Ummm WTF?

[Ben.]

I got this controller in my first batch of controllers I ordered from China, they are official and all came in the retail packaging.

I opened up a few of them to do ROL swaps etc.. and came across this one with a small bit of wire soldered to the LED across to another point.. WTF?

[PspKicks316]

That pcb is in terrible condition. Looks like a bit of corrosion or just plain crap on some of those parts...and there's crap everywhere on that board.
You SURE they're new? lol

I don't know the pinout of the PNC rechargeable battery, but that's wired as a battery indicator led...or what seems to be gnd.

Weird..

[Ben.]

Yer they are new .

But yer its covered in so much :/.

Its just really odd why its in there 

[Modded Matt]

you are buying bulk referb/rejected controllers, not new.....the one in the picture is not new it has been in the hands of a noob modder who tore one of the led pads and hot wired it to make it work.

I started going down the bulk road long ago and learned that it was a waste of my time, out of 10 I usually got 3 complete working pads.

the white stuff is common. you will see it on 99% of microsoft controllers.

[jrfhoutx]

yeah, the white stuff is common in a lot of electronics... I've actually seen it all over 360 mobos. first time I thought it was corrosion, but doesn't clean up like it...

I was thinking the same as matt about refurb controllers and a newbie modder, though my first thought was 'holy that's asking for a short circuit!', looks like bare copper wire soldered in there...

[Ben.]

I'm pretty sure they are brand new tbh, they came in the big plastic retail packaging sealed and they have the stickers on the controller, so im not sure how that wire got there, I removed it and everything still works fine.

[Modded Matt]

you see the 4 pins, the wire is going to the one on the left (power) you see the way the solder is globed there, it was done by hand...see the other 4 pins, see how the solder is a different color, and they come to a point...this was done by a machine....these have been tampered with.

[jrfhoutx]

all the tell-tale signs matt points out are correct...

MS controllers (like most electronics nowadays) are made, packaged, and refurbished in China. if this is where they are made, packaged and refurbed, then it is entirely possible for them to refurb a used controller, put it in original retail packaging and pass it off as new. and if they make the controllers then they have all the seal stickers at their disposal. after all 99% of consumers will never disassemble the controller, so they would never know they were duped. if you hadn't opened this one would you have known it was tampered with? my guess is no. why do you think the place you bought it from was able to offer you such a low price? the same reason so many 'new official' controllers sold on places like ebay are cheaper than they would be if you bought them at a retail store...

besides isn't China known to be the largest center in the world for piracy, knock-offs, and rip-offs?

[PspKicks316]

Huh. Mine don't have all of that crap on them..none of mine do.

[Modded Matt]

not to that extream, but every microsoft controller I have opened has the white residue on it. We had this discussion once before. chives actually explained it very professionally, as he tends to do...

[SN!P3R]

Well he was an electro mechanical engineer...

And I think but not sure but it's a grease used in manufacturing electronics sometimes I think electrical grease?

[jrfhoutx]

regardless, that's a pretty nasty controller board, unless it was dirt cheap I'd be pretty pissed, lol

[Hazer]

This may have been a repair job done on a malfunctioning new controller also. Not every controller works when it comes off the assembly line, so they quickly trouvleshoot and hand-repair if possible.

I have seen that white residue on tons of controllers. I believe it a by-product of wave-soldering.

[laxboy]

THis is a matrix motherboard so it makes alot more sense that it is refurbashed