PS2 DUALSHOCK2 repair, common problem?

[Melika]

I have 2 broken PS2 DUALSHOCK 2 pads which display the exact same symptoms but came from 2 distinct persons.

When the pad is plugged in its detected (tested in Kingdom Hearts which is a DUALSHOCK2 only game) and the analog led lights up, analog sticks work but no other button works (Dpad, R/L, start select etc)

In the PS2 browser I can manually press the analog button and the led lights up but still nothing works.

Any ideas?

[l_oliveira]

The conductive plastic mat that connects the buttons has one of it's conductive ink traces broken. Unfortunately the only real repair is replacing the plastic mat or repainting the broken trace with conductive ink.

Honestly it's cheaper for you find another controller(s).

[ps2dragon]

Maybe the conductive area underneath the rubber pads inside the controller are dirty and might need to be cleaned. The rubber pads might also just need to be replaced. If you can find another controller that has something else broken you can put them together to make a single working controller. If it's the printed circuit board (pcb) that's broken, then again you might still be able to find a controller with just the cable or something else is broken. I did that once, a friend of mine gave me his old broken controller and I used it to make one good working controller. The first thing to check though is if the pads are dirty, that's a simple fix. There's lots of guides online, but might be easiest to watch some repair videos on youtube.

[l_oliveira]

Dirty pads don't cause all buttons to cease working on the same time.

Also, the controller is designed/programmed to stop working if any of the button circuits get interrupted (it requires an voltage to be going through all the analog to digital converters it has or else it ceases working fully).

That's why I said the conductive mat requires replacement or repair and not mentioned the rubber buttons...

[ps2dragon]

Yea I was thinking maybe dirty contacts wouldn't cause this either, but I wasn't sure so I posted my thoughts. This is why I used the words 'maybe' and 'might' in my post, but thanks for the explanation on how it works.