ISSUE: Every time Steam starts, a "controller disconnected" notification immediately followed by a "controller connected" notification is displayed. The controller is functioning normally and is never actually disconnected.

ENVIRONMENT: OS: Windows 11 Controller: GameSir (Xbox compatibility mode, USB wired connection) Steam setting: "Enable Steam Input for Xbox Controllers" is OFF

WHEN IT STARTED: Occurring on every Steam startup since May 6, 2026. Started immediately after disconnecting and reconnecting the controller's USB cable.

LOG EVIDENCE: controller.previous.txt (March 23 to May 2) contains ZERO occurrences of "Controller 0 disconnected". However, console_log.txt shows "Controller 0 disconnected" on every Steam startup since May 6.

controller.txt log from Steam startup:

12:39:15 - Local Device Found (type: 045e 02ff, serial_number: 0) 12:39:15 - Product: Xbox One Controller 12:39:15 - Steam controller device opened for index 0 12:39:15 - Controller PollState Changed from 0 to 1 12:39:15 - BYieldingQueryAccountsRegisteredToController 12:39:15 - server unavailable, checking local cache 12:39:15 - Controller PollState Changed from 1 to 2 (16 second gap) 12:39:31 - Controller 0 disconnected (disconnect notification triggered here) 12:39:31 - Controller has an Invalid or missing unit serial number 12:39:32 - Controller PollState Changed from 2 to 1 (reconnect notification triggered here)

console_log.txt shows at first detection: Serial: Awaiting_Logon / Capabilities: 00000000001043ff

After the disconnect/reconnect: Serial: 45e-2ff-b4d1e15 / Capabilities: 00000000001843ff

ANALYSIS: Because the controller has no serial number, Steam performs a 3-step process on startup. First, it connects with Serial: Awaiting_Logon. Then, after login completes, it disconnects the provisional connection. Finally, it reconnects with the assigned serial 45e-2ff-b4d1e15. This results in a "disconnected then connected" notification pair on every startup.

Before May 6, the same 2-step initialization (PollState 0 to 1 to 2 to 1) was occurring, but "Controller 0 disconnected" was never fired and no notifications were shown. The USB reconnection event appears to have changed some internal state, causing the disconnected event to fire on every subsequent startup.

WHAT I HAVE TRIED (none of these fixed the issue): SteamController_XBoxSupport already set to 0 Deleted and recreated virtualgamepadinfo.txt Deleted preferences_45e-2ff-b4d1e15.vdf Deleted configset_45e-2ff-b4d1e15.vdf Cleared the controller_registration section in localconfig.vdf Set SteamController_DisableTwoFootNotifications to 1 Uninstalled and reinstalled the controller from Device Manager

REQUEST: On every Steam startup, my controller triggers a disconnect/reconnect notification pair even though it is never physically disconnected. This started after a USB reconnection event on May 6 and has persisted since. I have exhausted all user-side troubleshooting options listed above. Could you please in