1914 Y-Rotation goes haywire after a seemingly random amount of time

[PantherTSX]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here! A month or so back I bought a 1914 brand new controller, (out of warranty though as it was a distressed box and an EBay find) that had a pretty bad Y-Rotation drift issue on the right joystick right from the start. I messaged the seller and received a full refund plus got to keep the controller. Me being no stranger to electronics repair grabbed some replacement joysticks and replaced the Y-Rotation sensor with success. Windows controller calibration and gamepad-tester.com reports everything is lined up perfectly with no deadzones or weird range issues. I'm using the USB XBox Wireless Receiver for my PC.

Here's where things get weird. The gamepad works phenomenal in everything I throw at it until after some undetermined amount of time the Y-Rotation will go haywire and doesn't recover. I go back into the Windows controller calibration and now the Y-Rotation is at somewhere around 20-45% or so and attempting calibration shows the 'raw data' fluctuating. If I hold the right stick back during calibration the 'raw data' figure goes up to around 70-90%+ and keeps fluctuating sometimes hitting an upper limit in that range or even making it up over 100% if I go up and down over and over. In this state it causes in-game views to constantly move upwards (since it's at 20-45%). No matter what I've tried, I can't seem to get the controller to recover from this state. The ONLY thing that seems to work is to turn off the controller and let it sit for a while unused. Once I power it back on and go back to gaming it's perfectly normal again (even for hours and hours)...until the next time this happens.

Here's what it looks like when the issue happens...after working perfectly for 3 hours straight:
https://imgur.com/a/7H9yyAQ
https://imgur.com/a/w5Lnkez

Things I've tried:

• Upgraded firmware
• Reboot
• Uninstall/reinstall drivers
• Different USB ports (for the dongle and the controller hardwired)
• Turning off Steam in case it's conflicting with controller calibration
• Flexing controller any which way and pressing all buttons
• Replace the rechargeable batteries in it with fully charged AAs

I'm kind of leaning toward perhaps the right stick Y-Rotation becoming grounded after something heats up or maybe a bad solder joint? I've tried to even trigger this to happen by being in the calibration tool and hitting all the buttons and going through all stick motions to no avail. Is this a thing anyone has experienced before? I appreciate any advice you all can provide! Thanks!

[EDIT] Changed left stick to right stick per RDC's correction.

[RDC]

You say left stick Y-axis, then show the right one acting up in Windows and Gamepad tester on both axis.

For RSY issues, C23 is one suspect, could try removing it and test for awhile. After that the RSY line pretty much makes a straight shot to the SOC board. Could be an iffy via in that trace, solder joint on the SOC board or the BGA joint on the MCU. Could be the MCU has some internal issue that only shows up when it's warmed up also. A shot of freeze spray, or air duster turned upside down, while it's acting up could help to see where the issue is.

[PantherTSX]

RDC,

Right you are and that is absolutely a mistake on my part, it's been a long week .  I went ahead and fixed my posting. I'll take a look at C23 and test for continuity in the RSY line as well. The freeze spray is a great idea too. Thank you very much for the guidance, RDC, I really appreciate it.