# Random input lag / weird behaviour for xbox controller on my system (multiple reconnects fix it but rarely)



## yecax (Jan 1, 2018)

So I have a 4 year old system,  Z87-K ASUS MOBO, I5-4570 CPU, 8 G RAM that is giving me headaches for the past 2 years or so

I used 3 different Xbox controllers, multiple windows reinstall and the issue persists and I can't figure it out

Basically in every game where I use the gamepad it seems that the analog triggers and to an extent the sticks are responding with random delay and are perceived as giving slower input or a lower range of motion. 

Everything is slower when this happens, if I play a car racing videogame the car is making weird turns and accelerates slower with the triggers, when I am playing Rocket League I play worse and I simply am off and behind the game 

I can't figure it out, reinstalling the drivers doesnt help, the controllers are just fine, I can see them working just fine in their test windows panel but in games I am doing badly because something is completely off

Reconecting to different UB ports doesnt help, the only fix that I was able to do was multiple reconnects sometimes seem to fix this and I can have like a decent gaming session. Later on the problem occurs. 

I have no idea how to identifiy what might be causing this, I really suspect faulty hardware, thinking maybe the MOBO is having issues with the input. 

Anyone heard of something similar or has any idea how to troubleshoot this


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## Regeneration (Jan 1, 2018)

Is it wired or wireless? Sounds like input lag to me.

Wireless controller: try to shut off other wireless devices that can cause signal interference (cordless phone, router, etc).

Wired controller: disable V-Sync, configure the monitor to use the highest supported refresh rate, set power plan to high performance and disable all USB power management features within Windows (control panel > power options > advanced power settings), disable XHCI and try to play around with the USB settings in the MOBO BIOS, toggle Spread spectrum and C-states, try to remove other USB devices that can cause interference in the hub like USB network adapter.


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## yecax (Jan 1, 2018)

It is wired. This has pissed me of so much I already changed my psu, keyboard + mouse (I already had some terrible hardware anyway so that is not a problem it didn't fix anything for me)  and bought a USB PCI extension card sadly with no improvement.

I have tried everything up until this part "disable XHCI"

Thanks for the detailed info I will definitely try the things you said I think they are bios config so I will look into that and hopefully one of those might improve things for me.

Was also using AI Suite and uninstalled that today to rule this out also


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## Bill_Bright (Jan 1, 2018)

yecax said:


> I have no idea how to identifiy what might be causing this, I really suspect faulty hardware, thinking maybe the MOBO is having issues with the input.


Does this problem ONLY happen when gaming with an XBOX controller? What about other computing tasks? If the problem is only with XBOX gaming, id oes not seem likely the problem is the motherboard.


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## Regeneration (Jan 1, 2018)

If the lag occurs even with a PCI USB extension card, we can rule out USB compatibility issue.

* Try to disable power saving features that increase latency like SpeedStep, C-States, Turbo, EPU, LPM.
* Try to disable onboard devices that you don't use.
* Try to plug the graphics card in another slot.
* Try to increase the PCH voltage a bit.


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 1, 2018)

If its only XB controllers I'd say the usb adapter for the controller is the issue or set power properties in Windows so it doesnt shut off the ports, make sure the proper driver is installed too.

No change try the controllers on a different system, if there is no issue there, well then your motherboard or OS is shot.

Other solution is to not use xb controllers but units from a different brand


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## jboydgolfer (Jan 1, 2018)

I don't know what brand controller you're using but my madcatz work
 great


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## yecax (Jan 2, 2018)

Bill_Bright said:


> Does this problem ONLY happen when gaming with an XBOX controller? What about other computing tasks? If the problem is only with XBOX gaming, id oes not seem likely the problem is the motherboard.



Well  I only had until now 2 XBOX360 controllers (I smashed both of them sadly playing Fifa) and now a XBOX One . Before I had some no name gamepads that were cheaper but didn't had analog triggers and were not compatible with most games

I don't have other visible problems, the system is still doing great doesn't heat up, I can play games without crashes I can do work etc

Maybe I should try another brand but they are kinda expensive and these controllers were pretty reliable (for playing Fifa for example) before I started having this weird behaviour




Regeneration said:


> If the lag occurs even with a PCI USB extension card, we can rule out USB compatibility issue.
> 
> * Try to disable power saving features that increase latency like SpeedStep, C-States, Turbo, EPU, LPM.
> * Try to disable onboard devices that you don't use.
> ...



I already disabled some yesterday from the first list c-states Spread spectrum and XHCI. I played Rocket League for a bit and it felt good however I've been throughthis process so many times (thinking I fixed it by chaging something moving the RAM around, reinstalling drivers, reinstalling the GPU driver or some are dumb stuff I tried only to have it reaapear 24 hours later) that I am not too confident.

If later today I see the games being sluggish I will disable these too, I think I have Turbo and EPU enabled for sure


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## jboydgolfer (Jan 2, 2018)

btw, *amazon sells a great xbox wired black controller for real cheap* that has worked on every OS ive used ...from Xp-win10.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 2, 2018)

So...I made this program a while ago for someone else trying to diagnose issues with their Xbox 360 controller.  It's attached to this post (extract before running):
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...-racing-games-gear-shift.229799/#post-3631251

You could plug all three in at once and see if the issue effects all of them simultaneously.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Jan 2, 2018)

I had a somewhat similar issue and thought it was just my 360 controller finally going so I went  with a Xbone S Bluetooth controller and have been good since...Game Sir controllers are fairly good too and offer a slightly lower price.


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## yecax (Jan 2, 2018)

Regeneration said:


> If the lag occurs even with a PCI USB extension card, we can rule out USB compatibility issue.
> 
> * Try to disable power saving features that increase latency like SpeedStep, C-States, Turbo, EPU, LPM.
> * Try to disable onboard devices that you don't use.
> ...




I don't think I fixed anything with these, I tried moving my GPU few months ago with no results

Anyway I just noticed that in the devices sometimes my windows sees two compatible drivers and sometime just one this is a tad weird



http://imgur.com/CtcBhhE


Anyway I give up something is screwed up but I will never figure it out on this system. I wish at least nothing would work all the time instead of rarely having the gamepad feel perfectly. So annoying


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## jboydgolfer (Jan 2, 2018)

FordGT90Concept said:


> So...I made this program a while ago for someone else trying to diagnose issues with their Xbox 360 controller.  It's attached to this post (extract before running):
> https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...-racing-games-gear-shift.229799/#post-3631251
> 
> You could plug all three in at once and see if the issue effects all of them simultaneously.



how does it work? what does it do? iirc ive tried some of your other programs/tools in the past, and am curious.

@yecax did you try the tool @FordGT90Concept posted?


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## yecax (Jan 2, 2018)

FordGT90Concept said:


> So...I made this program a while ago for someone else trying to diagnose issues with their Xbox 360 controller.  It's attached to this post (extract before running):
> https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...-racing-games-gear-shift.229799/#post-3631251
> 
> You could plug all three in at once and see if the issue effects all of them simultaneously.



What does the program do is it different from the test app that exists for it in the devices window? Btw why does calibrating the controller in it's settings window does nothing ingames? Seems the calibrate is only working in the controller settings window lol.

What did you meant by plugin all three?


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## natr0n (Jan 2, 2018)

Update your usb drivers. ?


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## jboydgolfer (Jan 2, 2018)

The only time I could think of ever having an issue with a plug and play Xbox controller on PC, was when my motherboard driver disk automatically installed some "extra fast USB" gimmicky app thing. It was an asrock app for asmedia usb devices iirc. But i just removed it & connectivity went back to normal.


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 2, 2018)

jboydgolfer said:


> The only time I could think of ever having an issue with a plug and play Xbox controller on PC, was when my motherboard driver disk automatically installed some "extra fast USB" gimmicky app thing. It was an asrock app for asmedia usb devices iirc. But i just removed it & connectivity went back to normal.



I know of that app, it is for charging and uefi functions i believe, other than that wasteful


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 2, 2018)

yecax said:


> What does the program do is it different from the test app that exists for it in the devices window?


It basically shows you what games looking at a controller would see in real time:








yecax said:


> Btw why does calibrating the controller in it's settings window does nothing ingames?


It might adjust where the dead zone is for the joysticks but other than that, I have no idea.



yecax said:


> What did you meant by plugin all three?


You said you tried three controllers.  It can observe up to four simultaneously.  With more than one, you could see if the same artifact is occurring simultaneously across more than one controller.

If there's nothing wrong with a controller, it should look like the picture above when you're not touching it.  If you see any kind of activity when you're physically not messing with it, then there's hardware problems.


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## yecax (Jan 3, 2018)

FordGT90Concept said:


> It basically shows you what games looking at a controller would see in real time:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Does it work for wired controllers also? Btw is this using xinput? Because I think new games use that instead of direct input

Basically I am asking what is the difference compared to the Test window the controller has? Is it using a different reading input method?


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## Technoninja101 (Jun 24, 2018)

Same thing happens to me with a ps4 controller and I too have a Asus Mobo. So my guess is that its mobo software as it happened after a software update 5 months ago


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 24, 2018)

yecax said:


> Does it work for wired controllers also? Btw is this using xinput? Because I think new games use that instead of direct input
> 
> Basically I am asking what is the difference compared to the Test window the controller has? Is it using a different reading input method?


>Does it work for wired controllers also?
Yes

>Btw is this using xinput?
Yes

>Basically I am asking what is the difference compared to the Test window the controller has? 
None.  Every game tick, the game polls the controllers like my program does.  Only difference is they use the data to do something where I just show you the raw data.

> Is it using a different reading input method?
Nope.




Technoninja101 said:


> Same thing happens to me with a ps4 controller and I too have a Asus Mobo. So my guess is that its mobo software as it happened after a software update 5 months ago


Unless there's something very broken with the USB on the motherboard, it's not likely related.


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## Aquinus (Jun 24, 2018)

How old is the cable? My family kills USB A to micro-b cables like it's their business. It's not loose or anything, is it?


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