New Theory Suggests Nintendo Has Tried To Prevent Switch Lite Stick Drift After All

This is a much better explanation than the usual "why do they use graphite"-argument.

I think the drift with the lite is a different issue, probably some defect that will be fixed with the next wave.

Is that bump on every Switch Lite model, or is it just for that one picture that keeps getting reused?

@gamer89 Yep! Had to replace my original joy-con after only a few months.

Time will tell. I would still wait to buy a Switch Lite.

None of my drifting JoyCons had any issues recentering and they all drift a huge amount (between 50% and 100% of the calibration circle). This is a total non sequitur to the actual problem which is the graphite. They fixed a possible and normal mechanical wear issue. Drifting is not a mechanical issue.

But why is this even a thing? The sticks have never drifted on any of the previous consoles that have used them from PlayStation to Xbox and all the way back to the N64, at least not that I've ever heard. How did Nintendo manage to **** things up on Switch?

why aren't there comparisons to how this is handled in other controler's sticks?

Remember when Nintendo's stance was quality over quantity? pepperidge farm remembers.

Yeah this Joycon thing might be overblown a bit but i can tell you it's not all fairy tales. I got three drifting now. I thought about trying contact cleaner but that just sounds too simple. It can't be that easy.

I don't know how all these gaming sites reviewed the hardware and were able to give the product a good review without a huge warning that these units likely can break just as the joy cons did. This generation is the first generation where I think Nintendo made significantly crappier product than the competition.

it can not be impossible to make joysticks with translucent casing (e. g. on 3D printer) so one could see inside what is really happening during drift

@impurekind That's a really good question. I mean, we can continue to argue till we're blue in the face on how widespread or serious of an issue this is. But we do know it is an issue and one I can't seem to have ever recall encountering or being one with any other console and it's controllers.

@wildbob i doubt you will see anything with your eyes

@Zeldafan79
I tried isopropylalcohol spray contact cleaner and it solved my drift problem. I did not take joy con apart!!!
I just simply tried to spray alcohol into joystick from above and then leave it to dry... It worked for me. And to my big surprise joycons are not damaged by this approach, they still work properly, and drifting is gone...

@ wildbob

Maybe i could try the alcohol method. worth a shot i guess.

Well honestly the drift has always been inevitable. Nintendo is based out of Japan. The capital of Japan is Tokyo. The third Fast and the Furious movie is Tokyo Drift. It’s that viral marketing again.

I wish they’d just use the GameCube sticks.

This doesnt explain why it took only a few days for this to happen on the switch lite compared to the originals which took a few months.

Why do I continue to get the feeling that every single article with theories and comments on stick drift are coming from people that don't actually understand what stick drift is and how it occurs in a 2 axis potentiometer?

@Bunkerneath I think confirmation bias mixed up the usual Joy-Con drift with what ultimately might've just been defects at best, or a potentially different issue at worst.

Folks were freaking out about Drift, well before we knew what the internals of the Lites would be. So of course it'd only take, like, two example videos and one non-exactly-thorough breakdown to "prove" the concerns justified.

And that's not to say Drift will never be an issue in the Lites, but this latest breakdown might show that people jumped the gun on this Joy-Controversy.

@Zeldafan79 You mean the design of the original NES's cartridge slot, the N64's analog stick, the GBA's battery cover, or the DS Lite's hinges?

@BarefootBowser
I take no credit here. I simply pointed out the research done by Goodman. All credit goes to him, and NintendoLife for actually picking up the story. Specifically @ryancraddock

And it should be noted- the issue may still exist. We just won't know until enough time has passed to see how many people experience the problem. We cant definitively say what the root cause is. We have Spawnwave's speculation, we have the speculation about Goodman's observation from engineers on reddit. But we still haven't 100% identified the root cause, or if there's potentially multiple root causes.

I just think that, if a change has been made that's a clear difference from previous joycon that got drift, and a plausible theory from engineers, it shouldn't be reported that there's been no change. Spawnwave's conclusions, as much as I respect him, were incorrect, even if drift does eventually manifest.

It may very well be the Lite develops drift in a significant number of systems over time. But it's far too premature to make that declaration, especially based off half a dozen random defective claims out of a million launch sales (well within expected proportion defective) which contradict 2.5 years of evidence suggesting it develops over time, and doubly so when a noted change may have addressed the issue in the first place.

All I advocate for is, not jumping to conclusions.

@DTFaux It's two-fold. Week-one stick issues inherently can't be the existing "stick drift" issue, even if sticks are drifting. The cause of that problem could not occur within one week of use, it's an issue caused by successive use. I realize a lot of people will see the same symptom, and the result is the same, but it's just poor form for the media (and lawyers) to be lumping two unrelated technical problems together as one - they aren't.

Plus, "drift" is an issue that affects all analog sticks/2-axis linear pots. Xbox, GameCube, WiiU, PS....every stick can and does have the potential to experience that. The Joycons are just more famous for it because as much smaller parts with smaller components they're much more likely to demonstrate the failure much earlier in their lifespan, and a few possible design issues or choices may have made it more likely than it could have been, and maybe the stick should have used a smaller diameter limiting gate with a reduced range of motion (like Vita) to minimize the spring excursion, which may be a Nintendo specific implementation problem from the stick vendor, but this whole "Nintendo used bad sticks that drift" argument is a little off - EVERY console controller stick can develop the same issue, and many often do. I've been through over half a dozen X360 controllers, 2 X1 controllers, one Switch Pro controller, and one WiiU GamePad, and one 3DS circle pad in 10 years. The only platform I never experienced it with is Playstation, though there are reports all over the internet from people that have.

PS avoids some of the problem by having rediculously huge deadzones so that minor stick drift just won't manifest in gameplay because that entire inner range of the stick isn't actually used.

@DTFaux It was added to the Joy-Con lawsuit against Nintendo so is it really only two examples? Or did they jump the gun. I'm really interested in finding out.

I've never experienced the drift issue myself and neither has my wife on her Switch Joy-Con. Mine is a launch unit and hers we go about 6 months after launch. Not sure why our 8 Joy-Con are having no issues while everyone else is. Just lucky I guess.

@nintendork64 It may involve how you use it. My most used sticks were my neon yellow, they developed the drift subtly. I noticed it in Mario Tennis where my character would just keep going slightly. I didn't think much of it. Then in Xenoblade 2 I noticed Rex kept going and realized it was the controller. BUT it tested fine in the calibration screen! I didn't really believe it was the stick but replacing it fixed it.

Now last week my other launch set blue/red on my other switch finally started showing it. That one shows up in calibration. In the up/down directions, about 20% of the time, it'll just sloooowly return back to center. (Makes placing tiles in DQB2 kinda hard...) Now another set of neon yellow in the house (not used by me) has the right stick sometimes just scrolling through menus in Ys on its own unless you tap it slightly.

The sticks I use always lose the left stick. So far consistently with both my heavily used sets. Yet the set someone else uses eventually developed right stick issues (doesn't show up in calibration), but more slight, and over time.)

So how "heavy handed you are" and your angles must play into it. I know I tend to have "fluid motions" in games, but a heavy hand in boss battles, so I'm often doing rotations at full extension around the gate.

One thing I've founds seems VERY likely to be the final straw is full rotations around the gate - things like Ys 8's difficult fishing that has you spinning sticks in circles, or South Park's toilet game.....I skip quests and such that require that on Joycon. I know that weakens them heavily.

I have a left and right joycon of the same set that each developed drift. So its not restricted to one stick or which of them I use more. They developed it within months of each other

Another reason never to get a new updated hardware.. there's always something and suddenly in a half year they release other upgraded version in many fronts. Well there's always a .... fill in the blink yourself

@Zeldafan79

"worth a shot i guess."

See what you did there.

I believe that this solves the issue but why didn't Nintendo explain this? They have been shadowy about everything lately. I bought a Lite because I know there's a two-year guarantee and not because I trust Nintendo.

I didn't care about drift until one day I played Breath of the Wild and Link just walked by himself... At that moment I realised it is not a rumour. Switch is multi milion euro industry and company is unable (or unwilling) to fix a defective joystick? Ridiculous. This is not rocket science, this is simple mechanical piece of hardware worth 3 euro.

@BarefootBowser The type and amount of drifting I've experienced is wholly inconsistent with there being a physical issue with the stick. They drift a significant amount and in many directions which would be easily visible if it were an issue with centering. They do it on a level surface and you can see them being detected as centered on the calibration screen before drifting around and snapping back to the center all while being completely still. I have heard of people having different clearly physical issues which this change could help with, but those are totally different than drifting.

Since the I can safely rule out the sticks as being the underlying cause having gone through this on three sets of JoyCons since launch, the pads are the only possible cause. Whether it's from graphite debris buildup which does seem likely, wear on the pads themselves or some other graphite issue, it's clear that they're the problem. The things have a useable life span that's measured in hundreds of hours which isn't acceptable regardless of the cause especially for their high price. I have never seen any other Nintendo controller have a life span this short. My 15 year old Gamecube controller still works as well as the day I got it and it's seen more use than any JoyCon I've had.

Is it likely that "analog stick drift" is exacerbated by the relatively small size of Switch sticks?

I would imagine the parts are smaller, which accelerates wear and the sticks have smaller deadzones, which makes the drift more noticeable?

@sixrings I've seen reviews mention that they don't know whether there will be the joy con drift issue or not. I guess as people don't know for definite what causes it, they can't warn that it will happen. If you've seen reviews that don't mention it as a possibility, that's really bad practice.

@Zeldafan79 well a switch is basically an nvidia sheild really, in terms of the tablet it should be reliable enough, the fan would probably be the first thing to go, or the card reader

Or the internal nand flash memory could possibly corrupt, especially if a sudden power outage was to occur.. Same goes with the physical game cards too, since they're flash memory.

Not sure where they went wrong with the joycons, although just looking at those sticks, they do look kinda small and delicate.

People who talk of "nintendo use to make reliable hardware" also don't really account for the fact that the hardware being used today is much, much more advanced and therefor more prone to things that can go wrong.. Something like the N64 for example, didn't even have any moving parts.. Which contributed to its overall reliability.

@BorderlineJon Maybe but IGN gave it a 8.3 and gushed all over it during their NVC podcast... So people will buy these units based on these reviews and hope that Nintendo has learned their lesson. It took a class action law suit for them to admit their product wasnt up to standards and still people on here defend them accusing user abuse for the problems. It is much easier to change out a joy con then to fix a handheld console like the switch lite. People should be cautious...

@Alucard83 Which is why I waited almost 2 years until I got a Switch

Which then didn't work out for me anyway, when they released the newer builds with better battery life ect. haha

@AsteriskOverlord "Be happy you can afford a Switch at all."

What? lol

I work hard for my money, so no.. If I pay for a product, I expect the product to meet quality standards.

@BlueOcean Nintendo's always been shadowy about everything. Been that way for a century. It's just what they do....

@BarefootBowser Nah, with the DQB set of joycon, that pair is showing the issue heavily in the calibration panel. The up & down directions have a VEEERY slow reset to center about 1 out of 5 times you move it up or town. It's a spring issue on that one. Drift can happen like on my yellow set, where it doesn't even really register the issue regularly in the calibration tool (it just fails, ever so slightly, to truly hit center some percentage of time), or has sporradic movements slightly away from center.) or it can be like this one that it's dramatic in the utility. It never fails to achieve center, but it only very slowly returns to center on one axis.

My question for others at this point is: If buying a set of joycons, does it pay to only buy one of the two new colors rather than the existing colors that may or may not be more problem prone?

@Xelha All they can do is try to fix the issue and customers can only hope the issue gets fix

@MasterJay Joy-Con drift is real problem BUT I do find it hard to believe these Lite's would be doing it already. I think some of those Lite videos were faked, you could potentially do that with an set of joycon off screen.

Again.. Just don't buy the switch lite and just use the other switch so if it has drift you can buy new controllers sheesh..

@BarefootBowser This very website has a guide on dissembling the stick to clear out debris from the pads.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/09/guide_how_to_fix_a_drifting_nintendo_switch_joy-con_analogue_stick?page=4

Interference from corrosion or debris is a common issue with potentiometers. It's not anything novel or unique to JoyCons. Fixing them mostly comes in the context of old radio and TV dials which are rotary but the general idea is the same. In this case, debris from the wear caused by the metal contact sliding over carbon contact collects over time and ends up occasionally registering as movement. Eventually the carbon will be worn through entirely and it'll cease to function at all although this is a much longer term issue.

Again, this is a perfectly common and normal occurrence with the technology being used and applies to pretty much every analog stick design. Anything less durable than ceramic/metal composite which is basically aerospace grade will eventually develop these types of issues. The main problem is how quickly they develop rather than the fact that it does at all.

Every replacement stick I've ever seen for sale is the entire mechanism so replacing the stick also replaces the carbon element since it's internal to the part. It's also quite possible for multiple different problems to have similar symptoms. Nothing I've experienced across multiple sets of JoyCons even comes close to potentially being related to the spring.

If anything an issue with the spring is something new, or you simply haven't gotten to the point that it gets extreme. It's a progressive issue. My first set went almost a year without issue and started to worsen over six months until it was nearly unusable. My second set only lasted six months total before both sticks started drifting significantly. Half the buttons also failed around the same time so that set was a bit of a lemon. My third and current set is starting to drift in the same way after six months.

@NEStalgia that's what I'm doing. I have the purple & orange set on pre-order and I hope they get here on or very soon after release because the drift on my left joycon is driving me crazy. My DQB2 character keeps walking left, off the bridge I'm trying to build.

The drift on mine is sometimes a bit... odd. It can be fine, character not moving and I'm not touching the stick at all. And then the character starts slowly walking left. Tap the stick right and she moves right and stops, then after a beat or two starts moving left again, with no input on the stick at all. Other times its difficult to impossible to line up for a big bash or using the trowel, because there is no precision. Try to line it up, it goes too far right, adjust and it goes too far left. I didn't have this problem a couple of weeks ago though, so it's unlikely to be user error. Here's hoping the purple & orange set have the new version.

@DizziParadise Yep, that sounds like my experience's overall. The red and blue set I'm using with DQB is a bit more predictable than the yellow set that gave me annoyance last year ("But calibration says it's fine!!") - With this one the Builder keeps walking forward serveral paces after I inch him forward, so that the tile goes one space too far, or he walks off the ledge. That was the launch Red/Blue. I do also have a retail Blue/Red pair I just switched to because I can't take it anymore. I actually like Blue/Red better than purple/orange, and it's cheaper....but the idea that the new colors may or may not be more reliable is tempting.

Surely it's the graphite contacts which are the problem, like we saw in that video? I'm not an expert on how previous consoles were put together, did they use graphite contacts too? If not, well there's your different factor, and where your solution lies.

Dunno about the spring being a cause, why would some joycons start drifting out of a centered position or in the opposite position than they had been pressed in a moment earlier?

@AsteriskOverlord Ah, yes. DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS. OBEY. CONSUME.

Cya
Raziel-chan

The ugly thing about joycon drift is that everyone has been making controllers with analogue sticks for decades and this problem never arose before.
This is not a problem for Nintendo to "try to" solve! Just use a stick which doesn't drift, consarn it! Like a wii U stick, or a wii nunchuck stick, or a gamecube stick, or a ps1/2/3/4 stick, etc...

I've never experienced joy-con drift, but it does happen w/ my pro controller occasionally.

@N64-ROX This problem arises on ALL brands of controllers. It's just more exacerbated by the more fragile, smaller parts in Joycons.

Google around for XBox Elite stick drift, dual shock stick drift, 360 controller stick drift. Happens to all brands. The elite at $150 is particularly frustrating. The metal stick shafts add weight and make it more likely to happen. It's been going on for over a decade.

I have a box full of 360 controllers with the problem 1 Elite, 1 X1 controller, one WiiU GamePad, a 3DS with the circle pad....it's not a new problem. It's just more concentrated than usual with the Joycon parts.

Have they updated the joy con on the new switches too?

@NEStalgia Calibration says it's fine on mine, too. Mine are the original red/blue set that came with my Switch. And I think mine was second wave? So maybe a week or so after release date, so they are 2 1/2 years old now and have been used a fair bit. I'm not hard on my stuff though, apart from damage to a DS Lite caused by small daughter and a collapsed thumb stick on my first 3DS (which I replaced) all my gadgets from GBC onwards are still in full, original, working order.

The purple/orange set were slightly cheaper than the new blue/yellow and about the same as the original red/blue when I bought them. And purple/orange is very Halloween, so right up my alley! I guess if they last another 2 1/2 years it's not so bad. But I am going to get a set of replacement sticks once these new controllers have arrived and see if I can fix this one. I don't want to do that without having a new set in case I get it horribly wrong and then have to be without my Switch at all while I wait for repairs/new controllers. It's not a bad thing to have a second set of joycons, but the price... ouch. Sounds like I should think myself lucky to have got this far on the original set!

@DizziParadise I got 2 Switches at launch, one for handheld mostly, one for TV play, one blue/red, one gray, and got the ARMS neon yellows for the "gray" console as soon as they came out. So the yellows got the most use and were failing after about 6 months of frequent use (spread over a year or so) The red/blue just started failing last week after (since launch day) moderate but inconsistent use. So a first wave red & blue, and a "second wave" ARMS yellow set.

Haha yeah I've been debating sending mine in or trying a repair myself. I'd love to know I can do it but it may make more sense to just send it in.

My Joycons (left more than right) does the same thing that happens in the video (in-game and the calibration screen), and I'm running a switch I got back in Christmas before all of these new models came out.

So for me the new models doesn't appear any different from what I have now.

@Krisi How could you have forgotten the 3DS self scratching screen?

I'm sure this was said already but I doubt that all cases of Drift are caused by the same thing. I think this addresses the problem my joy-cons suffered because of the nature of drift I had, which seemed like a different beast to what the Switch Lite drift videos showed. That's also probably why some drift issues were fixed by recalibrating or using contact cleaner but mine was not.

My WiiU's right stick has a similar issue to what I've seen with the light where sometimes after moving it seems to take a few seconds to register that the stick is back in the nuetral position. This issue although annoying at times did not really impact my play performance, especially since it was like the stick was still being tilted lightly and any movement that happened was slow and brief. The joy-con drifting was extreme, usually in one direction, happened a lot randomly and would cause a lot of annoyance and needless problems during gameplay.

If course since "drift" is a problem, everyone likes to lump any similar problem into the "drift" category when it may not be as extreme or caused by the same fault. When the Switch first came out, drift didn't seem to be as prevelent but a lot of people were having disconnecting issues, because of that when my joy-con first started drifting I originally thought it was because of a weak connection. Kind of like it was getting mixed or confused signals. That was maybe 8-10 months after I bought my Switch. Little did I know it was a separate issue that people weren't talking about as much yet.

To be honest I think Nintendo need to give us some details on this, we need some clarification on what’s going on. Their silence is deafening...

@BarefootBowser But it is known that the original sticks are poorly designed. People are mistrusting Nintendo and they rely on silence? Not a good idea, they should just admit what's wrong and what they're going to do about it.

@NEStalgia It makes me appreciate Phil Spencer and Xbox even more. Nintendo and their empty words, on the other hand...

@BlueOcean Much as I like Phil, MS has punted the Elite controller problems for years. At first denying them and telling people the 90 day warranty was over, then finally doing like Nintendo and repairing them indefinitely but never admitting a real systemic problem (to this day.) Both similar to RRoD that took them years to acknowledge after turning people away for "out of warranty." Ninty and MS aren't too different in that regard.

@BarefootBowser has it right though. The accountants, lawyers, and risk-management consultant firms analyze this stuff and determine the cheapest coarse of action. If they've been advised this is the most cost effective solution, nothing short of armageddon is going to change their course. It's the sad state of modern global business.

Even if Nintendo puts a bandaid on the drifting issue, I'm just ready to move on from the current Joy-con stick design entirely. It's too shallow and loose, and easily the worst analog stick between all the console controllers.

@Dang69 Yes, definitely real, I've had to spend in a pair myself

@asmi8803
Have they updated the joy con on the new switches too?

I believe so... yes. It’s a design change all around that both the v2 Switch and Switch Lite feature.

@MasterJay you misunderstood I meant I question the Switch Lites doing so already. Axtual joycpn the prob is real, Ive sent in 2.

Hey guys just wanted to say i tried squirting some contact cleaner under the sticks and it works! I now have four fully functioning Joycons! Before you go sending them in or buying a new one try this. Seriously i am shocked but it was that easy!

@Dang69 No, that's what I thought you meant, i might have not written my reply clearly, sorry

I have my switch for just over 3 months now.Finished Red faction,Zelda Botw,Saints row 3,Mario Rabbids,few indie games and I have absolutely no drift on my joycons.I use my switch in portable mode every day a lot, dropped it once and it landed face down too.How some people have drift on joycons on the new lite?

@NEStalgia Yeah, I play South Park a lot and I know exactly what you're referring to regarding the toilet game. I remember having issues with accuracy a few times but it would go back to normal as soon as I let go of the stick.

Well, it didn't help from what I heard. Maybe Nintendo should look back at their older analogue sticks (wich probably have more expensive components). Those never drifted. They didn't have a skirt either. And you never needed to update them!