Xbox Series X|S Controller Issue Discussion: Corrupted Firmware?

Overview

The new Xbox Series X|S Controller has been giving me two very aggravating issues recently: button oversensitivity in the console's menus, and an issue in the right joystick that's lead to a constant 'UP' input... despite no traumatic falls or breaks that would normally cause issues in the joystick's sensor suite.

All of these issues seemingly began not-too-long after the firmware update in March, the same one that resolved the controller disconnection issue.

Background

For the purpose of insight, this controller shipped with my Xbox Series X unit. It came into my possession during one of Best Buy's big drops close to the start of this year, and has performed with little to no hiccups until very recently. As for its usage? It's been used almost scarcely, and has only been dropped a few times on soft carpet like all of my other functional controllers. It's received regular updates through the Xbox Accessories App whenever available on the aforementioned Xbox Series X, and has no visible damage anywhere on the unit.

What do I think?

I have come to assume that the Xbox Accessories App on the Xbox Series X (which I used to apply the March firmware update) has corrupted the firmware on this controller, or conversely, the recent firmware update caused more instability than it fixed.

I tested a few things out after noticing this, and so this is how it went.

Experimentation

The Xbox Accessories App on my Windows 10 PC offered input detection identical to that which the Xbox Series X's app did: a right-joystick UP input that would appear during a few seconds of inactivity. I have confirmed the time in between action, inactivity and this upwards drift to be exactly 2 seconds every time without delay (upon repeating the same conditions.) When the conditions were not followed in an exact fashion, (I.e. I moved the right joystick in a direction besides 'up' or clicked it in) the effect took longer to present itself. However, despite the differences in testing, it always returned to an upwards impulse within a short amount of time.

Note: the game used to test this effect on Windows 10 was "Team Fortress 2" in the Xbox 360 controller input mode, which relies on raw button and joystick input. On the Xbox Series X, the Home Menu and various Apps are the only areas affected by sensitivity issues. On that console, "Sea of Thieves" was the first game where I noticed the upwards joystick drift issue, and that issue presented itself in every other game.

Addendum: the Xbox Game Bar, an app for Windows 10, was also affected by sensitivity issues.

Observations

- These peripheral issues are not isolated to the Xbox Series X consoles. Further testing has indicated that these issues are present on Windows 10 PCs, the Xbox Series X itself, and even the Xbox One (2013), with all of these mentioned devices exhibiting identical controller behavior when used with the problematic X|S Xbox Wireless Controller.

- These anomalous button sensitivity issues do not impact the sign-in process on Xbox Consoles for some reason. For fear of accidentally buying something, no testing was done with the purchase menu.

- This anomalous joystick input is not aggressive, unlike "stick drift" caused by damaged or faulty components. Whenever the stick received input, the effect went away completely, only returning when it wasn't in use at all. "Stick Drift" in my past broken controllers was omnipresent and would completely disturb gameplay, unlike this complication.

- The sensitivity issues, which were previously mentioned two paragraphs up, were persistent in every Xbox app and page that wasn't a game, and even takes effect in the Xbox Game Bar on Windows 10. (which was discovered at the time of writing this section, actually.)

- The sensitivity issues do not present themselves while in a game. However, the joystick input is present in all affairs where it applies.

Current Discovered Solution

The only solution I have found is to use another kind of Xbox controller... for now.

I've given up trying to fight for control with this controller, so I've been using my last-gen Xbox Wireless Controller instead. This is until something is done about these issues... if they can be resolved at all. It could be the case that the batch one controllers are full of lemons, which wouldn't surprise me that much.

Questions

Is anyone else getting these issues? If so, how have you all dealt with it? Is there anything I'm not doing / forgetting to do about this?

If not, should I just buy a new controller? I'm not aware of how widespread this issue is, or if it's just isolated to a few controllers.

:)