Gamepad & Controller Tester

Connect the controller. Plug it in by USB or pair it over Bluetooth, then press any button so the browser can see it. Chrome and Edge pick up controllers straight away. Safari and Firefox can be slower to show a pad and may not report vibration.

Press every button. Each button on the schematic lights orange while it is held. Pull the triggers slowly and check the bars climb evenly from empty to full without jumping.

Move both sticks. The dot in each plot follows the stick and leaves a short trail, so you can see whether the movement is smooth or steps about. Roll each stick round its full edge a few times.

Run the drift test hands-off. Put the controller down, then press Test for drift. The tester samples both sticks for three seconds and reports the resting position of each axis as a percentage of full travel.

Resting offset above 5 per cent. The stick is not returning to centre. That is stick drift, and on modern pads it usually points to worn sensors inside the stick module rather than anything you can fix in settings. A small offset under 5 per cent is normal and sits inside the dead zone every game applies.

Circularity error. How closely the stick traces a circle when you roll it round the edge of its housing. A few per cent is typical. A large error, or a shape that looks squashed on one side, usually means a worn module or a square-gated stick.

A button that does not light. Or one that lights when you have not touched it, is a contact, membrane or board fault. A trigger bar that jumps rather than sliding points to a worn trigger sensor.

Polling rate. An estimate of how often the controller sends new data. A wired connection usually reports a higher figure than Bluetooth, and the browser can cap the number, so treat it as a guide rather than a lab reading.

Vibration does not run. Check the connection type first. Some browsers only expose rumble over USB, and some third-party pads do not expose it at all.