Controllers suddenly out of order

[A Former User]

Total n00b here so apologies if these are obvious questions. I have searched throughout these forums and elsewhere, though, and I could really use some help.

I have a four-joystick arcade cabinet powered by a retropie.

It arrived to me 15 months ago preconfigured and everything worked out of the box. Suddenly a few weeks ago, the controllers seem to have changed order from (left-to-right) 3-1-2-4 to 1-4-3-2. I have not changed the order of which controllers are plugged into which USB ports.

Diagnostic steps I have taken so far:

1. Installed @meleu's joystick configuration utility. In the UI, the controllers seem to be reassigned but, as soon as I launch a game, the controllers are back to the 1-4-3-2 order.

Other information/context which could be helpful:

1. I began tracing the controller wires to Pi USB ports (which is hard because many of the wires are tethered together ) and discovered that three of the controllers are routed through a Sabrent 4-port USB hub , which then plugs into the Pi . This seems to be necessary due to the number of controller accessories, including light guns and track ball.
2. One year ago I updated the RetroPie software and it completely broke sound. After multiple uses of the sound restoration utility, the sound came back. I'm not sure what else might have broken then, as there more shell messages that appear when loading a game than there used to be. Since then there also are messages when loading a game such as "Dragon Rise Inc Generic USB joystick configured in port" and "Configuration override loaded" . These would give me cause for diagnostic concern but the controllers have still worked fine until recently.
3. I do shut the Pi off when not using it as the fan noise is loud.

Pi Model or other hardware: Labists Pi4
RetroPie Version Used (eg 3.6, 3.8.1, 4.1 - do not write latest): I'm not sure how to find out?
Built From: Wolfanoz 256GB image

I can probably determine other diagnostic information (e.g. joystick brands) if you have specific questions but I would really appreciate a little guidance from those more knowledgeable than I am in returning this machine to its proper controller configuration.

Many thanks in advance!

[sirhenrythe5th]

@guido23 3rd party images are not supported here.
You could either install the official image, so we can help you, or ask Wolfanoz for support.

[A Former User]

@sirhenrythe5th I wouldn't know the first thing about installing a new image and would likely need much, much more support than this simple bit of troubleshooting.

I am hopeful that the information I have provided - and additional information I can get, if needed, will be enough for generous members of the community to help me identify directions for exploration.

Help me, retropie.org.uk; you're my only hope!

[mitu]

As @sirhenrythe5th said, we don't support 3rd party images. Install the official image and we'd be able to help if you still have issues.