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PSA: Don't leave your controller plugged in any way during a thunderstorm
I left my SC on the puck during a thunderstorm, the power went out, and now the left trigger is constantly being pressed.
Tried opening up the controller to clean the trigger, but there's nothing to clean because it's just a magnet. So please be careful and don't leave your controller on the puck during a thunderstorm.
Edit: Btw, I live in Brazil, this controller was a gift from a friend who lives abroad, so I can't RMA it. I am trying to, but Valve doesn't officially sell hardware here, so there isn't much they can do. Thx for the suggestions about buying surge protectors and UPS, but in Brazil these things are really expensive, and I don't have the money for that rn. Anyway, I will go back to my crying corner, because this whole situation is making me severely depressed. Hopefully I can give some good news soon.
In the top right corner on the PCB the black housing contains the hall effect sensor. You could try if bringing a different magnet to it shows any effect. Kinda crazy that the PC and USB port is fine but not that particular chip. Might be a very weird coincidence.
I did that. They can send me a new controller, but I live in Brazil, so they aren't allowed to send one directly to me. I need to import it, which is very expensive, more expensive than the controller actually.
UPS just get one and run your desk off of it i got tired of buying new PSU's back when i lived at my moms she had super fucking terrible power in the house. im oversharing but the point is Buy a UPS and save your tech
You're using it wrong. It's not meant to stop the shut off. It blocks the surge and saves your computer. It's only meant to give you a few minutes to properly shut down, not game through the storm lol.
I always assumed the UPS being 300w and the computer being 750w was the problem but IDK. I'm just glad I've had time to save my homework. Also when the power goes out for 1 second the computer stays on and that's good.
Bud they have ups above 300w, if your one a 750W machine you obviously need one above that. Most motherboards will turn themselves off the moment they receive the wrong amount of voltage to try to protect hardware.
Maybe with a bad UPS. Mine could power my whole gaming rig (4070 super, 14400k) and my 2k OLED monitor and all peripherals for 20 minutes. Getting a fancy one is a life changer. I put my old shittier UPS on my router and I was able to finish an online co-op game with my friends in the middle of a power outage.
Is there anything that can protect against SPIKES? Whenever it storms where i am I just unplug it all and go on my phone. Had my top end rig in 05 get spiked and never FA'd since.
This is why you want to have surge protection in your entire house circuit, along with your gear plugged into a UPS. I would rather spend money replacing the UPS and the protection circuit than the computer and other electronics. Your stuff will always be more expensive than the UPS and its parts designed to protect everything behind it. They're for sacrificing themselves, which is why they have so many protections inside them, not just to be a backup power.
Either way, as long as your household has a proper earthing done with a revision, you can be sure there's nothing to go wrong, other than having just the surge protector itself. In my case, even though our soviet apartment block went through a lot of renovations to keep up to the latest standards, I still have an expensive UPS to protect my critical electronics such as the server and the main PC. Of course, it's different when you live in a house and an apartment.
Doubt that, most people with general pc knowledge know that you should ALWAYS have it on a surge protector. Computers cost way too much these days to risk not using one
Almost nobody I know uses surge protectors. I also don't.
It's just so incredibly rare for any electrical issues actually reaching private home circuits here in Germany. In general I want to mention that I have experienced a total of 2 power outages in almost 3 decades here.
One was about 35 minutes due to a construction crew down the road hitting a cable and the other I only noticed because my Homeserver logged a 4 second interruption a few years ago.
I also live in the area of Germany with some of the strongest winds/storms in case that's interesting to you
Depending on the country they definitely make sense to have. In other countries with a very stable electricity grid and practically entirely underground power lines (at least in residential environments. Very long range stuff is still mostly but not entirely above ground) it's simply not as necessary.
As a tech in a rainy city, it's pretty true. I've replaced to many components because "what's a surge protector", "I don't know if I have one", "those are important?"
I see a lot of people talking about surge protectors, whole house surge protection (The kind that the power company makes you pay extra for), and UPS systems, etc. Now those are all good recommendations, however, if by chance you happen to live in Florida for instance, these things won't help you during thunder storm season. I have had (and still currently have) high quality variants of all the above mentioned devices. On multiple occasions while working during a thunderstorm (In FL), lightening hit the house and went straight through all my various expensive protection devices and blew up my monitor, modem, router, Ethernet port on my laptop for some reason. Another occasion, it got my Apple TV, another router, and some expensive LiFX lights.
So, what you really need to do is prepare your plug-in tech based on where you live. Yes, to this day when it starts storming I unplug my PC, TVs, Monitors, etc because FL lightening storms WILL blow right through your surge protectors and the severity of the storms here make them not as predictable unfortunately.
Lol yup.. I’ve been paranoid and shut everything down completely. The lightning is no joke and too often down here. But having a UPS has been huge. Already saved me a few times from being cut out of power.
Same. In just a few years I have lost several modems, 2 cheap psus, an HDMI port on my 4k dell ultrawide, my fridge (fixed by replacing relay), and two AC air handler blower fans. And 3 royal palms. Now that the utility side has moved to underground wires and the transformer is on the ground I'm hoping there will be less damage going forward. To stuff inside the house at least.
. Yes, to this day when it starts storming I unplug my PC, TVs, Monitors, etc because FL lightening storms WILL blow right through your surge protectors and the severity of the storms here make them not as predictable unfortunately.
Same in Germany. Those protections don't prevent devices from getting fried.
Unplug them during a thunderstorm storm. The devices I mean.
so you opened it up and posted about it when you could’ve RMA’d because it’s definitely within the warranty and they probably would’ve done something for you as a customer service gesture why would you do this like genuinely? I don’t understand why you would do this you could’ve just said things and not posted pictures.
yes, you can. Where did you get it from? Typically, if you live somewhere with a secondary seller, you can RMA it to them you just need to go through Steam.
I mean, hopefully it's just the hall effect sensor, theoretically you could find a replacement for it and if your experienced, repair it, or get someone to replace it
I just turn the psu off & unplug the pc power cord from the wall when not in use. A surge protector will only work if the wall outlet is 3 prong by default.
as someone who works in trades, and deals with people who know nothing about trades, this is actually the majority of people. And not just idiots. Rich folk who can't be bothered to learn the ins and outs of how things work.
I don't know what trading things has to do with electricity? I was taught what a ground plug was in school plus my parents probably told me before that. I thought it was comon knowledge like how to use a knife or how to tell if food is moldy but maybe it's not?
Not sure if you’re being deliberately obtuse or not, but they are referring exclusively to construction trades (something a tradesperson partakes in). There is nothing at all in the person’s comment that would suggest the act of trading goods.
That depends on how old the houses. As well as electrical codes are different between states & local jurisdictions. Some bedrooms aren't, the bathroom is. This is the house I'm currently living in.
I’ve got 3 900W UPS’s with quality surge protectors on top of that, that protect my living room entertainment system, sim and main PC rigs. With prices skyrocketing nowadays, I highly recommend people invest in a good UPS.
This is why you buy a surge protector and a back-ups. If you want a solid one for cheap id look at the APC back-ups pro 1000; You can find it on eBay for ~60-$100 all day.
If you cant afford that then buying a whole PC would be way to expensive. At the very least a good surge protector for $50 is better than straight into the wall.
Genuine question. Do you need to plug everything into a surge protector or UPS?
If a thunderstorm happens overnight, then couldn’t your phone, laptop, gaming consoles, kitchen appliances, monitors, TVs, and really anything that plugs into a power outlet also get screwed with?
Or is this just an issue with gaming PCs and peripherals?
Yes, but a lot of the time its to make sure you dont lose data on the device. The data in my computer is more valuable than my tvs or kitchen appliances. A lot of those things are also on dedicated circuits in your house, while you PC is most likely mixed in with a lot of other things. Thats why I ran a new line specificslly for my pc.
A lot of the stuff you mentioned is covered under home owners insurance also, while PCs sometimes aren't and the data on them definitely isnt.
Anything can get screwed with but kitchen appliances and stuff are usually less expensive than a PC, so you usually plug in the PC.
My UPS holds my PC, 3 monitors, a 3D printer and my router for internet for example. Nothing else in the house. Just the most expensive things + router for convenience.
Ah so it just depends on the value of the thing you’re willing to lose.
My phone is more expensive than almost every electronic I own outside of my gaming PC and my laptop. And more important. Maybe I should plug it into a UPS too lol.
Is there a difference between a decent surge protector like Tripp-Lite and a UPS?
A UPS is an Uninterruptible Power Supply, it protects you from surges but its also a giant battery that will kick on when your power goes out so you can save your files and shutdown your computer before you actually lose power to it. Thats why in my other comment I said its about saving data.
My UPS gives me 6 mins of power before it dies, but i also have a lot plugged in and a beast of a machine. This is also why they are more expensive, since its not just surge protection.
Thanks, this explanation as to why you’d need a UPS makes a lot of sense. A phone or laptop has a battery, so in the event of a power outage it would just likely switch to battery power and there’s no loss of data.
Appliances, TVs, and monitors don’t really have valuable data.
A desktop might though, so if there is a power outage and you’re working on something and you haven’t saved, then you lose what you’re working on. Or even worse — it’s in the process of saving as your power goes out and the file ends up corrupted.
So as I now understand it, if you want to prevent physical property damage in the event of an outage or some other electrical issue, a good surge protector should be sufficient. But if you want to protect your data in the event of an outage, then you should seek a UPS…
A surge protector simply protects everything that is connected to an outlet. So if you only want things not to burn during brownouts and such, that is the way to go and there is no need for a UPS. The way it works is that if power goes off, even if it comes back on, the surge protector does not allow the connected device to turn back on for a few minutes.
A UPS protects against that in a different way because it acts as a temporary power source, so that the device keeps functioning. Which is another reason why you would plug it into a PC, so that you don't lose unsaved data on a thing you are working on.
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u/Ace_the_Firefist Steam Controller (2026) 3d ago
In the top right corner on the PCB the black housing contains the hall effect sensor. You could try if bringing a different magnet to it shows any effect. Kinda crazy that the PC and USB port is fine but not that particular chip. Might be a very weird coincidence.