Okay.
After hours of tinkering I've figured out a reliable way to resolve the issue.
Unfortunately for razor users it involves deleting the driver.
- Unplug the steam controller dongle and turn off the controller (pop out the batts and pop em back in).
- Run cmd in administrator
- "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1"
- "start devmgmt.msc"
- Device manager will launch
- At the top, under the view menu, hit 'Show hidden devices'
- Go under the 'Razor' tab
- Look for the half opaque ones
- Right click and hit 'Uninstall Device'
- It will have a checkbox. Make sure to toggle the 'remove/delete driver' option
- Uninstall device half opaque in that tab. You wont need to toggle for the rest.
- Launch steam big picture
- Hit 'settings' (the gear)
- Hit the controller options
- plug in your controller dongle. turn on your controller.
- You SHOULD see 'add steam controller' under the options now. Don't bother clicking it yet. You've got one more step.
- Pop them batteries out of your controller again
- Pop the batts back in but DO NOT turn it on yet
- Click 'add steam controller'
- It should prompt you to 'hold x and turn on your controller'. Do that.
- Enter the button combination.
- Wait til it turns itself off due to non-use. (NOT recommended because it can make your internet browser buggy and skippy)
- In big picture under the power menu there is an option that says 'turn off controller'. I recommend this 1000%
Anyway.
I hope this helps someone!
Chaoddity