Sensitive D-Pads ?

[Ziggy]

I'm sure everyone has experienced an overly sensitive D-Pad at some point. What I mean by this is when you are holding a cardinal direction but the D-Pad registers a diagonal input.

For example, I was just playing some Castlevania on a new NES controller and was having this issue. For a specific example, I was trying to spam the sub-weapon on a boss (hold UP and press A). I was holing UP and rapidly pressing A to spam the sub-weapon, then the character walked left and I took collision damage from the boss. Very frustrating when this happens.

Does anyone know of a remedy for this? It's an otherwise great controller, but the overly sensitive D-Pad makes it unusable for some games.

[SamuraiMegas]

I think I'm having this issue on my Mayflash Saturn to USB adapter. It likes to do double inputs/ it's too sensitive and I can't tell what the problem is or how I'd fix it.

[opa]

Maybe it's just me but I've always found the older Castlevania's kinda finicky with movement (emulated or real hardware). Are you playing with one of those new Bluetooth NES controllers?

[Ziggy]

I think I'm having this issue on my Mayflash Saturn to USB adapter. It likes to do double inputs/ it's too sensitive and I can't tell what the problem is or how I'd fix it.

I think you're having a different issue than me.

Maybe it's just me but I've always found the older Castlevania's kinda finicky with movement (emulated or real hardware). Are you playing with one of those new Bluetooth NES controllers?

It's not just with Castlevania, that was just the best example I could come up with (and the most recent situation that I've had it happen in).

For reference, I'm using a brand new Cirka NES controller. These things are top notch. I've also had this issue with the official NES controller that comes with the NES Classic. I've had this issue with other D-Pads as well, not just NES.

Let me rephrase the description of the issue: You try to press a cardinal direction (up, down, left or right) but you unintentionally press a diagonal input because the D-Pad is too sensitive. Say you are pressing UP firmly, you can rock your thumb left or right slightly (and I don't mean rotate your thumb, just rock it left and right slightly while still very firmly pressing only UP) and the controller will register a diagonal input. Might be a little hard to explain without visuals, so hopefully you guys can understand from this description.

Nintendo D-Pads are very much a "+" symbol, and usually don't have this problem. Sega D-Pads, on the other hand, I've always had this issue with. I could never pull off finishing moves in Mortal Kombat II on the Genesis because of this issue. For example, say Cage's finishing move forward, forward, down, up. I couldn't pull something like that off on the Genesis D-Pad because it would register a bunch of diagonal inputs.

[opa]

I understand what you mean. That can be pretty frustrating.

I read some reviews of that controller that complain about the d-pad so I don't think you're alone.

[lwcook]

Most likely the rubber contact membrane under the d-pad is worn and/or torn. If you open it up you should be able to tell, especially comparing it to a new/good one.

[marurun]

Most likely the rubber contact membrane under the d-pad is worn and/or torn. If you open it up you should be able to tell, especially comparing it to a new/good one.

He noted this was a new pad. Probably a design issue.

[lwcook]

Most likely the rubber contact membrane under the d-pad is worn and/or torn. If you open it up you should be able to tell, especially comparing it to a new/good one.

He noted this was a new pad. Probably a design issue.

Somehow missed that. Definite a design issue...Amazon reviews note similar issues with the d-pad. I would still open it up and compare the rubber with one from an official pad. If they're similar, swap them and see what happens.

[bmoc]

Try putting some tape partially over the d-pad contacts on the pcb. Like this:

[Ziggy]

Also note, as I stated above, I have this same issue with the NES controller that came with my NES Classic. It seems to be a problem more on new controllers as oppose to old (worn out) ones. I think the conductive materials are so good when new that the D-Pad is overly sensitive. The problem might go away little by little as the controller is "broken in".

Try putting some tape partially over the d-pad contacts on the pcb. Like this:

Dude, that's a great idea! Thanks for posting that.

Is that pic yours? Have you done this to a D-Pad before? What were your results? I'm just wondering if the position of the tape is crucial or not. Do you have to "fine tune" it? Or does it work well enough if you just cover the inside half?