XBOX 360 D-Pad Improvement
360 D-Pad = not very good for retro games!
I've bought a few faulty 360 Pads recently, nearly all of them had quite unresponsive D-Pads. I remembered a guide I'd seen to improve the D-Pad on the PSP, so applied the same here.
It's very simple, you need a Torx T8 security screwdriver to take the pad apart, some people break the small metal bump from the middle of the screw using a tiny screwdriver, then use a standard Torx T8 to open the pad up.
Anyway, once you have the pad open and have removed the board to get at the back of the D-Pad you'll see the area you're working with.
Now you'll need a thin piece of plastic, I tend to have stuff like this cluttering up the place! It could be a piece of packaging, about a third or a quarter of a millimetre thick. I remember that the PSP guide said to use the sleeve from an old NES cartridge.
I then drew a grid, 3x3 - the squares were 9mm wide/tall. A diamond in the middle square. Cut the plastic into the cross shape, cut the diamond in the middle out and super glue it onto the back of the D-Pad
Re-assemble and away you go, it should be a lot more responsive now, maybe you could try this before you try filing the case around the D-Pad like some other guides. Of course, you could try this on any pad with similar problems.
Arakon has contacted me with an alternative to cutting the cross.
It will do the trick to just cut out a circular piece of plastic with a hole. no need to glue it down then either.
To get it perfectly round (which isn't needed, but might as well make it pretty) cut it out roughly round, then use a Dremel sanding/cutting disk holder, make a very small hole in the exact centre of your plastic disk, screw it onto the holder as if it was a sanding disk, turn on the dremel and touch the edge of the disk to sandpaper. It will be perfectly round in moments. Just watch out, it may cause hot plastic to fly, so wear goggles.
Afterwards use a drill bit (wood drill works best since they have a pointy tip that you can stick into the hole you already made) to make the center hole large enough to fit on the d-pad. Stick the disk on the d-pad, put the rubber button piece over it, and test it out.
