Xbox 360 controller revive

I got an old, broken xbox 360 controller and time to kill.

After plugging it in, I noticed the buttons are all sticky and the "a" button doesn't even work. The plan is to take it all apart and clean it. Possibly get the "a"button working again?

Trying to remove the outside case is harder than it looks. The screws require a special bit to remove them. However, I was able to get them off with a 2mm flat head screw driver. There are 7 screws all located on the back of the controller. One of them is hidden beneath the barcode sticker where the battery pack lays.

After removing all the screws, the back casing came off easily. I was able to take off the top and bottom pieces. At this point I also removed the two connectors holding the components on the lower left and lower right. These components vibrate the controller and make removing the board easier if they are off.

Removing the board is a little tricky. I was able to pry it loose by pushing in the xbox guide button and removing the front case. The part that struggles the most is getting the anolog sticks to come free. It works best if you pull it off straight.

Remove the rubber cups beneath the buttons and continue to remove the buttons themselves. Everything will come out freely except for the d-pad.

  Removing the d-pad requires a little more work but is simple. On the backside you will notice two screws and two tabs. Remove the two screws with a small philips screw driver. Once the screws are removed you have to push out the tabs. I used to small screwdrives to push the tabs outward, releasing the d-pad.







 With everything completley disassembled I can start cleaning. I soaked all the buttons and the case in a bucket of warm water. With a q-tip and some rubbing alcohol I was able to get all the sticky stuff off the buttons. I used tweezers to get all the hair off of the board...I'm not really sure how it got there though??  Once it was clean I put it together and tested the controller. Everything was working smoothly except for the "a" button.

To troubleshoot I connected the board and tried to locate the problem. After a while, I found out that the rubber cup was the issue. I needed a new rubber cup for the "a" button. I was able to dig up an old ps2 controller and grab a rubber cup from it.

I used a utility blade to cut off the bad rubber cup. The new rubber cup fit perfectly and was working great while I had it apart. When I put it all back together it was a different story. The rubber cup was free to move around so the button would only work if it was aligned correctly. I need a solution to keep the rubber cup in placed.

To solve the issue I tried to tape the two rubber pieces together. This worked but was only temporary and not good enough for me.  Because the rubber cup was from a ps2 controller it was thicker and didn't fit under the xbox button nicely. I put the original ps2 button on it so it stayed snug and in place. The only problem is the ps2 button is significantly shorter than my xbox buttons. On the left you can see how I stacked the two bottons compared to the original xbox button layout. It worked great but was a little too tall so I cut took about an 1/8'' off the "a" button.

After putting it all together, every button worked smoothly and I was ready to game!