Never open up a PS3 controller

[VideoGameCritic]

Traditionally if you had a sticky button on a controller, it was not a big deal to open it up, do a little cleaning, and easily put it back together.

Well the other day I made the mistake of thinking I could do this with a Playstation 3 Dualshock 3 controller.  

First of all, there are a LOT of loose parts in there, and if you're not really careful they can fall all over the place.  Putting them back into place isn't so bad, but get the outer shells to snap back together is nearly impossible.

There's a battery jostling around in the middle that has to be just right.  You need to be extra careful to make sure the triggers slide together perfectly or one will be stuck.

Even when you're really careful the plastic just doesn't want to go back together so you need to fidget with it.

I'm not sure how I got mine back together, but now I'm terrified to use it, thinking I might have broken something.  Keep in mind these controllers cost $50!

So learn from my mistake - don't take these modern controllers apart until you absolutely have to!

[Oltobaz1]

Thanks for the heads up. Did you manage to fix it?

[VideoGameCritic]

Well, not exactly.  I noticed the top shoulder buttons feel squishy now.  Ugh.  I'll have my mechanically-inclined friends take a look at it next week.

BTW the situation was complicated by the fact that I had "extenders" on the lower shoulders buttons (which I didn't realize at first).  I still blame Sony though.  If they had designed their controllers between I wouldn't have required those attachments.

[velcrozombie1]

I opened up one of my PS3 controllers about a year ago when I was having random button presses on the face buttons. I just looked up a tutorial on Youtube and followed the instructions. It took about 40 minutes for me to both fix the problem and get the controller back together (which was by far the hardest part). My personal advice is to always check to see if someone has made a video about the problem you are trying to fix before doing it yourself. Failing that, it's a good idea to at least watch a video of someone taking apart whatever you're planning on working on so that you can see how everything fits together before you dive in.

[HardcoreSadism1]

The last great Playstation controller was the Playstation 2, which is faintly different to the Playstation One. You can even use it on the first Playstation if you still have one.

[Sut1]

The PS4 controller is the greatest controller ever, period.

[VideoGameCritic]

I think the situation was resolved.  Apparently the buttons on the Dual Shock 3 were a little more squishy that those of the original 6-axis controller, so it was okay after all.