Controller Not Working on PC: Why & How to Get It Recognized

While portable gaming systems come with a built-in gamepad, some controllers are designed to connect to a computer via a USB connection. And this is where our readers reported their PC is not detecting the controller.

Usually, the controller is not working on PC due to driver issues and many had problems with the vJoy driver. Bluetooth drivers are also to blame sometimes, and if you tried to use the gamepad inside a Steam game, you will need to tweak the controller settings as we have done below.

How do I get my controller to work on my PC?

1. Uninstall Vjoy

1. Right-click the Start icon, then select Device Manager.

2. Click on the Human Interface Devices section.

3. Right-click on Vjoy.

4. Select Uninstall device. The USB Controller not recognized in Windows 10 issue will be solved.

5. Check whether the issue persists.

vJoy is a device driver that can be used to bridge the gap between any device that is not a joystick and an application that needs a joystick to function properly.

However, sometimes it can cause more issues, such as the PC not detecting the Xbox controller. Therefore, uninstalling vJoy should fix the issue.

2. Disable the HID-compliant game controller

1. Right-click the Start icon, then select the Device Manager option.
2. Expand the Human Interface Devices section, right-click the HID-compliant game controller driver and select Disable device.

Disabling the device can also help you fix other controller issues, like Controller acting as a mouse on your Windows 11 computer.

3. Update HID-compliant game controller

1. To fix the PC not detecting controller issue, right-click the Start icon then select Device Manager.
2. Expand the Human Interface Devices section, right-click the HID-compliant game controller driver and click Update driver.
3. Select Search automatically for drivers in the Update drivers window then reboot your PC once the process is completed.

Downloading and installing drivers manually is a process that carries the risk of getting the wrong driver installed, which may lead to serious malfunctions. If you want to avoid this kind of risk, you can use a dedicated driver updater to obtain the latest driver versions for your device automatically.

⇒ Get IObit Driver Booster

4. Update the Bluetooth driver

1. Right-click the Start icon then select Device Manager.
2. Expand the Bluetooth section, right-click the Bluetooth driver, and select Update driver.
3. Select Search automatically for drivers then reboot your PC once the process is done.

Although the gamepad has nothing to do with the Bluetooth driver, some users reported this solution as effective. So make sure to try it as well to fix the PS4 controller not detected by PC error.

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5. Access the game’s properties

1. Open Steam, then right-click the game you are having issues with.
2. Go to the Controller section and select Enable Steam Input. Go back to your game and see if the PC not detecting controller input error si gone.

How to use a USB controller on Windows 10?

In most cases, you need to connect the controller to the PC, and you can start using it. If you encounter any issues, we wrote a guide on how to find your gamepad on Windows 10 if it’s not recognized, so be sure to check it out.

Although using a USB controller should be intuitive, many reported that the Xbox One controller is not recognized on their PC, but that issue can be easily resolved.

Here are some of the common issues that users reported:

• USB gamepad not recognized on Windows 11, 10, 7 – Since the problem can appear on any Windows version, try any of our solutions below since they are all compatible with older versions of the OS.
• Gamepad not detected on Windows 10 – The issue is most likely due to a driver, so update the gamepad drivers and check if that helps.
• Xbox gamepad not recognized – Windows 10 is compatible with Xbox controllers. We’ve already covered Xbox controller issues on Windows 10 in one of our previous articles, so be sure to check it out for more information.
• Gamepad not working in PC games – Likely, your controller isn’t properly configured or damaged. Connect it to another PC to test its functionality.
• Gamepad not in Device Manager – If your system does not recognize the gamepad, you need to unplug any other USB devices and leave the controller only.

That’s about it for this article. However, if you need more solutions, we have a dedicated guide that addresses the gamepad that is recognized but not working in games issue. So make sure to check it out!

To get the most out of your Dualsense Edge controller while playing FPS, you need to change the settings; learn all about them in this guide.

If you have further suggestions on the PC not detecting controller issue, please share them with us in the comments section below.