Link to Imgur album so this post makes more sense: [https://imgur.com/a/aKTV1Sg](https://imgur.com/a/aKTV1Sg)
I’ve had my Pro Controller for about 10 months when my mother bought it second hand, and my first red-flag was that it arrived in a beat up cardboard box with the controller wrapped in bubble wrap. I thought it was weird, but not something to be cautious about since it was purchased pre-used. I flipped it over, and immediately noticed that there was no Nintendo engraving on the outer shell. I still wasn’t too concerned since the pervious owner may have changed the shell. But then I started messing around with the buttons and joy-sticks.
The joy-sticks felt like they were made out of a cheaper material than the one my Switch Lite has, and the buttons and d-pad felt chunky cheaply made. I pushed aside my suspicion because hey, its still a Pro Controller, fake or not, I shouldn’t not use it just because it may be a fake.
I used the controller for a while, but stopped using it when I didn’t need it for the games I was more interested in playing at that time. So it sat unused for about 4-5 months and went through a move.
Yesterday I picked up Animal Crossing again, and didn’t want to hold my switch all the time so I found my controller and tried to connect it, but it wouldn’t connect. I put it on charge for a couple hours, went to bed and charged it for about 4 more hours this morning, and when I tried to connect it again, it still wouldn’t. My friend is over and they have a switch with joy-cons, so I tried connecting my controller to their switch to see if there was a problem with the controller or with my switch, and it wouldn’t connect to their switch either. I tried to connect their joy-cons to my switch, and it worked perfectly, so there was obviously a problem with the controller.
I figured that my controller is a bust, so I might as well disassemble it and see if something was disconnected and because I just wanted to take it apart. Before I started, I watched some videos on how to tell if a Pro Controller is fake, and every single thing on my controller seemed legit until the secret message.
-There were 4-6 rings on the pads of the joy-sticks when fake ones only have 1-3
-The buttons felt sturdy, a little loose but that may have just been from use
-The indicator lights were square, the casing around them weren’t
-The serial number (HAC-013) wasn’t misspelled, nor was the Nintendo support website address
Then, when I pushed down the right joy-stick and put a flashlight up to it, thats when I knew that it was 100% fake. On real Pro Controllers, there is a secret message on the motherboard saying THX2 ALLGAMEFANS! and my controller said TMX2 ALLGAMEFANSL. At this point I decided to bust it open, since it wasn’t working anyways.
Everything on the interior seemed standard besides the secret message, then I noticed that there were no sticky pads on the handles (is that what they’re called? not sure) which do something to the controller rumble. (not going to say what it actually does because I have no idea haha)
After I put it back together I tried connecting it to my switch again, and alas nothing has changed so I decided to write this reddit post because I (personally) have never seen a fake controller look as legit as this one.
​
​
TLDR: My fake pro controller is such a good fake I had to take it apart to see that it was a fake