DualShock 4

Controller not connecting/charging through USB[edit | edit source]

- Check USB port

- If controller has been opened, check ribbon cable/connector for damage

- Check for open fuse (charging) / shorted USB data (D+/D-) protection component (communication) on USB-connector board

Problem	Solution
Taking 1.4 amps instead of 0.5 amps	Unplug the Touchbar
Taking 3.4+ amps rather than 3 amps	You have the wrong ribbon cable plugged in; there are 10, 12, and 14 pin ribbon cables depending on your controller version. Google the charger's name (e.g. JDS-030 or JDS-011) and find out how many pins you need. Either solder a wire to every connection or buy a new ribbon cable
Not Charging	Replace battery (less likely) Check for short on battery connector, check current consumption from battery connector using a bench PSU(in case a power rail that turns on with the device is short), if a high current is being taken check voltages and for shorts on caps nearby PMIC, and PMIC itself. If a short is found, remove suspected capacitor, if the short persists repeat for all parts on that power rail ending with the PMIC until it is gone. Replace charging port board (more likely)

Problem	Solution
Controller analog drift (moves by itself in-game)	There are four pots, two for each analogue stick. They should be cleaned first and if they are used up, then replaced, the whole analogue stick with the mechanism can be changed or only the port. There are two types of sticks used, green pot ALPS, and orange pot. You can only swap green to green and orange to orange due to shaft size. See Fig 1. These pots will likely not center properly after replacement, you have to rotate them before soldering them in the correct center position, on PCBs without plated through holes you can bend over the pins to make this easier. In extreme cases you will need to shave the corner locating pegs. Another method of fixing centering after replacement of the analog stick is adding offset resistors. 3x3 500 Kohm trimmer potentiometers takes the work out of getting the resistor values correct the first time. See Fig. 4.
Controller pushes buttons by itself.	Clean the contacts on the film under the buttons, See Figure 3. Also near where the film connects to the motherboard, check the traces near the pads on the film, See Fig. 2, along the red line the traces are prone to wearing out over time and breaking inside the film.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Problem	Solution
D Pad buttons or other buttons on the face of the controller stop working / Only certain controller buttons are working	Often caused by issues with the conductive film the buttons contact (See figure 2 above) Can potentially be fixed by cleaning the contacts as shown in images below The conductive film can fail. This can be verified by using a wire to manually ground the controller buttons on the controller board (where the conductive film touches the PCB internally). If manually connecting points to ground on that pad works, the film is bad and should be replaced. Replacements are available on eBay and Amazon