Well it's been about a year and I guess my dualshock 4's better is dead.

When I plug the controller in to charge the ps4 pops up a battery symbol with a ? in the middle, rather than 3bars to symbolize charging or battery life. My 2nd controller works normally

This happen to anyone else? Could it be anything aside from a dead battery? Would this be covered by warranty? Is there a battery I could buy and install?

Haven't had the controller completely die on me, but I gotta say, the battery life on the dualshock really is terrible.
As is the rubber on the sticks.

I'm kind of hoping that Sony would release some sort of DualShock 4 XL with a bigger/interchangeable battery and revised sticks and triggers.

Is there any recourse (or self-fix) for the rubber coming off the sticks the DS4s? Has Sony issued any official replacement program for that?

Replace the sticks with the ones from the Xbone controller.

Have you tried the reset button on the controller? There's a little hole on the back near L2, try pressing the button in there with a pin or paperclip or something and then try pairing it with the system again.

Not sure if that could help, but it can't hurt to try before spending money to repair or replace something.

When you say the second controller works normally, you mean it charges properly with that cable? Have you tried a different cable?

And people made fun of the XB1 controller for using regular batteries.

At this point I never play with my controller unplugged. It seems one solid session with a game is enough to drain it down to the red so why bother. On the 360 when I could use those Eneloop rechargeable batteries they would go for weeks and I always had a spare ready to pop in.

Not sure if the light on the PS4 pad is draining that much juice but there really ought to be an option to have it off completely. I've set mine to "DIM" but as I said, one longer session and it's dry again.

(one longer session being like 3.5 hours or so while also using voice chat)

@corevi said:

Why would you put worse sticks on it? The X1 sticks are terrible, almost as bad as the DS3. The rubber thing is a problem, sure, but that's a very small issue that doesn't ruin great sticks.

I quite like the DS3 sticks after getting used to them and from the short time I've spent with the X1 controller the sticks on that seem perfectly fine.

@wemibelec90: I don't know if the rubber coming off a stick rendering the entire controller completely unusable is "a small issue"

@humanity said:

I guess I meant "not extremely widespread" instead of "small" in this case. There don't seem to be that many people with this issue, but I admittedly have a small pool of people to ask about this. And does it really make the controller unusable? I would assume there is something under the rubber that would still work, if not be less comfortable.

Oh yah I agree it's not a widespread epidemic but there does seem to be a lot of people who have this problem - where "a lot" is a very flaky estimate I am pulling out of my butt based on several threads I've read about this.

As for the controller I would argue that it does in fact become unusable after a while. You'll eventually wear it down past the point of discomfort where it will be simply painful to use. At that point you actually have two choices: open the whole thing up and swap the stick out with some other stick, or buy one of those thumbstick covers for $10 and put it on top like a condom. I own the white ps4 and those pads are supposed to be the "better batch" or so goes the rumor. Still I've preemptively purchased those cheap covers and slipped one onto the left stick. It doesn't feel amazing but I've gotten used to it.

Those sticks are uncomfortably small though. I think the newer DS4s have better rubber anyway, send yours back for a replacement from Sony.

@damodar: I'll try the reset, but other people who have had this problem tried the reset and it didn't work. I'll let yuh know if it works for me (fingers crossed)

The 2nd controller charges with the same cable and the 1st (dead) controller works while plugged in but refuses to charge

Definately try contacting Sony before taking it apart or anything, they might be nice. It can't hurt.

Other than that iFixit has a guide https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/DualShock+4+Battery+Replacement/22074

Not sure what country you are from but, ebay has cloned Chinese batteries for $7-15. Sure they aren't OEM, but it should put some life in that controller again.

So DS4 has a built in battery that you cant change?

Why on earth?

I just bought a PS4 and plan on using it with my DS4 wired to the thing, will it still become useless in a year because it doesnt understand to bypass the battery when its connected with a USB cable?

I mean i use a Xbone controller on my PC and i dont have batteries in it since its always connected to my PC via USB.