A friend of mine recently short circuited his DS main board using a supercard CF.  At first we thought his DS was somehow "bricked", but after closely inspecting his equipment I found a bent pin inside his SC CF slot.  So I used a carpenter knife to open one side of his SCCF casing, and that was enough to slip out the pcb.  The pin in question was pin 13 which happens to be VCC (3.3V) and was grounding against some other pins.

After straitening the pin out I put the SC back together and tested it with an old GBA and it still works.  However, the grounding of VCC seems to have physically damaged his DS.  If we try to power up the DS with only the battery nothing happens (no light).  If we plug in the AC adapter the DS will blink orange for a second then nothing.  If we press the power button while the light is still orange the light will sometimes change to green for a second (speaker may chirp also) then nothing.

I already ordered a new main board for his DS on ebay for about $30 plus S&H.  However, because the DS will still show different color lights (and chirp) makes me think the DS main board is not damaged much.  I can't find any reference to a fuse inside the DS, so the problem is likely a smoked diode or transistor. I do know how to wield a soldering iron, so if there a DS electronics guru here that has knowledge of how to recover from this condition please let me know.

Also, I was considering the possibility that something similar might be happening to a few people who have bricked their DSlite trying to install FlashMe.  If a screwdriver were to stray too far from SL1 it might short circuit the DSlite, resulting in similar DS symptoms.  Just a theory I have going.

Ah, I know.
If you remove the battery from the DS this exact thing happens.

It won't do anything without a battery and an AC adapter, obviously...
If you plug in an AC adaptor the light pops to orange for about 1 second before the cut-off is enabled.
If you try to power your ds while the light is still orange it makes a chirping sound and the cut off is enabled.

The ds is built so that it won't do anything if it doesn't have a battery.

Because your description is a perfect match with the symtoms of not having a battery in the ds, the problem is either the battery died or the battery does not connect to the mainboard.

As you found a powerpin rubbing against a ground pin in the supercard, I think we can assume a lot of power was flowing.
So either the battery couldn't handel the load and left, or the wires connecting the battery to the mainboard burned out, or a fuse between the battery and the mainboard blew.

First try to put a new battery in your ds, If you're lucky that will work.

Quote from: "Blight"Because your description is a perfect match with the symtoms of not having a battery in the ds, the problem is either the battery died or the battery does not connect to the mainboard.

As you found a powerpin rubbing against a ground pin in the supercard, I think we can assume a lot of power was flowing.
So either the battery couldn't handel the load and left, or the wires connecting the battery to the mainboard burned out, or a fuse between the battery and the mainboard blew.

First try to put a new battery in your ds, If you're lucky that will work.

Thanks for the reply. Yep,  I was thinking the same thing so I tried replacing the battery and that didn't work.  I can't find a fuse, at least anything recognizable as a fuse.  I think it might be something with the battery charging circuit?  I'm guessing it's a smoked diode or transistor.  I just wish I knew which one.  I think diodes and transistors need to be removed to test them.

I personally think the diodes and transistors can handle a bit more than the flimsey wireing conducting the power.
But that's just me.
I think you should grab a magnifying and look if the plastic around some leads is a little darker colour before you start unsoldering things
you can also test conductivity from component to component.
as it's main power cable if you find an flaw you should just we able to bypass it with a simple wire.

Your situation sucks... Good luck with fixing it.

I had a post on this somewhere... They are SMT fuses, little black boxes with no marking, I dont remember off hand what they are labeled on the PCB though - you can check them easily with a continuity meter or a volt-ohm meter, anything that doesnt beep or is over 0 resistance (or next to it) means its toast.

edit:/
the fuses are labeled with F1 and F2. F1 is the usual culprit though, I think it protects the main circuits and will cause the type of operation you have been seeing. (my mistake, it appears the fuses protect externally powered devices like the GBA and DS carts...)

Thanks to liksang for the images and for thulimna for posting them back then.


the origional post discussing this was when a NDS pin got shorted:
http://gbatmw.proboards44.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=m3gen&thread=1137014697&page=1#1138593372

Wow,  F2 appears to be blown.  :shock:  Thanks!  

Quote from: "bitblt"Wow,  F2 appears to be blown.  :shock:  Thanks!  

No problem, hopefully it blew fast enough that no other damage happened. A quick test/fix is to simply bridge the fuse with wire or solder, but there is a good reason why they put them in so a replacement should happen eventually (if bridging fixes it).

Thats what you get for insinuating black beltdomness - help  :lol: Glad this is one that cant be blamed on DarkFader too  

"Mr cory1492 Supercard black belt wizard" was not meant to be an insult.  So stop sending me cinder blocks . . . ok.  
http://scdev.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2648

UPDATE:
I soldered a thin wire fiber to bridge F2, and the DS powered up!

Awesome    Aww, c'mon, you gotta love the paint job... I mean, they are almost the real thing. (btw, never took it as an insult - I figured it for a joke in return and just continued and tossed one back - sorry it took so long to do so, been essentially away since I got a PSP here).

PSP  :shock:

"Super Duo swap black belt wizard"

Quote from: "bitblt"PSP  :shock:

"Super Duo swap black belt wizard"

:lol:  even got the smudged and fingerprinted units to proove it.

My friends DS has the same problem but he has never had any kind of supercard type thing in his DS but the only thing I can think of would be that he did spill some liquid on it. I dont know if that would do it but it now just lights up the power lights and goes dead.  How did you say you do the sodering test thing?  Do I just run a wire from f1 on the front around the DS and connect it to f2 on the back?

see the little silver spots on each side of the fuse F1? bridge them with a bit of solder, a small (note the small in small) piece of wire. Think of how a fuse works, and what happens when it blows. You wouldnt wire one circuit to the other in a car when a fuse blows, but some people seem to like to put tinfoil around those fuses to bridge the connection (these are the people who wind up with under dash fires).

F1 and F2 are separate fuses and not meant to be wired to eachother; you really should check them both to see which if either is blown instead of just bridging them to see if it makes a difference... especially if liquid was envolved.

Quote from: "bitblt""Mr cory1492 Supercard black belt wizard" was not meant to be an insult.  So stop sending me cinder blocks . . . ok.  
http://scdev.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2648

UPDATE:
I soldered a thin wire fiber to bridge F2, and the DS powered up!

Told you bud

Quote from: "Neptune"

Quote from: "bitblt"
I soldered a thin wire fiber to bridge F2, and the DS powered up!

Told you bud

True. Saturday when I picked up my SC miniSD from Neptune, he did suggest I look for something with an "F".  I just didn't get around to looking until the next day when cory1492 posted the pictures.  I probably would have figured this out with your advice eventually. So thanks.