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Super Nintendo Entertainment System Controller Repair

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SNES controller board with two 4021 shift registers (Dennis van Zuijlekom)
A Super NES controller board dated January 1992, with two 4021 shift registers (ICA and ICB), the carbon contact areas for each button and the cord connector CN1. Photo: Dennis van Zuijlekom, CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System controller has twelve inputs: the direction pad, Start and Select, A, B, X and Y, and the L and R shoulder buttons. Each button presses a conductive rubber pad onto an open carbon contact on the circuit board, which pulls that input of a parallel-in, serial-out shift register to ground. The console loads the register with a pulse on the P/S (OUT0) line and then clocks the twelve bits out one at a time on the data line.[1] Nintendo's diagnostic table gives three controller faults: slow response, every function acting at once, and random or no response. Worn rubber contacts head two of the three.[2]

Faults on the console side, which Nintendo traces to the controller-port board, its flat cable, connector P2 and the CPU, are covered on Super Nintendo Troubleshooting Guide.[3]

Symptoms

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Nintendo's diagnostic table, with causes in its order of priority:[2]

Controller faults (Nintendo / Playtronic)
Symptom Likely causes, most likely first
Slow response Worn contacts; dirty or damaged contact surfaces on the board
All functions operate at once IC-A/IC-B; circuit board; cable
Random response or none Worn contacts; IC-A/IC-B; cable; circuit board
  • Nintendo's test procedure also counts buttons that show as pressed when they are not, and buttons that do not register when pressed, as faults.[4]
  • A controller that works on an NTSC console but not on a PAL one may not be faulty. PAL consoles have diodes in the clock and strobe lines on the controller-port board, so the controller needs its own pull-up resistors on those lines. NTSC consoles have no diodes, and fullsnes says PAL controllers should work on NTSC consoles without problems. For an NTSC controller on a PAL console, fullsnes gives two fixes: remove or short the diodes in the console, or fit pull-ups inside the controller.[5]

Safety

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The controller runs on 5 V from the console.[5] Unplug it from the console before opening it. Nintendo warns against testing ICs with a multimeter's resistance ranges; check the cord with the controller unplugged.[6]

Tools and parts

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  • A screwdriver to fit the five M2x8 screws in the lower case.[7]
  • A multimeter with a continuity range, for the cord.
  • Replacement rubber contacts. Nintendo lists four kinds: the direction-pad contact (23178), two L/R contacts (23179), the A/B/X/Y contact (23180) and the Select/Start contact (23181).[7]
  • Isopropyl alcohol and cotton buds, if you try RetroRGB's cleaning method first.[8]
  • If the cord or board is at fault: Nintendo stocked the cord with its 7-pin plug (23183) and the board only as an assembled part (23184).[7]

Procedure

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Super NES controller exploded view (Playtronic manual)
Playtronic's exploded view of the controller. The five screws (91) go into the lower case (23173); the board (23184) lies above the rubber contacts (23178, 23179, 23180, 23181).

Opening the controller

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  1. Unplug the controller from the console.
  2. Remove the five M2x8 screws from the lower case.[7]
  3. Lift the lower case away. The L and R buttons (23186, 23177) sit on two pins (23187), and the board assembly (23184) and its cord come out of the upper case.[7]
  4. Lift out the rubber contacts and buttons, noting which way each sits. Nintendo's first step is to inspect the case, cable, contact pads, board, buttons and internal wiring for physical damage or heavy dirt.[2]

Contacts

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  1. Look at the conductive face of each rubber contact and at the carbon contact areas on the board. Nintendo's test procedure inspects the contacts for excessive wear.[4]
  2. Nintendo's instruction is not to try to repair or clean the contacts but to replace them.[2] Fit new rubber contacts in place of any that are worn.[7]
  3. RetroRGB cleans first: wash the case and buttons, and while they dry, clean the board's contact areas and the rubber pieces with a little rubbing alcohol on a cotton bud. If the controller is no better after reassembly, it fits replacement pads.[8] RetroRGB's console restoration article says that in almost every case a thorough cleaning and good replacement pads restore a controller.[9]
  4. Nintendo lists dirty or damaged contact surfaces on the board as the second cause of slow response.[2]

Cord

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Nintendo lists the cable among the causes of every function acting at once and of random or no response.[2] The table below matches the console-port pins to the board end of the cord by signal name.

Controller cord signals
Signal Plug pin (fullsnes) Board connector pin (Nintendo P1)
+5 V (VDD) 1 5
Clock 2 4
Strobe, P/S (OUT0) 3 3
Data, Q (4016D0) 4 2
Ground (VSS) 7 1

Sources: plug pins from fullsnes;[5] board pins from Nintendo's controller circuits.[10] The standard controller uses five of the plug's seven pins.[10][5]

  1. With the controller unplugged, check each of the five signals for continuity from the plug pin to the matching pin at the board end.[5][10]
  2. Inspect the cord and case for damage, as Nintendo's test procedure does.[4]
  3. Replace a cord with a broken conductor. Nintendo's part was the complete cord with its 7-pin plug.[7]

Shift registers and board

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Super NES controller circuit, two-IC version (Playtronic manual)
Nintendo's two-IC controller circuit: IC-B's output feeds IC-A's serial input, and IC-A's Q8 drives the data line.

If the contacts and cord are good, Nintendo's remaining causes are the shift registers (IC-A and IC-B) and the board.[2] Nintendo supplied the board only as an assembly.[7] Nintendo of America's 2002 service manual lists the Super NES standard controller (part 22682) among the accessories that are not cost-effective to repair.[11]

Board versions differ in the shift registers they carry; see Board differences. None of the sources gives a chip-level repair procedure.

Testing

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  1. Reassemble in reverse order and test again, as Nintendo's procedure ends.[4]
  2. Nintendo's test uses its Super NES test cartridge: connect the console to a television, plug in the controller, insert the test cartridge and switch on. Select the controller test from the menu and press every button in turn, following the arrow. Each button's area on screen turns red while the button is held, then blue.[4]
  3. If the test sees no controller activity for 10 seconds it shows a fault condition.[4]
  4. Watch for slow response, buttons shown as pressed when they are not, and buttons whose area does not change colour.[4]

Board differences

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Controller circuits
Version Shift register Source
Single-IC One 56V520, 14-bit parallel-in, serial-out (IC-A); output from Q14, pin 9 Nintendo / Playtronic[1][10]
Dual-IC Two 56W545, 8-bit (IC-A and IC-B); IC-B shifts into IC-A, which drives the data line Nintendo / Playtronic[1][10]
Mitsumi board 56V313C, dated 1992.01 Two 16-pin ICs marked 4021BF, labelled ICA and ICB; cord connector CN1 Photograph[12]

fullsnes describes the joypad as buttons wired to a 16-bit shift register that two 4021 chips could reproduce, which matches the photographed board.[5][12]

Super NES controller circuit, single-IC version (Playtronic manual)
Nintendo's single-IC controller circuit, with one 56V520 for all twelve buttons.
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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Nintendo / Playtronic, Manual Técnico do Super NES, Rev. 01/94, p. 4-1 (controller theory of operation: eight-way direction pad, start/select and six game buttons; single-IC controller with one 14-bit 56V520 shift register, IC-A, serial output from Q14 pin 9; dual-IC controller with two 8-bit 56W545 shift registers, IC-A and IC-B, output from IC-A's Q8; twelve parallel inputs grounded through the open carbon contact surfaces on the board when a button pushes its contact pad onto them; inputs VDD, VSS, clock and P/S (OUT0) from the console; the first eight functions come from IC-A and the remaining four pass from IC-B into IC-A's serial input), hosted as File:Manual Tecnico do Super NES Rev 01-94.pdf.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Nintendo / Playtronic, Manual Técnico do Super NES, Rev. 01/94, controller diagnostic table (section 4, PDF page 52): before any repair, take the controller apart and inspect the case, cable, contact pads, board, buttons and internal wiring for physical damage or heavy dirt; "do not try to repair or clean the contacts: they must be replaced". Slow response: worn contacts, then dirty or damaged board contact surfaces. All functions operating at once: faulty IC-A/IC-B, board or cable. Random or no response: worn contacts, faulty IC-A/IC-B, cable or board. Causes in order of priority. Hosted as File:Manual Tecnico do Super NES Rev 01-94.pdf.
  3. ↑ Nintendo / Playtronic, Manual Técnico do Super NES, Rev. 01/94, pp. 2-28 and 2-29 (console diagnostic table: controllers intermittent or dead, with the front board, the flat cable, connector P2 and the CPU U1 as causes), hosted as File:Manual Tecnico do Super NES Rev 01-94.pdf.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Nintendo / Playtronic, Manual Técnico do Super NES, Rev. 01/94, p. 4-6 (controller test procedure: television, Super NES console, AC adapter, A/V or RF lead and Super NES test cartridge; connect the controller, insert the test cartridge and switch on; select the controller test from the menu and press every button in turn, following the arrow; each area on screen turns red while its button is held and then blue; if no controller activity is detected within 10 seconds a fault condition is shown; faults include slow response, buttons shown as pressed when they are not and buttons that do not change colour; if no fault appears go to step 6, otherwise consult the diagnostic table; step 6, take the controller apart and inspect the contacts for excessive wear and the cable and case for cosmetic damage; step 7, reassemble and test again), hosted as File:Manual Tecnico do Super NES Rev 01-94.pdf.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Martin Korth, fullsnes (retrieved 2026-10-25). "SNES Controllers Pinouts": joypad connector pin 1 VCC +5 V, pin 2 clock, pin 3 strobe, pin 4 data, pin 5 second data line, pin 6 I/O, pin 7 ground; PAL consoles pass the clock and strobe lines through diodes on the controller-connector daughterboard, so PAL controllers need pull-up resistors on those lines; NTSC consoles have no diodes; to use NTSC controllers on PAL consoles, remove or short the diodes or fit pull-ups inside the controller. "SNES Controller Mods": the joypad is basically buttons wired to a 16-bit shift register, which could be reproduced with two 4021 8-bit parallel-in, serial-out shift registers. Community reference.
  6. ↑ Nintendo / Playtronic, Manual Técnico do Super NES, Rev. 01/94, pp. 8-1 and 8-2 (do not test ICs with a multimeter or signal tracer), hosted as File:Manual Tecnico do Super NES Rev 01-94.pdf.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Nintendo / Playtronic, Manual Técnico do Super NES, Rev. 01/94, p. 4-3 (controller parts list: 91, M2x8 screw ×5; 23172 upper case; 23173 lower case; 23175 button A; 23176 button X; 23177 button R; 23178 direction-pad contact; 23179 R/L button contact ×2; 23180 A/B/X/Y button contact; 23181 Select/Start contact; 23182 A/B/X/Y sticker; 23183 controller cable with 7-pin plug; 23184 assembled controller board; 23186 button L; 23187 R/L button pin ×2; 23260 button B; 23261 button Y) and p. 4-2 (exploded view with the same item numbers), hosted as File:Manual Tecnico do Super NES Rev 01-94.pdf.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Bob, "Controller Repair", RetroRGB (retrieved 2026-10-25). Strip the controller and clean the case and buttons; while the plastic dries, clean the contact area of the circuit board and the rubber pieces with a little rubbing alcohol on a Q-Tip; reassemble and try it; if it is no better, fit a repair kit of replacement rubber pads.
  9. ↑ Bob, "Restoring A Super Nintendo", RetroRGB, 31 May 2020 (retrieved 2026-10-25). Clean each button and the controller plastic; cleaning alone is often not enough and the pads inside need replacing; in almost every case a thorough cleaning and quality replacement pads restore a controller.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Nintendo / Playtronic, Manual Técnico do Super NES, Rev. 01/94, controller section 4, circuit diagrams (PDF pages 53 and 55). Single-IC controller: 56V520 IC-A, VDD pin 20, VSS pin 10, CLK pin 7, P/S pin 8, serial output Q14 pin 9. Dual-IC controller: two 56W545, IC-A and IC-B; IC-A inputs PI1 to PI8 RIGHT, LEFT, DOWN, UP, START, SELECT, Y, B; IC-B inputs PI5 to PI8 TR, TL, X, A; IC-B's Q8 (pin 2) to IC-A's D IN (pin 10); VDD pin 14, VSS pin 7, P/S pin 8, CLK pin 9. Both: cord connector P1 pin 5 VDD, pin 4 CLOCK (CPU), pin 3 P/S (OUT0), pin 2 Q (4016D0), pin 1 VSS; C1 1000 pF across the supply. Hosted as File:Manual Tecnico do Super NES Rev 01-94.pdf.
  11. ↑ Nintendo of America, Authorized Service Center Manual, revision June 2002, p. 15 (accessories not cost-effective to repair, including the Super NES Standard Controller, P/N 22682), hosted as File:Nintendo Authorized Service Center Manual June 2002.pdf.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Dennis van Zuijlekom, "Nintendo NES and Super Nintendo controller PCBs", Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (retrieved 2026-10-25). Super NES board printed "(C) 1990 Nintendo Co., Ltd.", "MITSUMI" and "56V313C 1992.01", with two ICs marked 4021BF at ICA and ICB and cord connector CN1.
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