THE "ORIGINAL" XBOX 360 D-PAD MOD

Here we are again fixing another d-pad but this time it's the xbox 360 d-pad. This is really sad don't you think? I should be able to buy a game system these days and have such a basic function work properly. I have seen many complaints on various forums about the 360 d-pad being very unresponsive. Trying to play dead or alive 4 or simply navigating menus can be very frustrating. With games like ultimate mortal kombat 3 and street fighter 2 beng released on xbox live I feel this is the perfect time to publish this guide. This guide will work for both the wired and wireless controller but I currently only have disassembly instructions for the wired controller. Disassembling the wireless controller is essentially the same but requires a torx screwdriver for the main screws. This is a pretty easy mod but does require a little bit of elbow grease. If you feel your 360 controllers are working fine the way they are then leave them be.

Required materials.

Low Grit Sandpaper ~ approximately 80 Grit

High Grit Sandpaper ~ approximately 320 Grit

# 0 Phillips Head Screwdriver

# 1 Phillips Head Screwdriver

Small Flat Head Screwdriver

Scissors

THE PROBLEM

As you can see below we have a xbox 360 wired controller. The problem with the d-pad is that the d-pad has no room to breath. It's sunk deep into the controller shell without enough space for it to rock back and forth. This causes it to frequently hit the edge of the 360 controller shell which in turn blocks it from hitting the appropriate contacts. What were going to do is shave some of the plastic off inside the d-pad well. This will in turn create more space for the d-pad to move and allow all your button presses to work the first time!

DISASSEMBLING YOUR CONTROLLER

Flip your controller over and use your # 1 phillips head screwdriver to unscrew the 7 screws. 6 of them visible and 1 under a sticker.

When your done flip your controller back over and gently lift the top half of your controller as seen in the picture below. The buttons will fall all over the place so be careful. All we need is the top half of the controller the rest can be put aside.

Pickup the top half of the controller and remove the rubber gasket covering the d-pad assembly and set it aside.

Now we have our d-pad exposed. as you can see below there are 2 small screws and 2 clips keeping the d-pad onto the top shell. Use your # 0 screwdriver and remove the 2 screws. When your done use your small flathead screwdriver and gently push the clips together to release the d-pad from the shell.

Here is our shell with our d-pad completely removed. You can put the d-pad assembly aside we won't need it.

SANDING DOWN THE SHELL

Take a piece of your your low grit sandpaper and cut out a small rectangle as seen below. This particular sandpaper i'm using has a very thick backing. You may want to fold your sandpaper over a few times for stability depending on how thick your paper is.

Take your newly cut sandpaper and place it as shown below. You want to rotate the paper while applying pressure outward to sand down the shell. This is going to take some time even with such a low grit paper. Do this until you see a noticeable amount of material removed.

As you can see below I have sanded a good amount of the material away. You want to keep sanding it down until the d-pad well looks similar to the one below. Once you have removed the bulk of material use your high grit sandpaper to remove the deep scratch marks that the low grit paper will leave behind. Do this until your satisfied with the look of your controller.

RE-ASSEMBLING YOUR CONTROLLER

Once you are satisfied with your sanding job you can begin to re-assemble it. Test out your controller once you assemble it fully. If you did the mod correctly you should be able to press and hold a direction on the d-pad and have it not hit the surrounding plastic.

Your all done! Your controller should look similar to the one above. As you can see the d-pad has plenty of room to move now. I have absolutely no problems with the d-pad after doing this mod.