Game Stopped Detecting Controller Properly

[Binaners]

So for the longest time, I've been playing FFXIV with a controller. When I started on Win8, I used a PS2 controller, and it worked great. After I switched to Win10 though, I started having trouble, as there's an incredibly bad input lag in the game with the controller, and when sometimes when I press a button or tilt an analog stick, it would keep registering in-game even after I stopped pressing it or tilting it.

This seems to be a problem unique to FFXIV as well. Whether I'm using a PS2 controller, an XBox controller (which I primarily use now), or a PS4 controller (with or without DS4Windows), I am always able to play other games with a controller without any issues, both games on steam and not on steam. But with FFXIV, there would always be this input issue that made the game unplayable.

I tried many solutions that have been suggested in forums and subreddit threads. Disabling root enumerator, disabling USB selective suspend, reinstalling controller driver, reinstalling the game, resetting system settings, turning on Steam controller support and launching the game through Steam, updating drivers, recalibrating controller both in Devices and Printers and in FFXIV (the latter of which was unsuccessful since the game isn't registering inputs properly), but none of this has ever worked.

Eventually I did find a solution: playing a few rounds of Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Six Stars before launching FFXIV, which then allows FFXIV to register inputs from my controller properly. So for a long while, that's the solution I stuck with to continue playing FFXIV, since it seems to work consistently.

Note that it seems like every time I restart or shut down my laptop, I would have to do the Arcana Heart routine again to make FFXIV detect my controller inputs properly again. After that, if I just sign out of my laptop account or lock it or put it to sleep or whatever, FFXIV will continue to detect the controller properly even if I don't play Arcana Heart beforehand. So whatever Arcana Heart did, it sticks even after I log off, but does not stick after I shut off the laptop.

At least for a while, before I ran into the input issue again. But this time, I found out what the issue was: changing Steam broadcast's settings from "friends can request to watch" to "friends can watch" for some reason blocks FFXIV from detecting the controller properly. So once I got that sorted out and reverted the Steam broadcast setting to "friends can request to watch", the Arcana Heart solution worked again.

A few days ago though, I restarted my laptop to let Windows install some updates. Ever since then, the usual solution hasn't worked, and I haven't been able to play FFXIV with controller. This is before the latest patch, btw. I once again revisited all the old solutions, including changing Steam broadcast settings and playing Arcana Heart, but none of this has worked thus far, and I'm at my wit's end.

I don't know why FFXIV seems to be the only game I have that doesn't register my controller inputs properly, and I was wondering if there's something I haven't tried yet, or if I'm missing some kind of a driver or Windows service that makes this work properly.

I got FFXIV from the Square Enix site, not from Steam.
The controller I'm using is an EasySMX wired controller. System information is:

SYSTEM_OS Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB 64-bit (6.2, Build 9200) (14393.rs1_release.190929-1234)
SYSTEM_CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz (12 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
SYSTEM_CORE_NUM SYSTEM_CORE_LOGIC 12 SYSTEM_CORE_PHYSICS 6
SYSTEM_BIOS FX504GE.312

For additional information, the newest Windows update before the game stopped detecting my controller properly is ASUS - System - 8/7/2019 12:00:00 AM - 1.0.0.12, which is the ASUS Wireless Radio Control. I don't know if this affects the way FFXIV detects my controller or not, since my controller is a wired controller connected to my laptop via USB connection.

[Dynratygus]

Good afternoon and thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums

Are you able to calibrate the controller through Steam? Additionally, are you able to use the Xbox controller for the current patch as it is officially supported?

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums

[Binaners]

I was able to calibrate the controller through Steam. It didn't seem to have a noticeable effect.

I am not able to use the Xbox controller for the current patch. I've had the issue ever since the Windows update (the ASUS wireless radio control driver update) a few days before the patch, and getting the patch didn't seem to have fixed it.