Sega Master System controller port problem

[technohat]

I have a Sega Master System Model One (with Hang-On built in) that has an unusual problem. Controllers plugged into the player one port will not register up. I can go left, right or down but not up. The controller port for player two has a similar problem, but in that case I can go right, left and up but not down. I've tried several SMS controllers as well as a sega genesis controller. I carefully looked over the solder joints and they don't appear to be bad. I also checked continuity with my multimeter and it seems to register ok. Has anybody else had a similar issue?

[oldschoolnesgamer]

I had this very same problem the other day. I was able to resolve it by blowing very hard into the end of the controller plug. It might be a better idea to take your vacuum cleaner hose and hold it up to the controller port on the console and the controller plug end. Sometimes the smallest speck of dust inside the controller plug end can make the controller act weird.

[technohat]

Well, blowing out the controller ports didn't help, however I did figure out what was wrong. For controller port 1 it was a bad solder joint. The joint looked fine and even tested fine with the multimeter but I decided to re-solder it anyway and low and behold it now works.

Controller port two was a combination of a slightly bent pin and some bad controllers. The three controllers that came with the system must have taken some abuse as the female holes on the end of the controllers weren't making contact properly with the bent pint. I bent the pin back into it's proper position and plugged a different Sega Genesis controller in and it seems to work fine now too. Now I can play me some Golden Axe Warrior.

[lisalover1]

I have a similar problem with my Genesis. What I did was try to push the controller port up or down while it is in the controller port, and seeing if that helped. If it did, I just put a folded piece of paper between the plug and the port,so it was forced up or down.

[Jrecee]

I have the same problem on my master system. My player one port works fine but UP doesn't work on the player 2 port. I cracked it open and couldn't find anything that looked physically messed up. I don't know anything about soldering so unless I buy another one some day it's not getting any 2 player usage.