Microsoft keeps pushing toward repairability, now with Xbox controller parts

If you are the kind of one that hates the thought of giving Microsoft one other $65 for a brand new controller (or greater than $100 for an Elite Series 2) as a result of you already know there’s only one half damaged, Microsoft has a retailer for you. It’s small, however it’s one thing.

Direct from Microsoft, you possibly can now purchase a half-dozen Xbox restore and alternative parts for each the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 and the usual Xbox Wireless Controller. Each controller has prime circumstances and button alternative units in black and white, plus the 2 interior circuit boards that present charging, enter, vibration, and, after all, sockets with new potentiometers put in to repair stick drift.

Parts on their very own aren’t that useful to most of us, although, so Microsoft can also be offering written and video guides. The movies are primarily full teardowns of every controller. The Elite Series 2 requires a plastic pry instrument (aka spudger), a T6 and T8 screwdriver, and tweezers. The movies are useful and geared toward all ability ranges. “Always push away from your self when utilizing pry instruments, so if you happen to slip you will not hurt your self” is recommendation I’ve refused to simply accept quite a few instances.

At $35, the drift-fixing “Replacement PCBA and Motor Assembly” (i.e., controller sub-board, or “daughterboard”) for the usual Wireless Controller is definitely cheaper than shopping for a complete new controller, however it’s additionally a job requiring some wire-running endurance. Repair retailer iFixit sells many of the similar parts, together with some particular person parts, like joystick modules, for these with a solder iron and the desire to make use of it. iFixit’s inventory is much less sure (they’re at the moment out of controller sub-boards), however they provide a lifetime assure on many parts.

Microsoft’s providing of official parts follows its settlement to increase parts and restore choices after a 2021 settlement with activist shareholders. Since then, the corporate has posted its personal teardown and restore movies for Surface Laptops and began promoting parts for Surface gadgets. The firm’s pivot to supply extra at-home service choices additionally comes a number of years after it closed its retail shops.

Disclosure: Kevin Purdy beforehand labored for iFixit. He has no monetary involvement with the corporate.