Hardware Newbie Gameboy Advance Mod HELP & Questions...

princess99 · Sep 1, 2016

Prepare to read!
I am a newbie to this and I have read like every page online about modding GBA and I'm confused...

Here's my story..
I hate the GBA SP it's too small and not comfortable to play and I like the older model GBA
So I decided to find out how to modify it with a backlit screen, I watched youtube videos and read every website, blog article you name it on how its done and decided it shouldn't be "so hard" to do myself..

sooo here's what I did:
-Bought a broken gba sp ags 101 (had issues with board but screen works fine and I tested it)
took it apart and got the screen out and its the "white tab one"
-Bought a used working GBA (older model) that works great and I tested it (Its the 40 pin version)
-Bought the 40 pin ribbon cable adapter (did not have a wire-I'll explain)
-Bought new shell housing and modified it for the new screen
-Bought a New Glass Screen Cover

So yesterday I get the ribbon cable (finally) and after watching a video online I seen a man did not need to solder (I've never done this) and so I tried to find the same ribbon cable he had and thought I had ordered it (The picture on ebay was the same) but the ribbon I got looked different...

So I hook the screen up to the ribbon cable yada yada and turn on the power and I have a horrible washed out screen....(See picture) IT was terrible..

So I thought maybe I put everything in the wrong way but I had it right the first time...so then I started reading more...

So I find out there are 2 different ags 101 model screens, a "white tab" and a "black/brown tab" I guess they have letters like A and B and AB or something and that "white tab" works best with 32pin and brown/black works better with "40 pin" so now I'm really frustrated!! I spent $70 on the broken sp for the screen to get a "white tab" and not it won't work with my 40 pin GBA....

So now I have everything (I thought) to get this mod going after waiting MONTHS to have my cool custom GBA and now I'm back to square one again...I have no idea how to solder (don't even own one) I don't have wire to solder, I don't know if my ribbon cable is good or not, I don't want to spend anymore money on screens...why is this so hard? Why can some people not even solder and have everything work on the first try? What do I do now?

So one last thing...I have a personal GBA SP ags 101 that I own that's been put into a new housing and works fine, I decided to open it up to see what screen was inside and low and behold it was a "black/brown tab" screen..So I took most of the system apart and hooked that screen up to my GBA and it worked much better but the image was still washed out, there were lines in the screen and parts of the border of the games intro screen were missing...it looked better then the "white tab" screen but still horrible. I don't want to take apart that system for the screen unless I can swap the "white tab" screen and put that into the GBA Sp ags 101 and know it will work just as good. I want to have 1 functional normal GBA sp ags 101 to perhaps sell after (if) I ever complete this mod....

Can someone help?? Does anyone even do this anymore??

-yours truly,

June

princess99 · Sep 1, 2016

Ok after reading a number of additional posts I decided to go ahead and buy a 32 pin GBA which I just purchased and a 32 pin ribbon cable since I have the 32 pin or "white tab" ags 101 screen....so now the wait begins again! In the meantime I might just rehouse the 40 pin GBA I currently have and resell it on ebay to get some money back..I'm trying to get a refund on the 40 pin ribbon cable I purchased that was not the same as pictured in the listing...so hopefully once I get all the "32 pin" stuff I can try it out and learn how to solder....!!

princess99 · Sep 3, 2016

OK so no one is replying..

I got my 32pin GBA today just waiting on a new replacement 40 pin cable for the 40 pin version GBA and ordered a 32pin on Aliexpress..should be a long time before that comes, so now I have 2 different GBA systems both a 32 and 40 pin, I have the white tab ags 101 screen and just waiting on new ribbon cables. I also got a refund for the 40 pin ribbon cable that did not seem to work well...Hope fully someone out there will respond and help me out! -June

slaphappygamer · Sep 25, 2016

I think you need to adjust the "trim pot". It's a little screw by the cartridge slot. I have parts coming to do this mod as well.

marcos862 · Sep 26, 2016

Good Day!!

I have read a lot of GBA mods, and looks like that you "problem" is very common.

First of all, you can swap the LCD screens in your gba sp ags 101, the white tab should works correctly, without problem in your AGS-101.

Then, as far as i know, the 32pin version should always need to solder one little cable from the ribbon adapter to the mainboard in the GBA, so, you will need to get a solder tool.

Finally, the 40pin + black/brown tab lcd should work, most of the times. Maybe, the problem that you have, as @slaphappygamer said... it could be that you only need to adjust the "pot".

(

I hope this works for you.

Hardware Newbie Gameboy Advance Mod HELP & Questions...

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