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Once you’ve run through all four calibrations, you can click “Finish” to move on to the testing portion of the process. Or, if you’re feeling handy, you can buy parts like thumbsticks online and replace them yourself. Unfortunately, while the software side of calibration does help you to find out how well your controller is responding to your movements–and even course correct for a faulty thumbstick to an extent–the only hardware fix when it starts to get worn down like this is to head down to the store and pick up a new controller altogether. RELATED: How to Control the Windows Desktop With an Xbox or Steam Controller As you can see in the example above, the X-axis of my right thumbstick actually rests around 52%, the product of old age and a lot of intense rounds of Halo Online. Swing it up and down, and as long as you see the numbers “0%”, and “100% at the extremes of both the top and the bottom of the thumbstick’s range of motion (as well as resting in the middle at 50%), your controller is properly calibrated.
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The same goes for the Y-axis (vertical movement).
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The X-axis calibrates the Xbox’s right thumbstick for horizontal movement, so for that, you just need to pull the thumbstick all the way to the left and the right, and see if the full range of motion is being appropriately registered. In our case, the Xbox 360 triggers are measured along the Z-axis, and should register anywhere from 100% (resting) to 200% (pulled down completely).
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