I've noticed a bunch of random accidental hard drops lately, which pretty much means auto lose. Then I noticed that the D-pad on my DS isn't as "tight" as I remember. The only direction that feels correct is down, which, when pressed, clearly goes in and out (as if it's moving and then retirning to the original position). All the other directions lack that feeling of an "in and out," almost as if the spring mechanism that causes the sensation is gone. I'm not sure what the exact inner workings are, but something is definitely awry. All the directions respond when pressed but not in the same manner as down. Any ideas?
Just be glad it's not a Lite. The Control Pad on a DS Lite is even touchier, and I get a lot of double hard drops.
Damn, I thought you were refering to the Phat. While I don't quite get what you mean by the 1st post, we really need to 'feel' it to know. I, personally think the Lite's D-pad is abit too springy, I prefer the very digital feel of the Phat's version. Every 'click' I get, I know I move a column.. But with the Lite's D-pad, you don't get 'clicks'.. (similar to what Tepples said about double hard-drops as it's too soft) Also, the shoulder buttons are bad, because a friend of mine reported that his Lite's shoulder button, has fallen off after heavy use. _______________ Oh yea to Sully, the buttons and D-pad are both pretty much using a spring-mechanism, so I suppose heavy usage on the D-pad and the face-buttons will screw it up. So as the shoulder buttons as I've mentioned. Well, now that we know; take better care of the Lite(Phat is sturdy), we've seen cracks, shoulder buttons falling off, and now your D-Pad is not as responsive as before. And since you're in the states(right?), why not call NoA customer service?
i've had this same problem. i actually sold my original DS lite and replaced it with one about three or four weeks ago because i was so upset with the stickiness of the D pad. The original DS had about 4000 4p wins and 2000 2p wins in addition to a 12 hour marathon session (to get to level 999). Anyway, the problem i had seemed to be stickiness within the inniards of the D pad. It seems like as i play, grime from my thumb and sweat work their way into it as i notice it gets worse after about an hour of playing. In the morning when it's cool it works much better than after it gets "warmed up" by whatever is doing the warming and it sticks a hell of a lot more. there's a problem with the new ones too.... they seeem to need to be "broken in" because they are much too sensitive out of package. It wasn't until about 400 wins on my new DS lite that i was pleased with the game-feel in tetris.
I'll try to explain it in more detail. "Down" is the only direction that has an "in and out" feel to it when pressed. The normal feeling is a very slight resistance that is "overcome" when pressed, and then some sort of a a spring mechanism reverts the d-pad back to its original position when released (down still works exactly like this). The other directions no longer do this- it doesn't feel like they move in or out- well they do move "in" slightly with the first press but they aren't forced back out when released, only when the opposite direction is pressed. All the directions still work, both when held and pressed, but for all but down, it's not like pressing a moving button, its like tapping a stationary object. edit: I contacted NOA, and they are sendng me a refurbished DSL, at which point I'll send my "defective" one back to them. I just had to pay $5 shipping and give credit card info (in case I don't send the old one back).
All my games controllers seem to have large amounts of what can only be dirt off my hands in the cracks. Like when you rubs your hands together you often get a black residue forming. On my DS Phat, you can see lots of dirt build up around the d-pad, which I scrape out from time to time with and unbent paperclip. If a Lite allows the dirt to fall into the machine, because there's a gap around the edges of the buttons, then I could see how it would cause problems.
I know exactly what Sully's talking about, as my Lite is acting the same way. I'm afraid the refurbished one they're sending you will probably also eventually end up that way.
