Xbox 360 Controller - Left Thumbstick moves by itself going down and up all the time

Question

I have a problem with my Xbox 360 Controller for PC, and since I cannot seem to find how to fix this, I decided to do a post myself.

This is how my controller looks on the configuration, as you can see the left analog stick moves by itself:

(I know it's in spanish but you get the idea)

It only happens on the y-axis, at first I thought it was a drifting problem, but this is different than what I found on the internet, it goes down and back to the center all the time without me pressing anything...

This is how it looks when I try to do a simple rotation:

It happens even when I try to move it!

However, I can make it stop if I try to "tilt" the thumbstick:

That means it's the controller's thumbstick that's not working properly and has nothing to do with the calibration or anything software related.

This is the result when I try to play Yakuza 0 (choose this because is the one I'm currently playing and it looks kinda funny)

Do you have any idea what could be caussing this? Is this a drifting problem? Is it possible to fix it?

Answer 1

I would assume it's most likely an issue with the sensor on the left analogue stick since your right one behaves completely fine. If you still have warranty on it it's best to just get it replaced.

Alternatively what you can try is opening up the controller, cleaning the analogue stick module and watching for loose solder points. Here is a guide that can help you identify the solder points and here are the disassembly steps. Maybe you are lucky enough and a good clean is all it needs.

You can also replace the whole analogue stick unit with a new one if all else fails.