Topic: Glitchy switch

Hello all

My son's switch has just developed an annoying glitch whilst watching YouTube or playing games. It starts rapidly pressing start and pause etc. I've uploaded a quick vid on YouTube. Any advice would be greatly appreciated 👍

@Maddogjez Does it do that if the joy cons are detached and not desynced from the Switch?

@gcunit Hi gcunit
Yes it does it when the joycons are detached also. I have tried his old joycons and it still happens

@Maddogjez The switch can get mysteriously glitchy with inputs if you always use sleep mode, and never shut the console down. Have you tried rebooting the console? Disregard if you've rebooted the console. I've seen similar scenarios in here with kids(or anyone) that have a switch & they always use sleep mode every night, and never shut down the console for days or weeks+.

EDIT: You can try a "hard reset", which is a common troubleshooting solution for some basic things. It's easy to do. You hold the power button down for like 15-20 seconds, and it does a more thorough reboot. It's safe to do.

Here's one of the support pages that has the "hard reset"
https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a...

Also, make sure that both the console and joycons are updated. Making sure things are updated is step 1 for troubleshooting most things on the switch.

How to update controller firmware
https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a...

@WoomyNNYes thankyou that's interesting as it never gets turned off completely. I'll try that. And I'll also try the hard reset! Thankyou for your help. Will keep you updated 🙂

Good luck with the reset, but I'm guessing if it's not the joy cons then the touchscreen sensor probably has a fault.

@gcunit hey , so Ive tried all of the above and still no luck. So guessing it's the touchscreen sensor as you mentioned.

@Maddogjez That stinks. Sorry to hear. Does your issue occur with other joycons or controllers? I don't know if you have another part of joycons or a pro controller, etc.

If you go into switch settings for conrollers, there is a section for testing controller button inputs and a section for testing/calibrating the joystick aka analog stick. You can check to see if you can reproduce the the stuck button/rappid pressing problem in there.

@Maddogjez If you've eliminated external input devices and minor firmware bugs from your investigation, in my eyes that just leaves the touchscreen and 'major firmware bugs/problems' as avenues of enquiry.

Assuming the device's firmware has not been hacked or anything, I'd think the firmware issue to be very unlikely.

But looking at that Switch, I can see the screen doesn't seem to be in mint condition (can't see a screen protector on it), so I'd be wondering if it's sustained any damage, or just had something small get inbetween the outer screen and the sensor.

First thing I'd do is give the screen a good wipe clean, just to make sure there aren't any particles stuck to the outside that are causing it to repeatedly register contact.

Assuming that doesn't achieve anything, I'd be considering screen dismantling/replacement.

Do you have any games that allow you to draw using the touchscreen? Like an art application or something like Animal Crossing or Splatoon 3 where you can hand draw stuff? Could be worth checking what happens on screen when trying to draw.