Wired Xbox controller buttons stop working when I tilt controller

[HangTime]

Very very very bizarre issue I'm having.

I have three Xbox controllers. Two of these controllers have an issue whereby when connected by USB, if I tilt the controller (and some other scenarios but that seems to be easiest way to reproduce it) it fairly quickly stops responding to inputs (despite having power). If I unplug and replug in the USB cable it starts working again until I tilt it too much.
This happens on two different Windows 11 PCs and an Xbox Series X.

Things I have tried:

• Different controllers (two of three controllers exhibit this behaviour, the two older ones)
• Different USB cables
• Different USB ports
• Different PCs and an Xbox Series X
• Putting batteries in to ensure it can get enough power
• Updating the controller firmware (I can't be 100% sure that both controllers were behaving the same way prior to doing this but I figured I should update them both).
• Reverting the firmware to older version using Xbox Accessories app (NB this always fails - I'm worried the latest firmware has bricked them)
• Adjusting device manager and windows power settings to ensure it won't turn off USB to save power
• Latest windows updates
• Unplugging the power to my console to ensure it's not 'intercepting' any bluetooth signals when connected to PC
• Using a needle to try and remove any lint from inside the USB-C ports on the controllers

My gut feeling was that tilting causing issues implied maybe a loose cable connection but like I say I've tried different cables, different usb ports, different controllers, cleaning out the port etc. As a test I also tried wiggling the cable around while holding the controller still and it worked fine. It's like there's some sort of motion detection or maybe a certain angle triggers some weird bluetooth interference that's overriding the cable connection?!? Like I opened with, this is all super bizarre.

This is driving me crazy, I've just spent another two hours trying to fix this so my son can play without having to keep replugging the cable every 30 seconds. None of the solutions I've found online seem to help, Microsoft just ghost the people saying they can't revert firmware.

Feels like I'm going to have to buy another controller but these things aren't cheap, one of the two is less than two years old.