tl;dr After word salad
Technically two batteries revived
I refused to believe my Switch Pro Controller battery took a permanent death. I like many let it sit unused for a long time only one day to pickup a lifeless controller that wouldn’t even take a charge. I let it sit on charge for days and just nothing. No orange light, not a thing. Sync button trick did nothing. So, I was rummaging around and stumbled upon my old Wii U Pro-Controller. I wasn’t sure of the battery it used and took it apart to find out, waalaa it’s the same battery as the Switch Pro Controller. I swapped its battery into the Switch Pro Controller and… Still nothing. No orange light, nothing. My doubts further increased about both of these batteries actually not able to be revived, let alone even take a charge at all. I’ve never through numerous devices ever seen a Li Ion battery just up and refuse to take any kind of charge at all.
So I found my Wii-U Pro-Controller USB cord and put each battery in a Wii-U controller. Both were indeed dead, but to my amazement after plugging in the USB cable the orange light lit up and BOTH were taking a charge. Now my suspicions grew even further that the Switch Pro Controller had a safety that if the battery has no voltage at all it will prevent any attempt to throw a charge at the battery. I let one battery sit on charge for about an about an hour (time may vary) in the Wii-U controller then popped it back in my Switch Pro Controller and… WE HAVE LIFE AGAIN!
tl;dr –
The Switch Pro Controller has a safety that will prevent a 100% dead battery from taking a charge. ie: No orange charging light.
Remove and charge your Switch Pro Controller battery in a Wii-U Pro Controller (A 3DS might even work) for an hour (may take longer) and return it to the Switch Pro Controller which should now light up the orange charge light to complete the charge.
Two “dead” batteries in the Switch Pro Controller
https://preview.redd.it/b4fcxzy4wqhb1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=572834c49681d92d05d0a46708d16561ecbf80c0
https://preview.redd.it/6ghz9zy4wqhb1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a102e5c5e2d3ec19bed7a665e67cf78c4d718b1
But in the Wii-U controller they take a charge
https://preview.redd.it/jjz8tcs9wqhb1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db29f5f1facca7d10cab31352ee5e105f76d73e1
After roughly an hour charging in the Wii-U Pro Controller and popping it back in the Switch Pro Controller we have life again.
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https://preview.redd.it/o95di9sewqhb1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a31e7075afdb157eb9373f6c4e2c7a90869ce618
by styckx
14 Comments
Ok but I’d still rather just buy a new controller than do any of this.
That’s a rather bizarre feature. I wonder why that would be the case. Either way, very interesting find.
I don’t think I’ll have a particularly large use for it, as it would require me to both own a Wii U controller, and take apart my Switch controller, but still very interesting.
Head to your roof during a thunderstorm and hold it to the sky
[removed]
You replaced it?
The BlackBerry Playbook (their old tablet) had a similar safety “feature”. If you let the tablet sit dead for a long time, it wouldn’t take a charge. So you’d have to stack charge it to be able to charge it
I had a Switch Pro controller that stopped charging. A different Switch Pro controller had stick drift. So I put the good battery in the controller with good sticks.
On a whim I put the “bad” battery in the controller with the bad stick. Lo and behold, it charged normally. Still charges now, at least two years later.
I’d say it’s a win-win. You revived not *one*, but ***two*** batteries for your controller, and that’s amazing.
Worth mentioning that the WiiU battery is the same used on 3DS…so does the Switch battery also fits on a 3DS? Can be another method for this.
Also it is incredible that a 11 year old controller can perform 60-80h with the same battery that a modern controller barelly performs 20h lol
This same failsafe applies to the PokeBall Plus controller for Let’s Go too. Mine wasn’t working for several months after trying to use/charge it. I made up my mind to send it in for repair, but after trying various different cables and power sources, it eventually began charging again.
I have no clue what magic combination fixed it, but I’m making a habit out of charging it every once in a while to try and avoid it happening again.
The safety is there for a reason. LiOn batteries getting totally empty damages the chemical reaction/process that “holds” power, and you’re risking a very explosive spicy pillow if you continue using it.
i had this problem and the fix for me was using my laptop’s usb-c power supply, and unplugging then replugging it like every 5 minutes till the light stayed on
bro picked up its reboot card
If you will hold down the sync button for about 30 seconds on a dead pro controller while it is plugged in to charge, that will wake it up and allow it to be charged.