.

So, then I try a couple other games that use the start button for more than just pausing (like bringing up menus and stuff) and it works just fine for them. So I go back to the first game, start still skips intro, but still won't pause, but I play on to get to some points where it's used for things other than pausing, and it works in those situations.

I figure I could live with that, just one game that doesn't really need pausing anyway and carry on.

A bit later, I try doing a soft reset, and find that doesn't work either.

So, I have no clue what the deal with this is. Why would it work for some things and not others? Does anyone here have any clue what the problem here might be and how to go about fixing it?

[Aidan]

Got a different controller you can try?

[TJ_Kat]

My other controller still works just like it's supposed to.

[Aidan]

I'd put it down to static damage then! Static can do quite a bit of damage to chips, and it sounds like the static discharge was fairly serious. Manmade clothing and furnishings can generate large static charges (in excess of a million volts!) which tend to fry electronic components.

[kendrick]

I agree with Aidan's diagnosis, you probably dragged your socks on the carpet and fried some part of the board. But based on your description of the controller's behavior, this is probably something you can repair. You say that you can use the damaged controller's start button to skip CGI intros but not to do other functions? This tells me that the start button has been shorted to some other button that also can be used to skip the intro, like X or O. It doesn't make sense for the button polling to be intermittent, so the only other explanation is multiple button functions during the cut scene.

If you're motivated to fix this, there's a couple of ways to go about it... The brute force method is to pry the thing open and simulate button presses by applying the appropriate signals directly to the encoder chip. This will tell you if the chip is fried, or just a part of the PCB where a resistor or a switch might be at fault. If your PS2 is modded, you can also run one of the homebrew controller test applications right off the memory card. Barring that, you can pop in Dead or Alive 2 (or any other fighting game with a training mode that displays button input.)

-KKC, who wonders why people are dumb enough to buy HDTV units with no tuner...

[TJ_Kat]

Well yeah, at first I would have chalked it up to static damage, but I find it hard to believe that static damage could be that selective; to make the button not work sometimes.

I know it's not being shorted to some other button, because while it won't pause the game, it still handles other start button only functions. Example, I put in Final Fantasy X-2, it won't pause while I'm moving around, but, during a battle, it will pause the game. In the game, everything the start button is supposed to do, it does, except pause the game while walking around... that, and the soft reset. That could be something else, but it seems a safe assumption for now.

Unfortunately, I don't understand enough about how a controller works to make sense of this. But it seems to me, that if there was enough static to give me a solid jolt 2 or 3 times through the case, it should have done a lot more damage.

Oh, and I don't wear socks, and my carpet is far from ideal for static build up. Not ruling it out, but it's very unlikely.

[atom]

You said yourself you got shocked. Thats gotta be static damage because there is no kinda voltage coming from the controller that is going to make a jump between the crack like that. Sounds to me that the controller is being selectivly troublesome by possibly messing up the analogue flag? You mentioned the analogue light acting funny so perhaps its malfunctioning and constantly switching between modes, and software side coding perhaps  only allows the start button pressed in the right mode? Its a big guess in an odd situation. Just get another controller.

[TJ_Kat]

Okay, I wasn't clear. I KNOW there was a static problem (especially considering how much the two halve of the controller overlap around the analogue sticks), I was just saying socks on carpet wasn't the cause.

On the possibility that it's the analogue acting up, wouldn't I have other problems with that too? Wouldn't the sticks be acting up also?

I've come to accept that I will need a new controller, but I'm still curious because I consider it quite weird.

[Aidan]

On the possibility that it's the analogue acting up, wouldn't I have other problems with that too? Wouldn't the sticks be acting up also?

Not necessarily. Static damage takes place at the physical level on a chip, damaging parts of the semiconductor. Depending on many factors, it could be anything from a single transistor failure through to substantial damage to the silicon substrate.

Static damage is unpredictable, and doesn't necessarily show itself immediately. Sometimes the area damaged by static continues to work fine, but the fault area on the chip slowly grows until ultimately the chip does fail - perhaps years down the line!

[l_oliveira]

Ok ... I know a little bit about these controllers and let me share it with you guys...

The controller is based on a resitive plastic mat that gets spoiled by sweat from your hand.

The controller relies on a resistance of arround 16 kilo ohms on each one of the analog buttons (R1,R2,L1,L2, triangle, circle, square, cross and the 4 "digital"(nope on the Dualshock 2 they're really analog lol) arrows.

If the plastic mat get it's circuit interrupted (corrosion) the controller stops responding to all buttons. The fix is either buy a new controller or fix the broken connection on the mat with conductive ink.

I hope this help you on this issue  

[Aidan]

That wouldn't explain why the button failed to work only in analog mode though!