Gamer reveals easy fix for broken controllers that manufacturers won't tell you about: 'Now they're all working great'

A Redditor saved nearly a dozen gaming controllers from heading to a landfill with a simple replacement joystick.

The gamer posted two pictures of the revived gaming controllers and the replacement stick system in the r/Dualsense subreddit. The caption explained that they saved these from becoming electronic waste with the easy swap. 

It read, "All of these had stick drift or other problems. Now they're all working great and are pretty much immune to drift for another couple of years."

Stick drift occurs when a joystick registers movement even when still, causing issues when playing games. It's a common problem with traditional joystick designs, such as analog or potentiometer joysticks. These use physical connectors to monitor movement. 

The Redditor replaced the old sticks with Hall Effect sticks. These are contactless by design, using a magnetic field to detect movement. Now, the controllers are fully functioning again with no glitches. They might work even better than before. 

These kinds of hacks help reduce e-waste, a major contributor to the warming climate and environmental issues. 

Electronics prone to breakage often end up in landfills sooner than they should. These low-quality products waste labor and production costs. They often use valuable materials like lithium batteries, which also go to waste. Thus, billions of dollars worth of valuable resources are squandered.

Furthermore, e-waste can contaminate soil and water, depleting precious resources and harming the environment. Some of these products can be recycled. However, the recycling process is complicated, requiring manual sorting, examination, removal of hazardous materials, and more, per Earth.org. Initiatives like the Tech Take Back Box can simplify e-recycling for consumers. 

Fixing malfunctioning electronics is more sustainable than trying to recycle. This gamer's method for saving controllers helps the planet by giving them a second life, saving consumers money and sparing resources.

Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics? Giving me money back Letting me trade for new stuff Making it as easy as possible Keeping my stuff out of landfills Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

People in the comments praised the OP. 

One person celebrated, "Heeeey nice lot!"

But commenters were quick to condemn the controllers' original designs. Someone speculated, "I feel like these controllers are purposely built to be unreliable."

Another said, "This here is the reason I'll never buy anything from Sony ever again."

To reduce e-waste, you can shop for secondhand electronics. This decreases manufacturing pollution while keeping used products out of landfills. You can also sell your old electronics to make extra cash and help the planet.

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