3w ago

[Discussion] Have you experienced drift or other issues with your original Steam Deck thumb sticks? Also, people who have replaced their thumb sticks, how has your experience been?

It's pretty common to hear about people replacing their thumb sticks to avoid drift in the future, but I almost never actually hear about people having drift or other issues with the original OEM thumb sticks (outside of the occasional person who broke their stick by dropping the Deck).

I'm also curious to hear what people's experience has been with replacing the sticks, both the difficulty of the actual replacement, if there were any issues after, and if they think it was worth it.

22 comments

Mine are drifting but I haven't had the emotional capacities to figure out what to do now
- It sounds like replacing them with Hall effect thumb sticks is really easy. It’s on my list of upgrades if I ever notice an iota of drift.
  
  It's super easy, I did it just to have better thumbsticks.
- A couple things to try:
  A lot of thumbstick drift is caused from getting debris or sticky residue in around the thumbstick. This is especially common if you let your kids touch your Steam Deck/controllers. Taking some plastic-safe electronic cleaner spray (like CRC QD electric cleaner) and spraying it around the thumbstick while the deck is turned off can fix this pretty easily, and the same cleaner can be used to fix other controllers (especially nintendo switch joycons) as well as sticking controller buttons.
  The steam deck has adjustable dead zones. If your drift is very minor, you can increase the size of the dead zones to compensate.
  It's possible to recalibrate the thumbsticks, see this guide
  Replacement thumbsticks are available on Amazon, many people like to upgrade to hall effect sticks made by Gullikit or other companies. Ifixit has guides for both the right and left thumbsticks. Important to note with this, there are 2 models of LCD thumbsticks and 1 model of OLED joystick, you need to buy the same type of thumbstick as what your Deck already has (edit: looks like the gullikit LCD stick now works for both LCD types, it has a micro switch on the joysticks to select which type you have). The Ifixit guides explain how to check which LCD type you have. Actually replacing the thumbsticks involves popping the back off the deck (with the microsd removed), disconnecting the battery, unplugging a ribbon cable from the thumbsticks, and then removing a couple screws before pulling the whole thumbstick out. After the new thumbsticks are installed, you will have to follow the callibration guide listed above under #3.
  
  Thank u so much, I'm gonna try fixing it during the holiday
- Buy the steam controller when you can and connect them together.

Got the Deck at launch. No issues with drift.

When I opened it to swap the SSD I preemptively changed the joysticks with electromagnetic ones from Gulistick. (LCD Model)
It was really quite straightforward, but I would suggest being familiar with some soldering prior (if you want the capacitive touching function). Otherwise, they have great instructions. The case is great for holding it screen down while you work.

They've been great, no complaints.
- As far as I know, I think all the designs have been updated to not need soldering.
  
  Oh very cool! Even easier then

No issues yet, but I'm docked and using M&K or external controller probably 85% of the time or so.
I plan to keep my Deck as my stream-to around the rest of house device far into the future (read: until it disintegrates, the ergonomics and form factor are that good), even after my next upgrade to the Steam Machine or similar option, so I will be Hall-replacing the sticks if / when they start to drift.

No drift yet, got an original 64gb basic edition. But I also barely use the thing, so that probably contributed to the longevity.
I did swap the SSD basically as soon as I got it, was trivial. Thumb sticks aren't much harder as they are on daughter boards. Hard to fuck that up.

Yeah I got drift in the left stick after only a year of owning my Steam Deck OLED. I haven't bothered to replace it yet. I've always been very careful with my Steam Deck too.

The inspiration for this discussion is that the capacitive pad on my left thumbstick has started to peel upwards at the bottom, so I plan to replace it soon. Haven't had any issues with drift or anything else.

@Fubarberry No drifting but on mine, the rubber got loose. I replaced them with Hall effect joysticks. It was easy and I had no problems whatsoever since.

My left stick squeaks so I'm thinking about replacement but I can't get a straight answer about Hall effect stick compatibility with OLED models
- They make specific hall-effect sticks for the OLED models, I know Gulikit make a set, possibly other companies too.

My left stick started jittering after a year. Switched the sticks out with Gulikit, and they were fine for a few years, then the right stick went bonkers psycho.
Replaced it with a̶n̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶-b̶r̶a̶n̶d̶ Gulikit again, cuz that was the only make available. Sigh.

22 comments