Tips for cleaning and repairing a Nintendo 3DS XL?

[Hackary]

Hi.

I decided to dig out my old Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 3DS XL. The top screen has been cracked for years. Now that I have some spare money and am in a 3DS mood, I wanna finally try to repair the top screen (which is heavily cracked) and starting yesterday, replacing the rubber cover on the circlepad. Why "starting yesterday"? Because some of the rubber came off after pushing it; it appeared to be melted. I decided to rip off the rest of the melted rubber.

I gave it a basic clean; wiping it with water mixed with dish liquid using a rag and cotton swab. It's not perfect, but it looks a little nicer after removing some grime and fingerprints.

Before I begin repairing the 3DS XL, is there anything I should know? I already have the Amazon pages for the LCD screen display replacement (which links to Nintendo's official store) and the iFixit Essential Electronics Toolkit bookmarked and I've viewed a few repair guides on YouTube. I know the screen has to be for the Nintendo 3DS XL and can't be a New Nintendo 3DS XL. If I can, I wanna polish it and maybe remove the scratches too. Not sure what materials I should use but I ain't flame polishing, that's for sure.

I should note that I've never replaced an LCD screen before.

Attached are photos of the screen. Will provide more photos, if needed.

 

[skawo]

If this is the first LCD replacement you're trying to make, uh... it's gonna be difficult.
For the 3DS, you have to tightly twist three ribbon cables through a tiny wee tube. It's doable, but it takes a bit of practice, and the ribbon cables are fragile enough that it's unlikely you won't break at least one on your first go :s

The circle pad is easy to replace, though. Just make sure you don't lose the little anti-dust washer.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

uh... it's gonna be difficult.

Yes it is!

Did this twice. First time for a kid… he had dropped the 3DS XL. Second time for myself (ribbon cables torn through normal usage) → Replacement of LCD and loudspeaker/3D cable in one shot.


Ifixit usually is a good starting point:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+3DS+XL+Upper+LCD+Display+Replacement/25070
But note that they don't mention hinge disassembly. I would never try it without doing that. Trying to pull the cables through the hinge is almost guaranteed to rip them apart.
Use the picture guide and some videos and most importantly:

TIME. Take your time and be careful.

Good luck!

 

[Hayato213]

https://gbatemp.net/threads/are-ali...-fully-functional.563124/page-2#post-10207664

Just some stuffs to read, if you get the wrong screen type you might need to get the hwcal files for the screen depending whether the original screen was IPS or TN.

 

[Ferris1000]

Here are some Tips:

Take Pictures in which order the flex cables are layered.
Do not kink the flex cables.
Do not use force and be patient.
Make sure all flex cables are correctly inserted into the zif connectors.
Make sure that all cables routed correctly and not trapped anywhere while assembling the console back together.

if you follow those advices you should be good to go and able to successfully fix your 3DS XL

 

[AWESOMEGAMER]

Wow what in the eff did you do :-< no never mind keep it to your self.
IDK about replacing screens.
But
TURN OFF YOUR SYSTEM
It looks like it is on :-/
Take out the battery and the micro sd card and back up all of the stuff on the (n)3ds that you think is important well which is like everything. There is somethings that might be on the internal 3ds memory that the might not be on your micro sd card.
This might be EXTREME for a cleaning, but that stuff has a change to leak.
It can mess up your battery, and that can mess up your sd card, which can leak int the internal parts like the board parts and you might not NEVER be able to turn the unit on again to retrieve you data EVER AGAIN.
I know extreme for a cleaning but this has happened before and the leak can happen very fast. And the battery is EXPENSIVE ($_$)