Controller test
Test every button and trigger, and measure analogue stick drift. Works with Xbox, PlayStation and most third party controllers.
Browsers deliberately hide connected controllers until you press a button on one. This is a privacy measure, not a fault. Connect your controller, press any button, and it will appear here.
How to run the test
Connect your controller and press any button. The tester polls your controller around 60 times a second and shows every button, trigger and stick position live.
Work through every input: all four face buttons, both shoulders, both triggers through their full travel, all four directions on the D-pad, both stick clicks, and start, select and guide. Anything that never turns green has not registered.
Measuring stick drift
Drift is the fault people actually come here for. Start the drift measurement, take your hands off both sticks, and keep the controller still on a flat surface for three seconds. The test records the largest resting deflection on each axis across roughly 180 samples.
Sampling many frames rather than reading one value matters, because drift is often intermittent. A stick that reads zero at rest can still spike when the controller is nudged, and a single reading would miss it entirely.
What the numbers mean
Stick axes report between -1 and 1, where 0 is perfectly centred. Games apply a deadzone, usually somewhere between 0.08 and 0.15, and ignore anything inside it. That is why a controller can measure a real fault here and still feel fine in one game while being unplayable in another that uses a tighter deadzone.
What a failed input usually means
A face button or D-pad direction never registers
Usually a worn membrane pad or contamination on the contact. On most controllers this is accessible with a screwdriver and fixed by cleaning the contact pad with isopropyl alcohol.
A trigger does not reach 1.00
The potentiometer or hall sensor in that trigger is worn or misaligned. Partial travel is a real competitive disadvantage in racing and shooter games and is worth addressing.
Sticks show drift
The potentiometer has worn. Contact cleaner sprayed into the potentiometer body often buys several months. A permanent fix means replacing the stick module, or upgrading to a hall effect module, which does not wear the same way because nothing physically touches.
Nothing registers at all
Try a different cable and a different port before anything else. Charge-only USB cables are an extremely common cause and look identical to data cables.
Common questions
Why does my controller not show up until I press a button?
Browsers deliberately hide connected gamepads until you interact with one. A list of attached controllers is a fingerprinting signal, so the specification requires a button press before a page can see any of them. It is not a fault and there is no setting to change it.
How much stick drift is normal?
A healthy stick rests below about 0.02 on a scale where full deflection is 1.0. Between 0.02 and 0.05 is normal manufacturing tolerance. Past 0.10 you are outside the deadzone most games apply, which is the point your character starts moving on its own.
My controller works in games but not in the browser.
Check whether it is in XInput mode rather than DirectInput, since browsers support XInput far more reliably. Many third party controllers have a physical switch or a button combination to change mode. Steam Input can also capture a controller exclusively, so close Steam and retest.
Why are my button labels wrong?
The Gamepad API cannot tell which physical controller is attached. An Xbox pad and a DualSense both report the standard mapping with identical indices, so labels show both conventions. If the mapping reads as non-standard, your browser does not recognise the layout at all and positions may not match.
Can I test rumble here?
Yes, where the browser and controller support it. The rumble button only appears when a vibration actuator is detected. Support is best in Chromium browsers with Xbox and PlayStation controllers over USB.
Does this work over Bluetooth?
Yes, though wired is more reliable for testing. Bluetooth adds latency and some controllers expose a different button mapping wirelessly than they do over USB, so if results look wrong, retest with a cable before concluding the hardware has failed.
Troubleshooting guides
Test your other hardware
Most hardware faults travel in pairs. If one device is misbehaving, check the rest.