The DS lite crack of death.

Dublo7

Next week I'm getting a DS lite, and I'm just curious as to if this problem with the case/hinge cracking is still occurring?
Has Nintendo sorted this problem out yet?

Bionic Monkey

I haven't heard anything about it since they launched the new colors. I wouldn't worry about it.

LavaKnight

It hasn't happened with my white one, either, so I think it's just a case of "it has always happened but now you just hear about it more."

PikaPuff

It was only the first batch that had the screw over tightened. You hear about it because the first batch buyers are finally causing the crack to occur and talk about it.

Pooch

Oh hey, I was going to make a thread about this.

Mine just broke the other day (got it in the first batch). Does anyone know if the crack is covered by the warranty? I emailed Nintendo and they said that the crack wasn't as common as people made it out to be.

ikillkenny

On a slightly related note:

Where the hell can I find a DS Lite? I lost my DS yesterday (fell out of my pocket in a cab I think), and after calling approxmiately 25 stores today none said they had one. I checked online and no one was selling them for anything close to MSRP. This is pretty crazy. Does anyone have any suggestions for obtaining one?

Bionic Monkey

Pooch wrote:

Oh hey, I was going to make a thread about this.

Mine just broke the other day (got it in the first batch). Does anyone know if the crack is covered by the warranty? I emailed Nintendo and they said that the crack wasn't as common as people made it out to be.

Doesn't matter if it's common. It's still a manufacturer defect.

And it has a 1-year warranty, so it should still be covered.

sethsez

ikillkenny wrote:

On a slightly related note:

Where the hell can I find a DS Lite? I lost my DS yesterday (fell out of my pocket in a cab I think), and after calling approxmiately 25 stores today none said they had one. I checked online and no one was selling them for anything close to MSRP. This is pretty crazy. Does anyone have any suggestions for obtaining one?

Yeah.

Wait.

Nintendo was having production issues with the massive demand for the Wii and the DS Lite over the holidays, so they've been a bitch to find for a little over a month now. Things'll get back to speed eventually, but right now we're pretty much in "call every store three times a day checking for shipments" territory.

Dublo7

Well, apparently over here, the pink ones are sold out everywhere. There's plenty of black and white ones around.
I'm thinking of getting one off play asia because they have all the cool colours, however, I don't think it's worth an extra 70 Aussie dollars.

Eteric

Its strange that the pink one would sell more than the rest.

That is strange.

Stormwatcher

I've had an USA bought black DSL since october, no sign of the crack so far. It's my precious little friend. We go everywhere together, and we're very happy

elevature

This is not about the crack, but does fall under the warranty question - my DS lite was having trouble recognizing the GBA cart. I tried with two different carts, and it would say there was no GBA game inserted. I had to turn it off and on about three times before it would recognize either one. The battery was almost dead, so could that be the problem? Has this happened to anyone else?

I've only had it for about a month, so if this were to keep happening, would I just send it in to Nintendo to get it fixed? I'm in Canada, would that affect the ability to send it in at all?

CrossBuster

I've had a white DS Lite since launch, and the crack is just now starting to appear. It's disconcerting, but it doesn't seem to be growing. If you're gentle with your DS (and why wouldn't you be?), you should be fine.

ikillkenny

sethsez wrote:

ikillkenny wrote:

On a slightly related note:

Where the hell can I find a DS Lite? I lost my DS yesterday (fell out of my pocket in a cab I think), and after calling approxmiately 25 stores today none said they had one. I checked online and no one was selling them for anything close to MSRP. This is pretty crazy. Does anyone have any suggestions for obtaining one?

Yeah.

Wait.

Nintendo was having production issues with the massive demand for the Wii and the DS Lite over the holidays, so they've been a bitch to find for a little over a month now. Things'll get back to speed eventually, but right now we're pretty much in "call every store three times a day checking for shipments" territory.

Damn. I suppose you can't preorder hardware like this at an EBStop, right?

slash000

crack of death?


It's just cosmetic, and they've fixed the issue. Unless you're a person that throws their DSlite around.

Sixfortyfive

slash000 wrote:

It's just cosmetic

It doesn't take much for it to get worse.





Try to get yours fixed/replaced if you see it develop.

Jinx

So all DS lites are still under warranty? If that's the case I may try to get mine fixed. I've been nothing but loving to my DS Lite but it got the crack anyway. Was it significantly more prevalent with the launch units?

lowlylowlycook

Eteric wrote:

Its strange that the pink one would sell more than the rest.

That is strange.

I'm sure it is totally unrelated to the existence of Ninetendogs. Totally.

Joril

My black DS lite has a cracked hinge since a few weeks ago. I still need to send it to Nintendo Belgium, and hope it get's replaced.
It's about half a year old.

It's not the "usual" crack either (the one in the pic above). It's a vertical tear next to the little lights on the right side. Like it started to tear on the weakest point where the light is. It's been growing bigger with opening the top half.
Also, it doesn't make the clicking sound anymore and the top isn't very steady.
I haven't used it since as not to make the tear any bigger.

I might also add that I handle my DS with the utmost care, it has never fallen, it has never even been shaken.
I always keep it in protective carrying case. So much for TLC, eh.

I better send it soon...

RidleySaria

Hm. What a coincidence. I hadn't heard anything about the dreaded crack in some time and yesterday I noticed my launch DS Lite had finally developed one. And I was soooo careful with it. I'm definitely calling Nintendo tomorrow. There's no way I'm letting them tell me the crack is "cosmetic". A scratch is cosmetic. This is a fucking crack. Not that I expect any problems from Nintendo. Their customer service is the best in the world. It could only get better if they had Princess Peach hand deliver a new Lite and go down on me as a way of saying "sorry about the hassle!"

mogdemon

Protip: This can and will happen to your DS Phat if you consistently play Brain Age lying down whilst holding the DS by the top screen.

Also, I'm a believer that a pink DS Lite is harder to come by than a Wii.

deadonthestreet

mogdemon wrote:

Also, I'm a believer that a pink DS Lite is harder to come by than a Wii.

December 10th or so, I walk into a Gamecrazy looking for a pink DS for my sister. When I ask, and they say no, I say "Wow these are as hard to find as a Wii."

To which the guy said "You want a Wii? We have some."

So my sister got a Wii in place of a DS.

Bionic Monkey

SON OF A BITCH!

I had my DS Lite replaced because of the crack. Because of this thread, I went ahead and checked the replacement unit they sent me back in September, and the fucking thing has a crack again.

:evil:

Dublo7

deadonthestreet wrote:

mogdemon wrote:

Also, I'm a believer that a pink DS Lite is harder to come by than a Wii.

December 10th or so, I walk into a Gamecrazy looking for a pink DS for my sister. When I ask, and they say no, I say "Wow these are as hard to find as a Wii."

To which the guy said "You want a Wii? We have some."

So my sister got a Wii in place of a DS.

I wish you were my brother.

Lurker

The hinge on mine is cracked but everything works fine.

Marlor

Mine developed a hairline crack a few months after I got it. It finally cracked right through towards the end of last year.

I haven't really been worried, since the crack hasn't grown since then. But after seeing the photos in this thread, I have decided to give Nintendo a call.

Nintendo of Australia have reportedly been refusing to fix the DS Lites, since the damage is cosmetic. If they pull that stunt on me, I'll remind them of their obligation under Australian law to fix any manufacturing defects, and that they can be fined if they don't.

I just hope they don't replace it with a dirty, scratched refurb unit. Mine is in pristine condition apart from the crack.

Variable

i just looked over at my table to see how my hinge was doing, and my ds lite isn't sitting there.

where the fuck did it go?

ZackSchilling

My DS Lite has the crack, but it's really thin and has stayed pretty much steady in size since it happened. Normally, I'd just deal but I think I'm going to use this opportunity to get a new DS Lite to replace the worn, scratched, touchscreen on my old one. It has developed a non-constant offset to touchscreen recognition that I can't calibrate away. It's worst toward the left side, where you can see the lines you draw appearing clearly not under the pen.

Dublo7

Variable wrote:

i just looked over at my table to see how my hinge was doing, and my ds lite isn't sitting there.

where the fuck did it go?

A cat stolered your ds.

maximumzero

elevature wrote:

This is not about the crack, but does fall under the warranty question - my DS lite was having trouble recognizing the GBA cart. I tried with two different carts, and it would say there was no GBA game inserted. I had to turn it off and on about three times before it would recognize either one. The battery was almost dead, so could that be the problem? Has this happened to anyone else?

I've only had it for about a month, so if this were to keep happening, would I just send it in to Nintendo to get it fixed? I'm in Canada, would that affect the ability to send it in at all?

This happened to mine not to long ago. Ironically it was the one that was replaced due to the crack.

Luckily, I had a replacement plan at CompUSA so I just used that to get a new one. So now I'm on my 3rd DS Lite.

Forever Zefiro

Shit, my DSLite has the crack, but I forgot about it UNTIL SEEING THIS THREAD.

Thanks for making me sad again.

gneGne

Forever Zero wrote:

Shit, my DSLite has the crack, but I forgot about it UNTIL SEEING THIS THREAD.

Thanks for making me sad again.

Quoted For Truth! So I DID think it was just a cosmetic thing, which I don't care about too much. But if it can really get the top part loose, then I might have to make a call.

Dodge Aspen

Mine had the hinge crack, and I probably wouldn't notice if I never read about it in these forums.

I called Nintendo. They tried to downplay it like it wasn't a big deal, but they did offer to fix it for free. I sent it to them, used my Phatty for a couple of weeks, and then they sent me one back good as new. The only thing was all my friend codes changed, so I haven't been online with friends since.

I love Nintendo's customer service. Best in the world out of any business. I have had to call them 3 times now (Once because my games weren't registering and I wanted that Zelda Collection, once for help getting my router setup to take my DS online, and once for the hinge crack), and they have been the most polite, helpful and cool people ever. Fucking Bell Canada should take a clue.

It is my understanding that sometimes they use a totally new one, and sometimes they just replace the hinge, so if yours is already damaged, you may get that same one back with just a new hinge.

Marlor

Dodge Aspen wrote:

It is my understanding that sometimes they use a totally new one, and sometimes they just replace the hinge, so if yours is already damaged, you may get that same one back with just a new hinge.

Wow. That's pretty impressive. I'd be happy to wait a few weeks for them to actually replace the hinge. Of course, a new one would be just as good (apart from the friend code issues).

Most tech companies would just give you a shoddily-refurbed unit.

JLM-AWP

Marlor wrote:

Dodge Aspen wrote:

It is my understanding that sometimes they use a totally new one, and sometimes they just replace the hinge, so if yours is already damaged, you may get that same one back with just a new hinge.

Wow. That's pretty impressive. I'd be happy to wait a few weeks for them to actually replace the hinge. Of course, a new one would be just as good (apart from the friend code issues).

Most tech companies would just give you a shoddily-refurbed unit.

Mine has the crack on the INside, but it stopped growing after about 3-4 mm, so I'm not terribly upset. I though about sending it in, but 3 weeks without it would make my bi-daily 1 hour train ride insanely difficult.

xzzy

ikillkenny wrote:

On a slightly related note:

Where the hell can I find a DS Lite? I lost my DS yesterday (fell out of my pocket in a cab I think), and after calling approxmiately 25 stores today none said they had one. I checked online and no one was selling them for anything close to MSRP. This is pretty crazy. Does anyone have any suggestions for obtaining one?

The Fry's near me has had White DS' in stock every time I've gone in there, usually once per week.

Smacky The Frog

I got the white DS lite at launch and of course it cracked. When the two other colors came out, I got my girlfriend a pink one and myself a black one and neither has a crack.

Rogers101

My DS Lite got a crack in it. I called back in November, they sent me a UPS shipping slip to send it back to them. I kept it through Christmas though, so we'd have both our DSes for the long ride down to Florida (and so that we'd have three with my mom's DS. Three way Maro Kart kicks ass.)

I finally sent it in two weeks ago. It took three days to ship there, one day for them to work on it (they shipped it back the day after they got it), and three days to get back to me.

Not bad at all really. The only thing is that they wind up replacing both screens, so I have to buy a new screen protector for it.

Jam Warrior

Rogers101 wrote:

My DS Lite got a crack in it. I called back in November, they sent me a UPS shipping slip to send it back to them. I kept it through Christmas though, so we'd have both our DSes for the long ride down to Florida (and so that we'd have three with my mom's DS. Three way Maro Kart kicks ass.)

I finally sent it in two weeks ago. It took three days to ship there, one day for them to work on it (they shipped it back the day after they got it), and three days to get back to me.

Not bad at all really. The only thing is that they wind up replacing both screens, so I have to buy a new screen protector for it.

I strongly doubt it's 'two new screens' so much as a whole new DS. You rarely get back the same system you sent in.

ScottieBoy

Lurker wrote:

The hinge on mine is cracked but everything works fine.

Daedalus

I had to send mine in twice. The first time they just repaired it, and it ended up cracking again. The second time they replaced it, and it doesn't look like it's going to crack anymore.