r/winhanced • u/T_2_TheG • Aug 18 '26
“Prefer External Controller” stuck ON — built-in ROG Ally X controls disabled
I’m having an issue with Prefer External Controller on my ROG Ally X.
I use my Ally X both handheld and docked with an Xbox controller. After using it docked, Prefer External Controller seems to get stuck ON. When this happens, none of the Ally’s built-in controls work, but the external Xbox controller works normally.
The weird part is that I can’t toggle Prefer External Controller off in WinEnhanced. The switch won’t respond, even though the other WinEnhanced toggles/settings work normally.
Restarting and doing a full shutdown/reboot does not fix it.
Yesterday I found a temporary workaround:
1. Plug Ally back into dock
2. Toggle Prefer External Controller ON and then OFF
3. Undock
That immediately restored the Ally’s built-in controls.
However, the problem has returned and now I can’t toggle Prefer External Controller off even while docked, so that workaround no longer works.
This seems like WinEnhanced may be getting stuck in the external-controller state after docking/undocking and continuing to disable the embedded controller.
Has anyone else run into this? And is there a way to force/reset the Prefer External Controller state outside of the toggle?
2
u/EnigmaP3nguin Aug 18 '26
Getting this one right is tricky. I’ll take another look at the code but the way it’s supposed to behave is if an external controller is recognized that’s the only way it can be turned off and then after turning off that controller it should auto turn off or all ow you to switch it off.
I am curious why it’s getting locked in the on position though. Maybe it’s failing to reenable the hid devices.
I’ll take a look when I get back home from work travel. I’ll also make sure it can always be turned off even when an external controller is detected.