One thing that happened while I was replacing my Steam Deck analog sticks during my review of the Gulikit sticks, is that, the left stick started acting bonkers. Calibrating the stick didn’t help.

After doing some research on r/SteamDeck, someone had suggested that, if you feel like the ribbon cable is the problem, you can order 10-pin, ZIF ribbon cables and use those as a replacement.

So, I ordered some on Amazon. And guess what? My left joystick now works just fine after replacing the ribbon cable.

Here are the ribbon cables in question. The one on top is the original cable that was housing the left stick. Might be a little hard to see, but there is definitely some wear to it. The cable below that is the cable I got on Amazon.

10-pin ribbon cable comparison

After replacing the damaged cable with the new one, this stick now functions properly on the Steam Deck.

Joystick replacement ribbon cable

Chances are you may never need to do this, but when you’re constantly switching back and forth between the vanilla sticks and the Gulikit sticks, there could be a possibility that the ribbon cable will get damaged after some time. Just get 10-pin, ZIF ribbon cables and stick them inside the clips as you would with the cable that’s already connecting the joystick to the daughterboard. No need to buy a new analog stick.