Static electricity...

[Tritoch]

It just fried my PS2 controller! Tonight I was playing Suikoden III with a perfectly-working controller. I stood up to grab something off a shelf with the controller in my hand, when suddenly a HUGE static shock connected my pointer finger with the PS2 controller around the L1 button. At that point it started going haywire, with the cursor (I was on the menu screen at the time) moving constantly across each menu option with no way of stopping it. I tried unplugging it and plugging it back in with the same result. I reset the game, and on the main menu it did the same thing (except vertically this time). Whenever I used my backup controller, the game worked normally.

Has anyone else ever had this happen to them? If so, is there anything that can be done to repair it or is it gone for good? :-(

[stonecutter]

Static? Plastic is not a very good conductor of electricity.

[CrazyImpmon]

That is strange :? never heard of static electricity killing a controller. Usually that only happens when you've taken it apart but obviously it wasn't.

Call Sony, tell them the controller is an electric hazard. Maybe they'd replace it for free even if the warranty's expired.

[video_game_addict]

Static? Plastic is not a very good conductor of electricity.

Correction: Plastic IS a very good conductor of Static electricity!

Not a year goes by that I don't read about, or watch on tv, so poor idiot who blows his whole car/truck up after filling up a Plastic Gas can at a local gas station. Usually it involves the plastic gas can sliding around on a plastic bed liner. Some gas stations even have warnings for using plastic containers posted at the pumps.

I've never heard of anyone zapping a controller to death thou. That's news to me. :-D

[stonecutter]

@video_game_addict

PLastic is an insulator by definition. However insulators surface can be charged by Static electricity and maintain a charge on its surface (even charges of opposite polarities at the same time) for quite some timeand it will not be neutralized by grounding either. This is because it is not a conductive material. Static electric charges wont migrate on an insulator. All this is because of the limited flow of electrons within insulators.

Also helps explain why you get examples of sliding gas cans blowing up, plus the fact that a highly flammable substance is present. Also why it really could ZAP his controller, even though it doesn t seem to be common place or expected.

[jonjandran]

Plastic may be an insulator but it is a great creator of static electrcity. Just ask anyone who has gone down a plastic slide. You can shock the crap out of someone after doing that. And if it is a long slide , it makes my kids hair stand up. So I have to disagree with you on this one stonecutter. It may not conduct electricity good but it certainly helps create static electricity. Well technically I'm not disagreeing with you just clarifying, oh whatever...............

[bargora]

I got one of those "brain lamps" for Christmas, the kind with the static electricity generator that makes the lightning effect inside. When you touch the surface with your finger, a large number of the weak discharge lines converge into one strong line under your finger.

So I was showing off this effect to a friend right before launching into a round of Unreal Tournament, while holding my PS2 controller in my other hand. When I touched the surface of the lamp, the onscreen menu selection went crazy, as if I were pressing the d-pad 10 times per second. I stopped touching the lamp, and the frenzied clicking stopped.

Fortunately, I didn't permanently fry anything, but I don't think I'll do that again.

[Tritoch]

So I was showing off this effect to a friend right before launching into a round of Unreal Tournament, while holding my PS2 controller in my other hand. When I touched the surface of the lamp, the onscreen menu selection went crazy, as if I were pressing the d-pad 10 times per second. I stopped touching the lamp, and the frenzied clicking stopped.

Fortunately, I didn't permanently fry anything, but I don't think I'll do that again.

That's exactly what happened in my case, except that now any time I plug that controller in it starts going crazy. Unplugging it and/or turning off the system doesn't help at all.

[bargora]

So I was showing off this effect to a friend right before launching into a round of Unreal Tournament, while holding my PS2 controller in my other hand. When I touched the surface of the lamp, the onscreen menu selection went crazy, as if I were pressing the d-pad 10 times per second. I stopped touching the lamp, and the frenzied clicking stopped.

Fortunately, I didn't permanently fry anything, but I don't think I'll do that again.

That's exactly what happened in my case, except that now any time I plug that controller in it starts going crazy. Unplugging it and/or turning off the system doesn't help at all.

It's a drag, but I'd say that the controller isn't going to work again without repair. I'm guessing you soldered closed a circuit in your controller with that static electricity surge.

If you were feeling brainy you could open it up and check it with a multimeter. :robot:

If you were feeling skeezy, you could probably go buy a used controller from Gamestop and... ;)