Fix help: PlayStation 3 Controller battery/charge issues. - Help.com

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PlayStation 3 Controller battery/charge issues.

This isn’t so much a question, rather I am posting it here in case anybody searches for possible solutions to this seemingly common problem.

Recently I had a problem where my PS3 controller battery ran so low that it could not even turned on in order to charge the battery. Even charging from a PC USB plug, which I often do, would not work.

The solution which worked for me, after about an hour of online research and contact with Sony:

1. First, turn off the PS3 and disconnect the power cord to the PS3 itself. Unplug the controller charge cable from the USB port (or PC if you use a PC to charge). Make sure you do not have anything else plugged into the PS3’s USB ports, including any USB mouse, keyboard, sound devices or other controllers.

2. Wait about 10 seconds and then plug the PS3 power cord back in and then turn on the PS3 using the power button on the PS3.

3. Plug the controller’s charge cord into one of the PS3’s USB ports. This should get the PS3 to actively look for the controller and the controller’s lights should then flash.

4. With a small, but not too sharp object, (like a toothpick, or small unfolded paperclip), press the tiny reset button on the bottom of the controller and hold it in for about 5 seconds. (It is located to the right of the middle screw on the bottom of the controller). This should reset the controller and ensure a connection to the PS3, just as a new controller would for it’s first initial charge.

* Sometimes the controller may ~appear~ to flash and work when skipping a step or two, but will then stop charging and still shopw as having a dead battery after the lights flash for several minutes to an hour, so to be sure, please follow all steps and save yourself the time and frustration of having to do it over again or save yourself from having to replace the rather pricy controller.

——————-
*NOTE*
According to Sony, the DS3 controller’s battery is designed to resist degrading from frequent charges, charging while not needing to be or running completely dead. It is extremely rare to simply have a bad battery, so do not believe everything people tell you about it being a bad battery or about overcharging or burning out the battery, try this fix first to see if it works and if not, then consider contacting Sony for a replacement as it is not entirely impossible that you may be one of the rare cases. Attempting to replace the battery yourself may void any warrenties or free replacement options as well as costing you more for buying a battery, than what Sony often offers for free replacement.
——————-

I hope this helps and it seems to have worked for about 90% of the people who mention this problem online as well as it having worked to fix my own controller. Feel free to respond with your own success or lack of success in trying this as well as any suggestions or other experiences in repairing other PS3 Dual-Shock 3 controller issues.

Have fun, happy gaming and I hope you get many trophies and headshots. ;)

(If you play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, look me up. I am Chaos_Zen and I use the clan tag of [WTF?], which all are welcome to use if they wish. Voice also available when the kids are not making too much noise in the house.)

_____________
tech writers

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ChaosZen offline Verified User (3 years, 2 months) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (6 minutes after post)

I almost forgot to mention, this fix is best done at night, so you can leave it powered on overnight to fully restore the controller’s charge. Be sure you remove any CD/DVD from your console before doing so, to avoid overheating or stressing them. I have one game that was left in while it was turned on for about 24 hours which no longer plays because the heat was just enough to cause a stress crack in the game DVD.

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~Empress~ Hazelnut offline Verified User (5 years, 6 months) Long Term User Shouts: 20 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (8 minutes after post)

Thankx but is that seriously you in that pic

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Help me with: Sweet pea
BoogedyBoogedyBooby offline Verified User (4 years, 9 months) Long Term User Shouts: 1 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (10 minutes after post)

Good advice. Right before I sold my ps3 I had this problem… I just bought a new remote thinking the old one was screwed…. Thanks to walmart I got to return the broken remote and ended up not paying a dime for the new one.

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ChaosZen offline Verified User (3 years, 2 months) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (14 minutes after post)

Empress chaos wrote:
Thankx but is that seriously you in that pic

Actually, yes. I’m a bald, older guy who plays industrial/metal/moods bass and video games among other things, who happens to have a purple beard and an affinity for chaos, lol.

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~Empress~ Hazelnut offline Verified User (5 years, 6 months) Long Term User Shouts: 20 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (17 minutes after post)

Purple beard thats diff havent seen a purple beird it looks black
and my ps3 got stolen lol sad
Chaos and destruction ;)
i love that word, thats why im the empress :P

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Help me with: Sweet pea
ChaosZen offline Verified User (3 years, 2 months) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (24 minutes after post)

Empress chaos wrote:
Purple beard thats diff havent seen a purple beird it looks black
and my ps3 got stolen lol sad
Chaos and destruction ;)
i love that word, thats why im the empress :P

Some of my favorite words are things like discord, disharmony, devices… Hmmm… I wonder why so many of the good words start with the letter D. Just a random observation because random is the passion of chaos, it keeps us on our toes and makes life entertaining. :p

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ChaosZen offline Verified User (3 years, 2 months) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (27 minutes after post)

Empress chaos wrote:
Purple beard thats diff havent seen a purple beird it looks black

I think the picture was taken too soon after recoloring it. The color says to leave it in for about 15 minutes but I like it to last longer and be a darker, richer purple, so I keep it in a few hours before rinsing and that makes it last for more than 3 weeks before getting too faded, instead of having to buy more color every week or two.

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icantthinkofagoodnam offline Verified User (3 years, 2 months) Long Term User Shouts: 1 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (55 minutes after post)

great, now buy me a PS3

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ChaosZen offline Verified User (3 years, 2 months) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (58 minutes after post)

Private Joker wrote:
great, now buy me a PS3

I can’t do that, if I had the money for that, I’d buy me another one so I’d get a chance to play when the kids are home. Of course, if I bought another, it would be 100% mine, so I’d have no reservations about painting the case white and having fun with my Sharpies!

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blissful offline Verified User (3 years, 1 month) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (1 hour, 19 minutes after post)

ummmmmmm omg you play the bass (sorry this has nothing to do with your post)….how long did it take you to learn?

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ChaosZen offline Verified User (3 years, 2 months) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years, 1 month ago (1 hour, 29 minutes after post)

blissful wrote:
ummmmmmm omg you play the bass (sorry this has nothing to do with your post)….how long did it take you to learn?

I’ve been playing strings since I was like 16 or so in the 80’s. There really isn’t much learning to it, you just get a bass and start playing what you feel and it gets better over time. I started with guitar, but can’t chord well anymore so I switched to bass because it has more simplified chording and easier to fit my fingers where I need them.

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blissful offline Verified User (3 years, 1 month) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 3 years ago (10 hours, 1 minute after post)

o ok thanks.

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hachirokueightysi offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 2 years, 11 months ago (1 month, 1 week after post)

hey this method worked! i had the same problem. controller wouldn’t charge and had no response. so i tried your method and both my controllers work now! thanks for the tip!!!

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ChaosZen offline Verified User (3 years, 2 months) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 2 years, 11 months ago (1 month, 1 week after post)

hachirokueightysi wrote:
hey this method worked! i had the same problem. controller wouldn’t charge and had no response. so i tried your method and both my controllers work now! thanks for the tip!!!

I’m glad it helped. I tried to make this post as sort of a collection of different smaller tips and suggestions, each of which worked for some people, but combined in a way that will work for most who are having the battery charge issue. I spent a few hours searching for fixes and trying most of them before coming up with one that works well for almost everybody. I know it saved me from having to spend another $60 on a new controler.

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dirtythano offline Verified User (2 years, 4 months) Long Term User Shouts: 0 #
An Unknown Location | 2 years, 4 months ago (8 months, 1 week after post)

thank you very much!!! i had the same problem with my ps3 controller! but not any more! you saved me from spending 60euro. you are the best!!!!!!!!!

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ebbys89 offline Verified User (1 year, 6 months) Long Term User Shouts: 0 #
An Unknown Location | 1 year, 6 months ago (1 year, 6 months after post)

I was playing last weekend till i get a message on screen saying “the controller needs charging”. I plug the controller to the usb in PS3. It looked ok(Charging) After some time all 4 lights started blinking. when i pressed PS button saw a message “Charging failed” (something like that). As soon as i removed the USb to put it back and try again, the controller is dead. No light shows up when i plugged in back .. I tried pressing PS button nothing happened.
I hope this works for me… i have to try this next weekend when i go to home.. BTW thanks for sharing

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Thijsmasselin offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 1 year, 2 months ago (1 year, 10 months after post)

You sir,
Are my hero!! (but whined at my parents to get another one so now i got 2 LOL)

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n8dagr82 offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 1 year, 1 month ago (1 year, 11 months after post)

nice! i have an old school 80gb and have used it for 3 years; first time i ran into this, but your solution was A SOLUTION!!! Playing Skyrim and have 400+ hours and your method saved me from freaking out:) never had to do it before but THANK YOU and GOD BLESS U:)

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stevendecan offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 1 year, 1 month ago (1 year, 11 months after post)

thanks man and friend me at stevendecant on ps3

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dominicanhu edited this post 1 year ago. Read the previous text »

PlayStation 3 Controller battery/charge issues.

This isn’t so much a question, rather I am posting it here in case anybody searches for possible solutions to this seemingly common problem.

Recently I had a problem where my PS3 controller battery ran so low that it could not even turned on in order to charge the battery. Even charging from a PC USB plug, which I often do, would not work.

The solution which worked for me, after about an hour of online research and contact with Sony:

1. First, turn off the PS3 and disconnect the power cord to the PS3 itself. Unplug the controller charge cable from the USB port (or PC if you use a PC to charge). Make sure you do not have anything else plugged into the PS3’s USB ports, including any USB mouse, keyboard, sound devices or other controllers.

2. Wait about 10 seconds and then plug the PS3 power cord back in and then turn on the PS3 using the power button on the PS3.

3. Plug the controller’s charge cord into one of the PS3’s USB ports. This should get the PS3 to actively look for the controller and the controller’s lights should then flash.

4. With a small, but not too sharp object, (like a toothpick, or small unfolded paperclip), press the tiny reset button on the bottom of the controller and hold it in for about 5 seconds. (It is located to the right of the middle screw on the bottom of the controller). This should reset the controller and ensure a connection to the PS3, just as a new controller would for it’s first initial charge.

* Sometimes the controller may ~appear~ to flash and work when skipping a step or two, but will then stop charging and still shopw as having a dead battery after the lights flash for several minutes to an hour, so to be sure, please follow all steps and save yourself the time and frustration of having to do it over again or save yourself from having to replace the rather pricy controller.

——————-
*NOTE*
According to Sony, the DS3 controller’s battery is designed to resist degrading from frequent charges, charging while not needing to be or running completely dead. It is extremely rare to simply have a bad battery, so do not believe everything people tell you about it being a bad battery or about overcharging or burning out the battery, try this fix first to see if it works and if not, then consider contacting Sony for a replacement as it is not entirely impossible that you may be one of the rare cases. Attempting to replace the battery yourself may void any warrenties or free replacement options as well as costing you more for buying a battery, than what Sony often offers for free replacement.
——————-

I hope this helps and it seems to have worked for about 90% of the people who mention this problem online as well as it having worked to fix my own controller. Feel free to respond with your own success or lack of success in trying this as well as any suggestions or other experiences in repairing other PS3 Dual-Shock 3 controller issues.

Have fun, happy gaming and I hope you get many trophies and headshots. ;)

(If you play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, look me up. I am Chaos_Zen and I use the clan tag of [WTF?], which all are welcome to use if they wish. Voice also available when the kids are not making too much noise in the house.)

maenbola offline Verified User (1 year) Long Term User Shouts: 0 #
An Unknown Location | 1 year ago (2 years after post)

Hi, im having a problem like urs
I just try it and it works, the controller start flashing again when the PS3 power is ON, but after the controller flashing, there is no light anymore from my controller, is it charging or not? since no light flashing like its normally charges, thanks for yg writing ^^

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gabriellajose1 offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 11 months ago (2 years, 2 months after post)

nice and informative blog
thanks for sharing
a href=”http://www.scalefinance.com/cfo-controller-services/”>contract controller /a>

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missjanicedemes offline Verified User (9 months, 4 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 0 #
An Unknown Location | 9 months, 4 weeks ago (2 years, 3 months after post)

we always play on the playstation just to keep us going and just to keep us busy. Now I want to atleast have it. a href=”http://www.ogdenrestaurant.com”>Ogden Restaurant /a>

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T.reddgfdaghjkgcbgxf offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 9 months, 3 weeks ago (2 years, 3 months after post)

This does not work, tried it with both controllers, but if I switch the controller using the USB then the controller works, it just does not want to charge, any advice

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sarasbh offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 7 months, 3 weeks ago (2 years, 5 months after post)

This is really very informative post and i like it very much. Thanks for this valuable addition into our info.
http://www.saskatoon.kijijia2z.com

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dieta offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 5 months, 1 week ago (2 years, 7 months after post)

Hey man.. a href=”http://www.hasstel.com/” >. /a>.. just wanted to say that I appreciate this. Have been looking for a solution and you provided it for me which is awesome!

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frogsmog0 offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 5 months, 1 week ago (2 years, 7 months after post)

could be the usb port in my move controller that’s causing my problem with it. p.s. i have multiple email.

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Dabrom0 offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 4 months, 3 weeks ago (2 years, 8 months after post)

My controler says it’s battery is dead but I just charged it and it works fine any idea of what’s wromh with it?

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thoma offline Verified User (1 month, 3 weeks) Shouts: 0 #
An Undisclosed Location | 1 month, 3 weeks ago (2 years, 11 months after post)

If all the steps above do not fix your controller, there is one additional trick you can try before tossing it out. I fixed mine by charging the battery using an external charger directly.
See my blog about this trick: http://blog.macconsultant.nl/2013/03/…

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