Hi all. I’m guessing I should post this here. I’ve only been playing fighting games for about a week now. Tonight my RT button no longer works on my MadCatz SE fightstick. If I keep pressing it, the input may variably respond, but only for a moment and then it no longer functions.
Is this something I could easily fix by opening it up?
Can I buy new parts?
What should I do, any help?
Since it is Standard Edition, could be that the Button is going bad.
So that can be replaced.
But the Triggers dying is a common thing that happens too.
There is no way to fix LT and RT problem.
Would have to replace PCB.
I see. So I basically need to call Mad Catz about the problem? I certainly don’t want to void the warranty, and wouldn’t mind sending it in if need be. It just stinks that it’s only lasted a week after light play.
Sorry to hear your having to deal with this.
Basically this is a common problem BOTH with the Tournament Edition as well as the Standard Madcatz sticks.
This is an indicator that your PCB has gone bye bye.
I own many sticks myself, and the PCB has died in both my Marvel vs Capcom 2 stick as well as my SSFIV SE.
I would recommend ordering a Paewang Revolution PCB ( from etokki ) or a PS360, PS360+ from Akishop if you still plan on using the shell.
try madcatz first… they are pretty cool about things like this…
It is also worth noting here though that the Brawl stick seems to have most of these “PCB Kinks” worked out and is actually a really good stick for the money.
If your looking for an inexpensive replacement.
Although I’m really looking forward to the Etokki “Omni” as my next commercial stick purchase.
It seems like it might just be a bad button, usually both triggers go bad when it’s the PCB problem right? Can you check if your LT still works?
But by all means if you don’t plan on swapping out the parts go through Madcatz first if you have the option.
It is either LT or RT or LT and RT.
Yes, all buttons but the one mentioned work.
Also, regarding the PCB problem. If it were to break, can Mad Catz, or myself, easily replace it? For instance, will it be the “end of the world” for the fightstick? Or perhaps, what if the PCB broke after I had modded it with new buttons and a joystick? Will replacing or fixing the problem be a rather easy one?
Normally i’d have no qualms about going and buying the Brawlstick as a replacement until this stick was remedied, or even a TE, but being new to this genre, I’m wanting to make sure i’m in it for the long run. Not just a week or two.
Just Updating. Mad Catz hooked me up with a couple of buttons to try out and now it works like a charm. They were awesome to deal with as well.
Hate to resurrect a topic but I did a Google search and this was the most relevant thing…so my SE stick randomly has the RT go out, and it’s not the button because the buttons are brand new and I will get the RT to come back after unplugging/plugging my stick back in. So is this a symptom of the PCB going bad? If so, is there no other solution but to get a new PCB? I bought this stick on the cheap ($25) and it has served me well but I don’t want to plunk too much more into it. THX.
How often or reliably does it occur for you? Theres another, more noob friendly option that’s been suggested and one person so far has come back to say ‘it hasnt happened at all in the month since I did it’. If you’re trouble is frequent, AND you promise to report back how well it works for you, I’ll happily walk you through it for another chance to see if it works.
Hey, I’d say it happens probably once per 2 “sessions” at least. Last night while playing it happened twice; before that probably twice in 3 nights. I noticed it started happening after I replaced my buttons when I got them last week a few days before Christmas. Now that I think about it, it might have been happening before that because I recall it going out when using back in October it but just figured the stock button was dying. But recently it has been more frequent.
I would be willing to try something “noobish” haha. I do have some limited soldering skills (used to hack PS1 pads but that was many years ago) but whatever you’ve got I’d be willing to try and report back.
Alright, but I’m expecting you to play the crap out of it after its done and report back if it shows up or not after some good beatings. 
Go to the bottom of the stick, and remove the smaller phillips screws so you can lift and remove the bottom plate. Leave the larger philips heads alone for now, and dont forget the screw under the ‘warranty void if removed’ sticker. Once the bottom plate is off, flip it over so you can get to the bolts holding the four feet to the plate. Loosen the bolt for the foot that would be closest to the the start and back buttons (remember its upside down). It’s not super important which one you loosen, but it’d be less hassle to use that one. Cut a 1 foot length of wire (nothing too strict here, just whatever you got, but no thicker than 22 gauge if you can help it), strip an inch of insulation off of one end. Twist that exposed part of wire underneeth the bolt you just loosened, so that you can tighten the bolt down onto it. The idea is for the bolt to hold the exposed length of wire to the metal of the bottom panel. Screw the bolt down TIGHT. Use a wrench on the bolt and a monster phillips screwdriver on the other side so you can tighten it as tight as you possibly can. Take the wire, and thread it through the hole in the black plastic for the last (fourth) punch button. Put the bottom plate back on and put the small phillips screws back in to secure it.
Remove the six bolts from the top of the stick, lift up the top so you can see and get to the four bolts that secure the JLF mounting plate to the top metal plate’s mounting bracket. Take a piece of wire similar to the last one, but with only 1/2" of insulation removed from the end. Loosen on of those four bolts that secure the JLF to the top place, wrap the exposed wire under the bolt head, and tighten back down.
Now you should have two wires, securely and electrically connected to the top metal plate and bottom metal plate. Now we need to connect them to ground. Look at the button distro block where all of the button wires are going. The section where the small greyish ribbon cables go should be closest to you. There’s one row of QDs in the middle, and another row of QDs on the other side, the side opposite the ribbon cable connectors. This FAR (NOT MIDDLE!) row is the one we want. Pull up the QD on the far LEFT, the side closest to the main TE pcb. Take your two wires you just added, strip off 1/2" of insulation from the end, and insert them into the QD. Then put the QD back onto the button distribution block. The idea is for the QD to hold onto the two wires when it slides onto the tab on the distribution board, holding them in place and electrically connecting them.
That’s it. Put the six hex bolts back to secure the top panel back an and you should be golden.
So…this sounds like a TE fix, but my stick is SE, meaning there are no “bolts”. Would maybe putting the exposed wire into the screw “well” under where the screw/rubber foot and screwing that down serve the same purpose?
Then secure the wires to the foot bolts on the bottom plate, and the bolts holding the joystick to the top panel.
Ok; I’ll have to do this tomorrow night but I will complete it and test it and check back here.
Ok so I installed the two wires, played for about 1 1/2 hrs tonight and all is well, so far…
I will play out the rest of the week into next week and report back if anything happens; if nothing, then I’ll at least report something next Friday.
Updates?