No controller attached problem

[Mengt Bagnusson]

So this is going to be a lengthy post, sorry in advance.

My problem is that Steam does not detect any controllers except for the Steam controllers.

The controllers I own and have tested so far are as follows:

• Xbox 360 controller, wired.
  
• Xbox One controller, wired with USB C to PC, connected to a Bluetooth dongle, and connected to the Microsoft Xbox adapter for windows.
  
• Xbox Series X controller, wired with USB C to PC, connected to a Bluetooth dongle, and connected to the Microsoft Xbox wireless adapter for windows v.2.
  
• Nintendo Switch Pro Controller wired with USB C to PC, and connected to a Bluetooth dongle.
  
• 8bitDo Ultimate Controller wired with USB C to PC, and connected to it's 2,4GHz dongle.

Every one of these controllers shows up correctly in Windows among my connected devices.

If I go to controller settings in Steam while any of these controllers are connected, there is an empty list and it says "no controller attached". The weird thing is that I can use for example,the Xbox One controller in a game even though it is not detected if I manually set the games controller option to "disable steam input".

This problem first occured after I upgraded my PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11 which made me think it was a Windows error and not a Steam error. So I rolled back the update. But to my surprise it did not resolve the issue.

Since then I've tried the following:

• Reformatted my drive and reinstalled a clean Windows 10.
  
• Reformatted my drive and reinstalled a clean Windows 11.
  
• Uninstalled AMD chipset drivers and reinstalled them.
  
• Uninstalled and reinstalled every possible driver from device manager including HID,
  
• USB-controllers and Bluetooth drivers.
  
• Uninstalled and reinstalled xbox game bar and xbox accessories.
  
• Uninstalled and reinstalled GPU drivers.
  
• Uninstalled and reinstalled Steam.
  
• Disabled windows antivirus.
  
• Closed iCue and Steelseries engine.
  
• Tried running Steam in compatability mode, and as an administrator.
  
• Updated BIOS to latest version.
  
• Checked and unchecked Xbox configuration support in Steam along with xbox extended feature support.
  
• Checked and unchecked generic controller support in Steam.

I'm absolutely out of ideas now. Is this Steam related or is it a Windows error? I'm at a loss. Does anyone here please have any idea what my next step would be?

Any help is appreciated. Kind regards / Sebastian.

[Mengt Bagnusson]

Update:

So I, unplugged every USB to my PC except for keyboard and mouse, removed every HDMI and DP connector except for my main screen, disconnected every storage unit except for my OS drive and then completely reinstalled Windows 11 again on a formatted drive.

I then proceded to run every Windows update, installed my chipset drivers and made sure everything was up to date.

Then installed Steam and started it. Followed that up by connecting my Xbox wireless adapter for Windows to a USB port.

And eureeka, it worked! Controllers showed up in Steam! Great!

So I went in to controller settings in Steam desktop mode and saw that only "Use Nintendo Button Layout" and "Combine Pairs of Joy-Con Controllers" was ticked, strange. So I ticked "Xbox Configuration Support" and "Generic Gamepad Configuration Support".

That was a misstake. Now my controllers wheren't being detected anymore. Okay. Tried unticking them. Now Steam froze. Had to force quit Steam from task manager. Same thing happened 5 more times. Tried to untick, Steam froze.

So, reinstalled Windows 11 again, same procedure as before. This time making sure not to change any controller setting at all in Steam. This time no controllers where detected at all. Why!? Oh dear god!

Found a post on reddit from user u/spurzz qbout him having trouble with a PS4 controller on a Mac Monterey. Tried his solution which worked for my Xbox controllers untill I decided to plug in my 8bitDo Ultimate. Then everything went back to not being detected in Steam.

So what the **** is happening Steam?

[Dranak]

Ask steam support with ticket and Brand controll support. they have support.

we cant as user fix what system dont see, and sak themn at Brand support do it work with steam here and now, after all the change steam did over many weeks

and its still Brand Controllers job to give Drivers to windows. windows is just a publisher and its still xbox department to fix own MS Driver and get them to work within a game.

there is a reason i wrote it like this. valve also make games but thats not a steam client issue thast game devs issue to make game to work.

ask game support why Controller dont wotkj then game support it, is also possible.

ps.
you are not the first one with controller reciver issue, happedn to alot of ppl.
and why most pc user start to think on piece of crap product then reciver brake down.

just because i said this , im sure other still have a device that work after 10years, if you have a device that brake down within timeline im sure you see it as i do now, they made them to cheep , and they stop working before its wear down by user, this is pc , you dont user controller every day, and now we might with big screen games, its hard to say then pc was not ment to be controller only.

i know other is on 3-4 usb reciver change, this tell alot of cheap product , it 2 cent worth.
then system dont work, then game never will.