This happened to me yesterday, and then again today. The RH button and the extra one beside it stop working until I reconnect the stick. Sucks. I guess I’m mashing out cl.RH->legs too much. Does madcatz offer to replace the whole stick? I wonder if it’s even worth it, considering the probability that a replacement stick would have the same problem.
Hi guys, I wrote to madcatz technical support and here is what they said about this issue (see at the bottom for my original message):
Madcatz Technical Support Wrote:
Hi Andrew,
At this time we have found that the issue stems from a static buildup
due to the metal plate at the bottom of the fightstick. This buildup
disables certain functions on the joystick, to the point that it may
even disconnect it, until the power source is removed from it by
disconnecting the fightstick from the Xbox 360’s USB port.
At this time, however, we are still looking into why this is only
happening with a few Xbox 360 TE sticks, and not all of our fightsticks.
As soon as a solution is found, we will let everyone know about it.
Regards,
XXXXX XXXXX
Customer Support Tech.
Mad Catz Interactive Inc.
1-800-659-2287
techsupport@madcatz.com
Mad Catz//GameShark//Saitek//Joytech//AirDrives
===============================
My original email:
Hi,
I recently purchased a Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament
Edition arcade stick from shop.capcom.us. I have had it for a few
weeks now, and it seems like a really well made piece of hardware but
I have noticed some problems with my stick ever since I got it.
The problem is that periodically certain buttons will stop working,
physically they can be pressed fine and are not stuck. But the button
presses are no longer registered by my games. If I unplug and
reconnect the USB cable, the buttons are instantly working again.
Originally I was only playing SFIV on my PC, so I thought it might
have been a driver issue, or maybe something to do with my USB port.
However I have investigated further and since found that it occurs
exactly the same when I play using my Xbox 360. I also did some
searching on the Internet and found that there have been a number of
other users with exactly the same problem. See this forum thread on
Shoryuken, a Street Fighter fansite -
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=178112
My symptoms seem to be the same as others, usually the RT (HK) and LT
(3k) buttons stop responding, or the RB (HP) and LB (3P) buttons. It’s
usually one pair or the other, not usually both. I have also had a
similar problem where I got stuck in a crouching position mid game and
only some buttons worked, but have only noticed this happen once. I
have not yet noticed any other buttons stop working, just the four -
RB, LB, RT, LT. Unplugging and reconnecting the USB cable seems to fix
the problem for some time. It’s hard to quantify how often the buttons
stop working because sometimes it will happen several times in a row,
but then be fine for a long time. I would expect it to happen around
once an hour while I am playing.
I would also like to note that my stick is in mint condition, has not
been modified or had anything spilled on it. This problem has been
occuring from day one of owning it, but it took some time to identify
exactly what was happening with it.
Is this a known issue to Madcatz / Capcom? I have read speculation
that this problem has something to do with the PCB used in the stick.
Should I be dealing with Capcom store where I purchased the arcade
stick from, or Madcatz who is the manufacturer?
What can be done about this problem, are there any known solutions?
I will also mention, in case it is useful, that I live in New Zealand
and I purchased the stick through the USA capcom online shop who
mailed the arcade stick to me. (Excellent packaging by the way, the
stick arrived in perfect condition and was very well protected during
shipping).
Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you.
I think my 360 te just shit the bed. Tried plugging it in the 360, turbo and xbox light just comes on for a second and shuts off. Is there a way to fix this or am I shit out of luck? Anybody have any suggestions. Has never been modded except for putting in ls-32-01.
I think my RT/LT buttons going out have to do with button mashing. I haven’t been button mashing for a while now and I haven’t gotten that problem for 5 months. I also play less now also, so that coule be the reason why I haven’t encountered the problem.
Interesting, I wonder if you could solve the problem by wiring a GND signal and soldering it to the metal plate. If I could get the problem to repeat consistently enough I would try it out
Funny, I noticed the problem dissapear as soon as I stopped playing in my carpeted game room and moved my 360 to my bedroom… (concrete floor)…
Strange, very strange…
But then how come it doesn’t happen to the PS3 TE if it’s static build up?
Possibly due to the fact that RT & LT have to emulate analog triggers (just a guess because they are the ones failing) so they have unique circuitry
So does this only happened to 360 TE’s?
The LT/RT issue is 360 specific as far as I’ve seen. I have mine dual modded, and the actual cthulhu has never had an issue, so I think it is specific to the madcatz PCB, and likely just the 360 one
I also would like to know if this quick fix would work. I’m looking at my friends SE Fightstick that has buttons that don’t register 100% of the time. However, as mentioned earlier, does this static electricity mean that only the wiring is affected or are the connections on the actual buttons themselves affected?
On the SE it could just be the cheap buttons. I’ll try to get my TE to flake out and see if grounding the metal plate helps.
Wow, I can reproduce this easily by going into Training mode and hitting all my buttons all at the same time for about 30 seconds.
I’ll see if grounding the metal plate helps…
Not sure if anyone cares, but wiring the GND on the signal to a screw on the bottom plate seems to have really helped. At least I can’t repro the problem in 30 seconds like before. Time will tell…
I think it’s a load of crap. The TE PCBs are pretty lame. I haven’t had the trigger issue with a fightpad pcb and it’s in the same case.
I replaced the metal plate with a piece of 1/4 inch plywood. Yes it’s ghetto, but It’s screwed into the coffee table anyway… so I’m not too worried about that.
I figure if mine develops the problem, then its not due to the plate. No problems yet.
Oh, and yes my warranty was expired before I did this. Taking the bottom plate off will void your warranty.
Well it happened again even with a grounded bottom plate. Time to try grounding the top plate too.
Sent off a support email to madcatz, maybe they can send me a new pcb
Have this problem too with LT and RT bought around April. I read this whole thread hoping to find a solution and absolutely nothing. I’ll keep my eye’s peeled in hopes that someone finds a solution. If anyone looking to buy one of these sticks is interested but hasn’t yet purchased one I’d say if your gonna buy do with caution. Make sure you can get a replacement just incase you get a stick with issues. My friend bought a stick and hasn’t had a problem with it but then there’s also people having problem’s with these sticks that just bought them a few month’s ago according to this thread. 
Well like you all said before looks like i’m stuck using the LB button in place of HK and remapping the button’s atleast i’m using a 6 button layout so I’m not using the other two black buttons. Ahh look problem seems to be solved for now. Haven’t had a problem in a few hours. I’ll update if I run into any other problems.
I’ve read this thread with a lot of interest because I’ve seen very similar symptons from a padhacked madcatz fightpad pcb. RT and LT stops working regularily and quite often the xbox asks me to reconnect my controller.
The fightpad pcb sits in a dual-pcb configuration with a psx pad and the psx pad has given me no problems whatsoever.
I had suspected that the madcatz pcb was subpar (well it was either that or my wiring ;-)) and after reading this thread I’m pretty sure of it.