It’s no secret that many Nintendo Switch owners are experiencing issues with their left Joy-Con remote in which it desyncs from the console, a pain if you’re hours deep in Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
While Nintendo has listed a few scenarios in which your Joy-Con could disconnect from your Switch, things like using the device near an aquarium, by a microwave or near a USB-C device, this issue is a little more technical than environmental.
According to those who have completed a tear down on the Joy-Cons the issue is that the left-hand controller did not have the same antenna design as the right. Where the right Joy-Con’s antenna was connected to the perimeter of the handheld, the left unit had the antenna attached to the PCB or printed circuit board.
While there are reports out there that you can complete a repair yourself, we wouldn’t recommend it, and neither does Nintendo.
“There are no widespread technical problems, and all issues are being handled promptly, including the reports regarding the left Joy-Con.”
In a statement the company addressed that they are aware of some users who are experiencing connectivities with their Joy-Con and recommend contacting the customer service for further support.
“At Nintendo, we take great pride in creating quality products and we want our consumers to have a positive experience. It is common with any new innovative consumer technology for consumers to have questions, and Nintendo Switch is no exception. There are no widespread technical problems, and all issues are being handled promptly, including the reports regarding the left Joy-Con Bluetooth connection. To best support our customers, we continuously update the online consumer support site and provide real-time answers to the questions we are receiving. We want our consumers to get up and running quickly to have fun with Nintendo Switch, and if anything falls short of this goal we encourage them to contact Nintendo’s Consumer Service team. For help with any hardware or software questions, please visit: http://support.nintendo.com.”
Sean Hollister of CNET had sent his Joy-Con remotes over to Nintendo for repair. The remotes were send on a Wednesday and he received notification that the replacement units were on their way only days later.
As you can see in the image below the repaired Joy-Con (shown second) remote has a small back piece of foam adhered to the PCB.
The author of the original article also ordered another Joy-Con off Amazon which evidently did not exhibit the desync issue that his other remote did. Upon further inspection and a little dissection, he noticed that the new remote ordered online featured a different code printed on the PCB.
So the question is, did Nintendo fix the Joy-Con connectivity issue and already have the fix in production? Quite possibly. But one thing we do know is that the company is aware of the issue and has a fix in place for devices that consumers send it for repair.
If the Amazon order isn’t evidence that the company has fixed the issue at the source, we at least know they know what the issue is and know how to fix it. So within time we should see this fix come through the manufacturing process and maybe you’ll be able to use that Nintendo Switch near an aquarium after all.
Source: CNET
