Broken Joystick

[Octopod]

I bought a Street Fight 4 Arcade stick from FYI a couple months ago and I didn't really use it until recently. I pulled it out to play some Raiden 4 and I noticed that it didn't to react fast enough really but I shrugged that off and kept playing. After a few minutes the fire button stopped working and kept cutting in and out.

Well, it has been longer than 30 days since I bought it so I can not take it back to the store. I could however call up the manufacture and use their warranty but I will probably have to pay for shipping I suppose. I am wonder if yall think it is even worth trying to send it in or should I just mod it with better parts and fix it myself?

I have never messed with one before so I am not sure how complicated it is. I forget which stick it is but it is the big white one, not the more expensive black one.

[CRTGAMER]

Maybe a simple fix. If the fire button electrical pads are accessible then take apart and clean. If not you might try a little contact cleaner, hold controller upside down so excess won't run into the electronics. Blow out afterwards and let dry.

[GamerMON]

But if it isn't just the contacts wouldn't even opening it up void his warranty? I hear these are great to mod. Might just wanna put in a bunch of sanwa parts in inside of trying to keep it stock.

[CRTGAMER]

But if it isn't just the contacts wouldn't even opening it up void his warranty? I hear these are great to mod. Might just wanna put in a bunch of sanwa parts in inside of trying to keep it stock.

Octopod mentioned a refund is out and warranty shipping cost may not be worth the trouble.
Arcade buttons are great but if inexpensive cleaning gives satisfactory results, might be the first step.

[Octopod]

Yeah, I'll just open her up and take a look. I don't know what I am looking for but maybe something will stand out.

[Octopod]

So I opened it up and I do not see anything that looks wrong. One of the plastic sliders was not pushed up over the connector but I do not think that was doing anything. Specially since it was from a different button than the one I had trouble with.

It looks like it would be super easy to put new buttons in. I'm just not sure why to do it though. I like the white so I would keep the color the same. I guess the main reason would just be to put better quality buttons in? I would really like to change the art but I cannot find a tutorial on how to do that to the SF4 SE stick, I just keep running onto stuff about the TE stick. I would like to replace the SF art with maybe some Raiden art or some old school art from Gradius or even Space Invaders.

I guess I'll see how much parts are and see if I think it is worth it. What kind of parts do people recommend?

Also, maybe I should change the square gate to an octagonal one.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

So I opened it up and I do not see anything that looks wrong. One of the plastic sliders was not pushed up over the connector but I do not think that was doing anything. Specially since it was from a different button than the one I had trouble with.

It looks like it would be super easy to put new buttons in. I'm just not sure why to do it though. I like the white so I would keep the color the same. I guess the main reason would just be to put better quality buttons in? I would really like to change the art but I cannot find a tutorial on how to do that to the SF4 SE stick, I just keep running onto stuff about the TE stick. I would like to replace the SF art with maybe some Raiden art or some old school art from Gradius or even Space Invaders.

I guess I'll see how much parts are and see if I think it is worth it. What kind of parts do people recommend?

Also, maybe I should change the square gate to an octagonal one.

Go to Shoryuken, they've got guides a plenty:

http://shoryuken.com/

My main question is why you were even playing with the stock parts in place at all? The Standard Edition SFIV sticks are notorious for their horrendous failure rates on the parts as Mad Catz used crappy Chinese knock offs. Basically the Standard Edition sticks were made to be opened and have their parts replaced with real ones. All the buttons are on quick disconnects and after popping them out you can simply snap the new ones in and connect the quick disconnects again. Same goes for the stick, it's all designed to be completely user serviceable.

As for parts you'll probably end up spending in the neighborhood of $30-$45 or so for parts from lizard lick which is in my opinion the best place to get them from:

http://www.lizardlick.com/pages/arcade_parts.shtml

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Maybe a simple fix. If the fire button electrical pads are accessible then take apart and clean. If not you might try a little contact cleaner, hold controller upside down so excess won't run into the electronics. Blow out afterwards and let dry.

It made with microswitched arcade pushbuttons (albeit of extremely low quality) so contact cleaner wouldn't do anything as it seems his buttons have simply worn out.

[Octopod]

Mod Man, my anti virus got really mad at the lizard link you link above.

It says it is a reported attack page. *shrug*

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Mod Man, my anti virus got really mad at the lizard link you link above.

Yeah Google got on me about it too. Lizard Lick apparently had some sort of malware attack last night and still needs to sort it out of their system.

These guys are completely legitimate though, it's where I've ordered parts for all my sticks, the same place thousands of others on Shoryuken got parts and practically the only place left for American arcade operators to get parts from.

I'm probably gonna end up firing off an email to them about it later today as I still need parts for my DC stick and wanna know what's up with the virus banner.