My 3 year old dropped her older sister's brand new red dualshock in the kitchen sink which had dishes and soapy water... When I took it out, the dishwater was just leaking out from everywhere... Not good...
My first thought was dry it out and see if the gaming gods had pity but my faith in them was weak, I placed the controller on a heat vent anyways and left it for days, when it was 100% dry I turned it on and there was signs of life but while in game some buttons were unresponsive even though they were responding on the main screen of the playstation.
I was just gonna toss it and buy a new one but while searching for a solution online I found this site and thought of all the times I had a defective product after use and abuse and thought to myself, hey give it a try, buy their products and see what happens...
I got the Pro Tech Toolkit, crossed my fingers and went at it, it's a little nerve racking at first but then you just get into it. I followed the guides but found that the phillips 00 was a little loose and tried the phillips 0 instead which was spot on and carried on...
I placed tiny screws here, opened the top part slowly and a spring popped out... Gotta put it back, then a rubber thing falls out... The important part in all of it is don't panic, just pay attention to detail and put them back in, all the little tools are in the kit, the little bent tweezer like thing is so precise, I couldn't stop thinking of brain surgery lol but will not attempt!
I got down to where the buttons get into contact with the plastic film thing on the motherboard, I rubbed the areas that contacted each other with a Q-Tip dipped in Isopropyl Alcohol 99%, the tips turned greyish and used a dry one to clean it up more, did the same for the ends of where the 2 ribbons connect. I allowed it to dry which was pretty quick just by slightly fanning it with my hand, it evaporates in a flash. When everything looked dry, I placed everything back together and crossed my fingers again, my hopes to be honest were hardly existent but it actually freak'n worked!
I'm still patting myself and smiling without an audience, more than happy about my purchase :)