Hardware Game Boy Micro - faulty

[Chaykin]

Hi! I got two Game Boy Micros and one of them stopped working.

It's definitely not the battery - both batteries are functioning fine on my other Micro. It is also not the ON/OFF switch - I have opened that up and gave it a thorough clean.

When I turn the faulty Micro on/off nothing at all happens, it's totally dead. (with a confirmed, fully charged, genuine working battery)

When I plug it in to the (genuine) charger whilst the power switch is in the OFF position the select/start buttons go blue for a second and then go off - that's with both a charged and a discharged battery so it looks like the faulty Micro is unable to charge the battery? The only thing different when connecting to the charger whilst the power switch is in the ON position is that the screen flashes white for a blink of a second (no sound) and then goes black.

I also looked at the motherboard and cannot see anything obvious i.e. dirty, broken, burnt, disconnected etc.

Any ideas?

 

[Chaykin]

So just to reply to myself - after some more digging I found that apparently the problem I have might be because of a blown fuse on the PCB. There are two - F1 & F2. Totally unsure what might have caused any of my fuses to blow... Do they just tend to do that after some years?

Anyway - continuing - I disassembled my faulty Game Boy Micro and found both of the fuses on the motherboard. They are microscopic! F2 is located on the back between the charging port and battery port (my F2 fuse has "32" printed on it - managed to read it by taking a close up picture with my phone) and the F1 fuse is on the front of the PCB - between LCD ribbon connectors and the L trigger. (my F1 fuse has "7" printed on it) Luckily I got a multimeter and tested both for continuity. F2 seems fine but there's no continuity on F1...

Checking things with a multimeter is probably as far as I can go with my "hands-on". I never soldered in my life nor do I know anybody owning a soldering iron and kit. (i.e. would have to buy it) This fuse is so tiny that I don't know how I would do it... I did find however that the fuse I'd need is a 0603 size 250mA one, like this one - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/non-resettable-surface-mount-fuses/7076782/

 

[zfreeman]

Remove the old fuse, keep the replacement fuse stationary, cover pads with solder paste, touch solder paste with solder iron, done.

 

[koffieleut]

Remove the old fuse, keep the replacement fuse stationary, cover pads with solder paste, touch solder paste with solder iron, done.

After soldering clean the board with isopropyl alcohol

 

[Chaykin]

Little update - I purchased a pack of 10x fuses mentioned above (minimum order quantity) and simply "placed" a new fuse onto the defective one (i.e. stacked one on top of the other so that their respective sides touched) to satisfy myself that indeed it was the culprit. Result? The GBM works fine! Guess it's time to invest in soldering equipment and learn to use it...

 

[RAHelllord]

Little update - I purchased a pack of 10x fuses mentioned above (minimum order quantity) and simply "placed" a new fuse onto the defective one (i.e. stacked one on top of the other so that their respective sides touched) to satisfy myself that indeed it was the culprit. Result? The GBM works fine! Guess it's time to invest in soldering equipment and learn to use it...

If you aren't certain you can do it you could always look around for a local electronics repair shop and have them replace the fuse for you. Any place that can repair a phone or laptop can repair your GBM, too. And if you got a fuse for them to fix, and can tell them where it goes, chances are it won't cost too much since they don't have to diagnose it first.