Buttons on PS3 TE Randomly Stop Working

The buttons on my PS3 TE seem to randomly become unresponsive for a minute and then start working again. It happens fairly infrequently and doesn’t last long enough for me to figure out what might be causing it. I’ve tried opening up the TE to see if anything is loose; however, I really don’t know what to look for.
I got the stick only a couple of months ago; however, I no longer have the receipt.

If it affects all the buttons at the same time, you might want to check the ground line, and all the associated wire connections. It’s hard to debug intermittent problems, but you could reseat the cables that connect the PCB to the terminal block.

Thanks, but I have no idea what you have just said.

WARNING: Opening up the stick may void your warranty.

If you open up the stick, and look, there will be cables. The cable that attaches to the PS3 runs to a green piece of plastic - let’s call that the main PCB - from that main PCB, cables go to the joystick, and to another piece of plastic attached to a black block, which in turn is wired to the buttons.

If you’re having a problem that’s affecting all the buttons at the same time, then it’s most likely that the problem is happening somewhere between that black block (where the buttons split out) and the cable which runs out to the PS3. One of the first things to do is to check the connections - like those between said black block and the main PCB - especially considering that loose connections are a common cause of intermittent problems.

Here’s a video you can look at before attacking the TE.
[media=youtube]WMIxXgL0eNU[/media]

I think that one is slightly different because it’s a 360 TE, but you get the idea.

Thanks for the detailed explanation Rufus. I think I may have found the problem.
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/7959/stickconnect.th.jpg
It looks like there is a bit of glue on the left connector which is preventing it from being fully connected. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Remove the glue and properly insert the connector?

I doubt the glue is keeping it from being connected but yeah just unplug it take the glue off and stick it back on

Pull the connectors off the board. Remove the glue. Stick them back into place.
(IIRC they should be polarized, and have a different number of wires, so they’ll only fit one way.)

Actually I think the glue bridge is pulling the one on the left out which is why it’s not seated well.

Thanks for the help guys. The glue was actually on the left of the connector and was forming a wedge between the connector. I managed to scrape out the excess glue and the stick has been working so far without a hitch.