gameinput problem with sony controllers

[Jobima1st]

Firstly, I dont have a physical DS4, only physical DualSense, so any input from people who has physical DS4 is welcomed

the problem is that last updates of windows make the controllers do things in windows, and that part of window gameinput (WGI)

and that gameinput has many problems like lags, low fps, make old controllers not work as it should, and so on

but the problem in this discussion is as it in the video below

WGI.mp4

it is the same problem as hifihedgehog/PadForge#436

and the odd thing is the virtual DS4 of DS4Windows was fine and now it has the same problem

hifihedgehog said that he see it in physical DualSense controllers, which I didnt see (yet) even with another PC

[tb0mb]

i have the same problem and have spent an insane amount of time trying to figure it out. i am 99% sure its something left behind by ds4windows/fakerinput/vigem/hidhide.. i cannot reproduce it on another computer. even after installing padforge and ds4windows. going to keep trying. i disagree with hifihedgehogs consensus, i think more likely he has the same problem as us because he's installed ds4windows.

[tb0mb]

after almost an entire day i figured this out
hifihedgehog/PadForge#490

Solved: My DualSense had a constant phantom Down input when navigating the Windows UI, despite gamepad testers showing normal stick values.

The cause was a stale explicit GameInput override:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GameInput\Devices\054C0CE600010005
054C0CE600010005 ← Sony DualSense

Microsoft documents these Control\GameInput\Devices entries as device-specific GameInput mappings that can take precedence over default mappings. Interestingly, the affected PC also had similar mappings for Xbox, PS3 and Switch Pro controllers, all using essentially the same generic Gamepad mapping.

I don't know what software originally created these mappings, so I can't attribute them to DS4Windows or PadForge. But deleting the stale DualSense override definitively fixed the problem on my machine. After backing up and deleting that key and rebooting, the phantom Down input disappeared while native DualSense Windows UI navigation continued to work normally. The key did not regenerate. A clean comparison PC using the same controller and GameInput version did not have these explicit controller overrides.

So, at least in my case, the fix was simply:
Delete all subkeys under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GameInput\Devices and reboot.

Sharing for others, I've found a few places mentioning this or similar problem with no solution. @Jobima1st