'I thought I was going crazy,' says PS5 owner who found 'shocking' joypad upgrade

A SIMPLE PlayStation mistake can make your controller worse.

There's a microphone setting that determines how much your PS5's DualSense controller vibrates.

It's free to fix this strange quirk, so you can get the full 'haptic' effect of the PS5 in seconds if you know what to do.

The trick was revealed in a Reddit thread that attracted hundreds of upvotes.

“I haven't mentioned this anywhere before,” the PS5 owner explained.

“I just went into controller setup for the first time in about a year since I got my PS5.

“And it turns out that if the microphone is not muted, Dualsense vibration and trigger feedback are automatically set to weak. To get strong feedback, you have to mute the microphone.”

The DualSense controller has a built-in microphone that is automatically turned on when you play games.

You can mute this by pressing the small bar below the PS button on your DualSense controller.

But keeping it active will mute your controller's vibrations and trigger effects.

The PS5 owner continued: “I tested both the microphone muted and unmuted and in both Doom Eternal and Dead Space there is a noticeable difference.

“I thought I was going crazy, with the Dualsense sometimes feeling stronger (when using headphones) and sometimes feeling weaker (when playing without headphones).

“What's even more shocking is that I didn't see Sony mention this anywhere, otherwise I would have turned my mic off the whole time.”

Fortunately, it is possible to set your DualSense controller to mute automatically.

Just fire up your PS5 and go to the Settings menu.

Navigate to Sound > Microphone, then choose Mute under Microphone status when logged in.

This way, your controller is automatically muted when you turn it on.

WEAK OR STRONG?

If you're not happy with the vibration strength of your controller, also check your DualSense settings.

Go to Settings > Accessibility and then look under Vibration intensity and Trigger effect intensity.

You can choose between Off, Weak, Medium and Strong.

For the best effect, choose Strong – but do so carefully.

Some players prefer weak (or no) controller effects in competitive multiplayer games.

So if you're a big fan of Call of Duty and play at a high level, it might be worth keeping the controller feedback options to Off or Weak.