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An Adventure in DS repair
Monolithic_Dome
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
TLDR: DS Broken. Bent contact. Need help.
I love my DS very much. It's fat and it's red, but it's been my companion for quite some time now. Longer than its warranty period, even.
Last night I was having trouble getting games to read. I'd pop in a game, nada. Pop in a different game, it works. This was concerning me, especially because this is a DS, and getting "disc read errors" wasn't exactly something I had mentally prepared for.
Anyway, I grab my trusty flashlight and take a peek inside "Slot 1," and horror of horrors, one of the contact pins is bent out of position. I tried my best to capture this on camera:
The pic is a little fuzzy, but you can see the pin all bent out of shape. Apparently it can make intermittent contact sometimes, but it doesn't always contact and I'm worried that repeated game-jammings will cause it to break.
Here are possible causes for this hardware failure, as far as I can tell:
Anyway, I tried to re-align the pin last night using a small screwdriver and a technique that can best be described as "poking at it," to no avail.
My next step is probably going to be purchasing a "nintendo screwdriver" and disassembling my DS.
From what I can tell via the information supertubeway, after I remove the back plate I will discover something like this:
Does anyone know whether that metal plate is at all removable or whether I will be able to manipulate the pins from the other side?
Anyone have any other suggestions of freeing my DS from it's silent prison?
oh, and here are some suggestions that I am not particularly interested in, by the way:
Thanks PA for your help. Once my nintendo screwdriver gets here I'll let you know how it goes.
I love my DS very much. It's fat and it's red, but it's been my companion for quite some time now. Longer than its warranty period, even.
Last night I was having trouble getting games to read. I'd pop in a game, nada. Pop in a different game, it works. This was concerning me, especially because this is a DS, and getting "disc read errors" wasn't exactly something I had mentally prepared for.
Anyway, I grab my trusty flashlight and take a peek inside "Slot 1," and horror of horrors, one of the contact pins is bent out of position. I tried my best to capture this on camera:
The pic is a little fuzzy, but you can see the pin all bent out of shape. Apparently it can make intermittent contact sometimes, but it doesn't always contact and I'm worried that repeated game-jammings will cause it to break.
Here are possible causes for this hardware failure, as far as I can tell:
- Gremlins
- A misbehaving game cartridge. Cooking Mama is officially on notice
- Leaving the DS in my bag without a game in it. maybe I did this?
- Chupacabra
Anyway, I tried to re-align the pin last night using a small screwdriver and a technique that can best be described as "poking at it," to no avail.
My next step is probably going to be purchasing a "nintendo screwdriver" and disassembling my DS.
From what I can tell via the information supertubeway, after I remove the back plate I will discover something like this:
Does anyone know whether that metal plate is at all removable or whether I will be able to manipulate the pins from the other side?
Anyone have any other suggestions of freeing my DS from it's silent prison?
oh, and here are some suggestions that I am not particularly interested in, by the way:
- Trying to get gamestop or someone to buy it in its current state
- buying a DS lite. not in the budget right now
- Paying someone more than a nominal charge to fix it
Thanks PA for your help. Once my nintendo screwdriver gets here I'll let you know how it goes.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Monolithic_Dome on
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Will edit this post when diagnosis is complete.
Report:
The metal casing around the cartridge slot is soldered to the circuit board. Your only real way of fixing is precision stabbing at it to bend it back into shape. If you're handy with a soldering iron, you could rip off the metal shield and do it that way. That's your best bet, but otherwise you're just going to have to go in the slot through the opening.
I mean, they're pretty good about repairing systems.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
edit: Yeah, I see that you did. I'm out of ideas.
Yeah, I second this. You should at least get an estimate from them before you start taking it apart
In my experience, Nintendo is really nice in terms of free repairs. I guess being awash with the riches of the world does that to some people.
I believe it is a Japanese way of thinking. If they repair "such and such" unit, they know where in their design that they should improve if it starts occurring on the assembly line. I saw this at Fujitsu in their hard disk repair operation. I suppose Nintendo might do the same.
I'm not real handy with a soldering iron, but I do attend a college where electrical engineering is the biggest major, so I know plenty of people who know their way around hot liquid metal. I'll keep that as a last resort.
I support the "call Nintendo" idea, but if that leads no where or they want your precious $20 of ramen dinners supply money, then you could shave down some tooth picks, apply adhesive to one and just as litle as posible, apply it to the base (under the wire), then use another toothpick (thats not covered in adhesive) to press and hold the wire in place. It works best if you make sure the tooth pick to hold the wire in place is just the right size to wedge in there and leave, so you don't have to sit and hold it, thus allowing your large meat hands to screw something up. Meat hands do that, I know, by first meat hand experiance.
Good luck.
A few months back I treated myself to a brand new DS Lite. Oh it was shiny, it was lovely, and 3 days after purchase my psychotic ex-girlfriend ripped it into two pieces. Nothing sadder looking than a 3 day old console brutally killed before its time. So, I would like to replace the touchscreen in my battered old DS with the one from the unit that Mrs. Loopy tore asunder. In theory, this would give me a fully working machine. I already have another new DS that I bought a couple of weeks back, but combining the two old units would mean less clutter and I'd like my "backup" unit to be a fully working model.
So, does anyone here know if swapping out the touchscreen is an easy project? I'm still living on the road so I don't have access to much equipment, but I could probably get the Nintendo screwdriver easily enough here in Hong Kong. In my dreams it would be just a case of opening it up, popping off a couple of clips and dropping in the new screen, but I have a feeling that in reality it is all about soldering irons and stuff. Bearing in mind I'm someone that managed to shortcircuit a 4th gen iPod while simply changing the battery, I felt it safest to get a new DS before attempting a disassembly of my gaming unit. Can't be without my Advance Wars. (And err, Cooking Mama.)
It doesn't look terribly complicated, no soldering from what I can tell, but a handful of screws. You'll need a Nintendo tri-wing screwdriver (if you can't find them locally, they're several dollars online), and another smaller regular screwdriver.
Fantastic work sir, much appreciated. I would have gone on a Google search myself but I'm running on leeched bandwidth and a laptop battery that is down to just 60 minutes per charge. I knew I could rely on Penny Arcade.
I'm going to find myself some screwdrivers and give it a go. It may all end in tears, but it will be fun. Thanks again Whitey.