ASUS ROG Ally stick drift – how to fix?

So, you’ve got your hands on the ROG Ally, but encountering problems with the stick drift. It’s a bummer, but don’t worry, we know how to fix it.

Stick drift is one of those annoying things that can seriously sabotage your gameplay. If you’re noticing your in-game character looking around by themselves, or else your gun starts shooting on its own, then a bit like a disease, your controller has developed the dreaded stick drift. You’ll be especially vulnerable in shooter games, and generally find it incredibly annoying to play with.

At the time of writing, we haven’t heard ASUS address the issue of stick drift on the Ally. We could expect to see something similar to Steam’s collaboration with iFixit which sold replacement parts for the Steam Deck which has been popular. The one consolation so far is that the Ally is sold with a one year warranty, so if you’re especially worried, at least you could be eligible to exchange it.

There are a few common culprits for stick drift in general. It could be to do with debris and dust getting stuck between the cracks, or it could just be natural wear and tear. You may notice your thumbstick and trigger buttons run down too. Given that the Ally is brand new, it’s hard to accurately diagnose an accurate culprit. Luckily Reddit has some ideas about what the issue could be. Hint: It’s not to do with the hardware.

Here’s what Reddit has to say about ASUS ROG Ally stick drift issue

In the ROG Ally forum, there’s been an insightful discussion surrounding the joystick deadzone unresponsiveness issue, also known as stick drift.

The user HZ4C speculates that the issue could be a software-related bug. After testing their controller’s unresponsiveness via Steam Big Picture Mode where you can access your controller’s settings and see and adjust the deadzones, they found it made no difference when actually playing Steam games. The software, known as ArmourCrateSe could well be the culprit.

How to fix ASUS ROG Ally stick drift

It seems likely the stick drift issue is software related, meaning there’s not a lot you can do to fix the problem yourself.

Wait for a day 1 patch update

If it is a software bug, there’s nothing you can do on your end until ASUS addresses the issue. In the meantime, you can play non-FPS games where the stick drift is less noticeable.

Raise awareness in the ROG Discord channel

The ROG Discord channel looks like a good way to give the issue more visibility. You can join it here. Hopefully, ASUS employees will see the complaints and the issue can be resolved sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately, that’s it for now if the problem is indeed software related. In the meantime, there’s plenty of cool add-ons to go with your Ally, so make sure you don’t miss out on the best ASUS ROG Ally Accessories.