Pound shop screwdriver for 360 joypad?

[JazzFunk]

The A button on my 360 pad is getting 'sticky' but everything else is fine. I'm pretty sure it's just a buildup of crap around the base of the button and don't want to splash the cash on another pad, seeing as this one is only 16 months old.

Anyone know if Poundland/other nationwide pound shops are doing any screwdriver sets that include one that'll open a 360 pad?

[charlesr]

They are security torx T8. pita! They have a pin in the middle to make sure you can't use normal torx. £3 delivered on ebay. I had some in my car on which some monkey had squished the pin making them impossible to remove, so I had to file slots in them and once out replaced them with normal hexs. Careful as you go.

[smouty]

***Bodge Alert***
You can get them out using a suitable sized jewellers flat blade and jamming it in. Once out the pins can be broken off or as mentioned replaced with regular hex/torx/crosspoint

[JazzFunk]

^Thanks for the suggestions.

Why did they have to make it so damn hard and fiddly?! Controller-Ses were also prone to dirt buildups around the buttons but at least you could use a normal screwdriver to open them up and unclog them.

Will check them out on eBay.

One last question - are they easy to reassemble once they're open or is there anything I might need to know, like little pins and stuff falling out? The Controller-S is fiddly but pretty straightforward, is the 360 pad pretty much the same? (Although, having said that, the Controller-S was wired, which made it a bit of an arseache).

[randombs]

I did that with a wireless pad - using a small screwdriver I broke the little pin inside each torx screw(like Smouty mentioned) which let me open them with a regular torx. It's not ideal, and the screwdriver was pretty useless afterwards, so I also just bought a security torx for £3 off eBay. Can't remember why, as I've yet to use it. I think I was gonna do the d-pad mod...

There are no obvious surprises in the 360 controllers. The triggers are held together so no worries about springs flying out. The only thing I can think of is to be careful of the thin wires for the motors but you already know that. I don't remember any pins falling out (like the triggers for the DS Lite), so you should be good.

[JazzFunk]

Once again, thanks for the info, greatly appreciated. Also truly glad to hear I've nothing to fear when popping one open, BD, I just get paranoid about stuff like that, I remember nearly snapping the silver, wafery cable when first opening my phat PS2!

Just managed to source a security Torx T8 for £1.85 posted on eBay, a price low enough to actively discourage me from going down the 'bodge' route, that's cheaper than a can of Relentless where I work(!)

[fallenangle]

I was looking for a cheap set of torx and torx (tamper proof) screwdrivers about six months ago when I became interested in original Xbox modding. A lot of the sets seemed to go up to T15 then you'd have to buy another one or a set to get the T20. In the end I went to my local Dyas and bought a surprisingly comprehensive multi-piece screwdriver set for ?9.99 which included full ranges of both types.

Reason I mention this is because when I bought my XB360 Elite I wanted a wired controller to use instead of the usual wireless one. The typical prices even for second hand ones (they seem pretty popular on eBay) weren't far short of the new cost.

Instead I found an eBay shop selling broken wired controllers. Made an offer and got two for ?5 ea. + p&p. No guarantee I could get either of them working but amazingly I found that both were incredibly simple to repair.

The Y button wasn't working on one simply because it was 'gunged' up and stuck fully down. Sound familiar? But a bit of cleaning, a tiny bit of safe lubrication, and reseating on the contact mat and it worked perfectly.

The other one I was expecting to have to cannibalise had a problem with the d-pad. I thought it would be a worn or cracked contact mat but I was surprised to find it looked pretty good. However no matter how I positioned it the left directional still didn't work as it should.

As this was the better controller cosmetically speaking I took the mat from the first controller and replaced the 'faulty' one. Worked great. But here's the thing I put that 'faulty' one into the other controller and blown me down if that didn't work near enough perfectly too.

I say near enough because I can still tell that there is difference in the feel on the left d-pad but it does work and it is actually the controller I've been using exclusively ever since without any problems.

I'm guessing that manufacturing consistency of these controllers isn't that good because I can't think why a supposedly identical contact mat should work OK in one and not the other. Anyway, point is I have two extra working controllers for ?10 + p&p thanks to that screwdriver set. It paid for itself before even being used for the reason intended.

[RuthlessRemix]

I need one of those screwdriver's so cheers for the model number guys

I customized my own controller but it went tits up so I need to fix it lol.