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[alecjahn]

I received a cheap cobalt blue DS Lite today in the mail.  It is in MINT condition.

No power, orange light comes on less than a second when plugging it in.

I opened it up, checked F1 and F2 and what do you know, F2 was blown.  Luckily for me, I have another parts unit and stole a working fuse from it (tested good).  Swapped the fuses, plugged it in...

Same thing.  Orange light for less than a second when plugging the charger in regardless of battery state.  Battery seems to have some juice in it.


So, after reading the 4-page thread regardng the matter (which I did before I bought this unit, and also gave me the confidence to buy it in the first place), I find that bitblt mentions the ribbon cable for the LCD screen.  I unplugged the top one... and it seems to have shorted out right at that connector, for whatever reason.  A bit of darkish residue, and by using a small screwdriver to feel the dark spot on the cable, it seems there is a tiny chuck of two of the cable traces missing (by feeling which direction the screwdriver "catches" on the edge of the dark spot).

My question is: does it seem this is the problem with the unit not powering on at all?  Seems a bit fishy, but then again I don't know.  I'd assume it might do SOMETHING without the top screen connecting properly. 
I could easily order a new top screen (which aparently I would be forced to do, being that the top screen's ribbon cable is permanently attached on the DS Lite), and the 20-ish bucks for that wouldn't be a big deal.  I just need some confidence in that being the problem.

I even thought of perhaps buying another identical unit from GameStop just to try out another top screen (I sincerely doubt any of my friends will let me dismantle their precious systems for the good of my project)...  or even swapping out all the internals and returning my guts in their shell with the proper serial number (I'd never do that, I mean, who would want to sabatage the demon that has been named "GameStop"!?!?)

Anyways.  Any hints?

[bitblt]

Welcome to scdev.org alecjahn! 

In my experience when there is a problem with a ribbon connector then one of the LCD screens may flash white (or garbage) before the DS shuts off.

If you see an orange light for a brief moment when plugging in the charger then that usually indicates a problem with fuse F2, or a bad battery. Make sure you test your DS with a known good battery.

Use a multimeter to make sure fuse F2 is not blown again. The fuse you attempted to swap might not be soldered correctly, or has blown/melted from heat from soldering. Personally when I do fuse repair jobs on DS I always just bridge the blown fuse with a small bit of wire and solder. Because the DS fuses are SMD and not easily serviced it doesn't make sense to me to bother replacing them.  As long as the DS power isn't shorted for a long period of time, and as long as your DS battery does not malfunction, then the DS should be fine with just a bridged fuse.

[alecjahn]

I'm going to try bridging it, though the fuse still tests good and it definitely looks as though it's soldered well (self-proclaimed soldering master ).

I'm going to hope for a toast battery, however I don't have a DSL battery to easily test, as both my DSs (my old working one and parts unit) are both fatties.  I did just now, try (with the DSL all opened), holding the DS (fat) battery up to the contacts (paying attention to polarity, of course ) with no results.

EDIT:
Bridged with a strand of copper wire from a braided lead.  No-go.  Even when I test the little copper holes near the fuse spot (like, you can see where the traces for the fuse go through the board, and I'm testing that connection nearby as opposed to directly on the fuse pad area), it is definitely bridged properly.  I'm thinking there's something just wrong with this board...

It also seems that there's a bit of whitish deposits on some of the solder joints, especially around that area.  The original fuse didn't look like it was in mint condition, but I attributed that to it being blown... or something.  The whitish crap is something I can scrape-off.  Makes me think of perhaps the after-effects of mosture (even flat-out water).  I dunno.

Keeping in mind that the top LCD cable SEEMS to be perhaps... screwed up, do you think it is worth it to spend more time on this, or just keep it for parts?  Like I said (and to reaffirm the reason why I dropped the 30 bucks on it), it's in almost MINT condition (or was, I think I added some superficial scratches to the lid while working on it :/).

[bitblt]

I'm sorry to read you aren't having any joy alecjahn. This is yet another case of broken DS with an unknown history (purchased at GameStop AS-IS). I still think it's worth borrowing a battery from a know working DS lite for testing.  There is still definitely a possibility that the problem is related to a LCD ribbon/connector.  I can't say for sure if it would be worth another ~$30 to try and replace the top screen, as it might not fix the problem.  I don't think the problem with your DS is related to flashme because bad firmware does not cause the DS to shut off automatically. On the bright side I think you could get you money back on ebay if you sold the unit as parts. Both LCD's and the BIOS/Wifi module alone are worth more than $30 sold separately. Good luck and keep us updated.

[alecjahn]

Thanks for the insight.  I bought it off another forum.

You speak of "as-is" from Gamestop... can you do such a thing?  I've always wondered about what they do with broken stuff.  Can you buy those items?  *twiddles thumbs in excitement*

I still have the suspicion that perhaps the LCD cable being ugly isn't the fault, but a result of whatever caused this unit to kick the bucket.  Best explaination is water damage, and a resulting short somewhere.

[alecjahn]

Naw, just that I had the idea of screwing them with some shifty part swaps. 

Regardless, can you buy broken stuff from GS?

[bitblt]

Thanks for the insight.  I bought it off another forum.

Oh, I thought you implied you purchased it at Gamestop earlier.

(I'd never do that, I mean, who would want to sabatage the demon that has been named "GameStop"!?!?)

[bitblt]

Naw, just that I had the idea of screwing them with some shifty part swaps. 

That's a clever idea. 

Regardless, can you buy broken stuff from GS?

I don't know, maybe. You can find stuff on Ebay for sure.

[alecjahn]

I scored a supposedly mintish Zelda-edition with a broken touch screen.  I don't know if this means cracked or just not-responsive, but either way I've always wanted one of these.  I missed out one Black Friday (I was 4th in line at Best Buy) getting one of these (with Phantom Hourglass packed-in) for 99 bucks, if I remember correctly.  I know they sell on ebay for boatloads of cash in comparison, seen them go for nearly 200 bucks or more if sealed.  Should have bought a few!

Regardless, I might just fix it up and then sell it, then use that cash to buy another. 

I sure hope at least the touchscreen is good in my broken cobalt one.  Hah!

[bitblt]

Nice! Keep us updated.

[alecjahn]

Updates to my saga:

The cobalt blue DS has been abandoned.  Both screen ribbons have been damaged by some unknown (probably shorted out) force within the connector itself, causing them to have breaks in the copper.

The gold zelda one had a non-responsive touchscreen, as well as half the backlight was out.  It also had some sort of residue between the screen and the reflector backing, so it had a haze to it if you looked closely.

A good friend of mine who runs a little shop in the local flea market had three broken DS lites that he gave to me - a black pokemon special edition, a red (... crimson?) with a broken top screen (cracked) and and white one that had been ripped in half.  I took the good lower screen from the white and put it in the Zelda edition, so now that one is 100% ready. 

The black one... wouldn't power on, but seemed to charge (well, the orange light would come on for a period of time, and I think eventually go off).  Both fuses were good.  Tried multiple batteries.  Since I had no other troubleshooting to do, I took the good motherboard from the trash white one and swapped them to make the Pokemon one perfect.  I gave this one back to my friend (it and the red one were a customer's of his', and wanted one working one out of the two), and got to keep the white and red.  I checked the switch with a multimeter and it seemed to function, though since I'm not positive how the switch works exaclty I could only test every point with every point, pushing the switch and watching a multimeter.  I also tried bridging the active-seeming contacts to see if it would start-up, but nope.

I got a new top screen off eBay for 12 bucks shipped, with triwing and small philips screwdriver as a bonus.  I tell you, replacing this screen is a complete PAIN compared to everything else on the DS Lite.  I'd rather solder 5 fuses than replace another one of those.  So anyways, red's up and running.  My only complaint about the cheap aftermarket LCDs is that they seem to be much more sensitive to pressure.  The color and contrast looks great, but even when you wipe the plastic cover with your shirt, you can see the screen below flex and distort.  The same force applied to a Nintendo-OEM screen does very little.  Odd.

So, I guess the cobalt blue one is just a $25, almost-mint... case.  Since the motherboard seems shot, and the LCD ribbons are also seemling toast... there's not much left! 

If I could get the motherboard from the black Pokemon model (one mobo that got swapped with the white one) working, I could use my extra screens (I ordered an extra top and a bottom, to keep around) and make another working one.
^
Any ideas on what might have gone wrong with it? 

[bitblt]

Thanks for sharing your saga with us. So if I understand correctly you got two working DS lites out of your endeavor. That doesn't sound too shabby.

So, I guess the cobalt blue one is just a $25, almost-mint... case.  Since the motherboard seems shot, and the LCD ribbons are also seemling toast... there's not much left! 

I would say a $25 investment is not bad for an almost mint case. After market DS lite shells like the SHOCK! cost about the same, and in my experience are more fragile than original Nintendo OEM shells. The hinge never seems work perfectly with after market shells.

If I could get the motherboard from the black Pokemon model (one mobo that got swapped with the white one) working, I could use my extra screens (I ordered an extra top and a bottom, to keep around) and make another working one.
^
Any ideas on what might have gone wrong with it?

I imagine you have already swapped parts around and isolated the problem to definitely be the motherboard. Other than checking the fuses, the battery, the ribbon connectors, and the BIOS module, I don't have any other troubleshooting suggestions. Good luck.