hello there, i could really use some advice.
i got my mom an original 3DS XL for christmas. she'd really been enjoying it, but eventually i noticed that she was having a hard time seeing some of the buttons (the home, start, and select buttons, specifically, since they're indented and not printed.) i decided i wanted to buy some white replacement buttons for her, so that she would be able to use it more easily.
unfortunately, the ones i bought wound up being cheap knockoffs that did way more harm than good. the home, start, and select buttons (irritatingly) wouldn't fit properly and i eventually decided to put the originals back. in the process of repeatedly opening the console and closing it back up, i wound up breaking some components by mistake.
the good news is that most of the fixes and replacements i had to do were simple (thanking my lucky stars that i didn't break the top screen, because if i did i would have just thrown myself into a lake.) the bad news is that one of the broken pieces is the clamp that holds the ribbon cable for the circle pad in place, and thanks to the very awkward angle it's positioned in, i have no idea how to go about fixing it.
(thank you to whoever signed off on folding the ribbon cable under itself for eating so many hours of my life.)
my mom and i agreed that since she's intimidated by more intensive games (such as ones that would make more use of the circle pad,) it wouldn't be such a big loss to just remove it entirely. i would resign myself to pulling it out and calling it a day if it were that simple - whether i have the joystick attached to the console or not, the system is still detecting a signal from it. it makes the cursor on the homescreen go all over the place and it makes the console practically unusable. here's a picture of the input test application i used:
(note: not touching the circle pad at all. the system calibration tool doesn't detect any movement from it - it's just always lighting up like that. don't those bootleg, off center buttons look fancy though? /s)
so here's the question: what do i do?
if i can't manage to properly attach the ribbon cable (suggestions welcome,) is there a possible way to get the system to stop accepting inputs from the circle pad? if not, is it time to throw in the towel and buy a replacement board (if not a new console altogether,) and just resell this one as broken to recoup the loss?
if anyone could provide insight i would appreciate it a lot. i've been really torn up about this since this was meant to be a nice favor for my mom, but it wound up turning into a whole ordeal that i feel like i should have just left alone to begin with.
edit: just in case, i'd like to state ahead of time that soldering is currently outside of my capabilities, and i worry that attempting anything of the sort would be a very bad idea. both to compensate for mistakes and for longevity's sake
i got my mom an original 3DS XL for christmas. she'd really been enjoying it, but eventually i noticed that she was having a hard time seeing some of the buttons (the home, start, and select buttons, specifically, since they're indented and not printed.) i decided i wanted to buy some white replacement buttons for her, so that she would be able to use it more easily.
unfortunately, the ones i bought wound up being cheap knockoffs that did way more harm than good. the home, start, and select buttons (irritatingly) wouldn't fit properly and i eventually decided to put the originals back. in the process of repeatedly opening the console and closing it back up, i wound up breaking some components by mistake.
the good news is that most of the fixes and replacements i had to do were simple (thanking my lucky stars that i didn't break the top screen, because if i did i would have just thrown myself into a lake.) the bad news is that one of the broken pieces is the clamp that holds the ribbon cable for the circle pad in place, and thanks to the very awkward angle it's positioned in, i have no idea how to go about fixing it.
(thank you to whoever signed off on folding the ribbon cable under itself for eating so many hours of my life.)
my mom and i agreed that since she's intimidated by more intensive games (such as ones that would make more use of the circle pad,) it wouldn't be such a big loss to just remove it entirely. i would resign myself to pulling it out and calling it a day if it were that simple - whether i have the joystick attached to the console or not, the system is still detecting a signal from it. it makes the cursor on the homescreen go all over the place and it makes the console practically unusable. here's a picture of the input test application i used:
so here's the question: what do i do?
if i can't manage to properly attach the ribbon cable (suggestions welcome,) is there a possible way to get the system to stop accepting inputs from the circle pad? if not, is it time to throw in the towel and buy a replacement board (if not a new console altogether,) and just resell this one as broken to recoup the loss?
if anyone could provide insight i would appreciate it a lot. i've been really torn up about this since this was meant to be a nice favor for my mom, but it wound up turning into a whole ordeal that i feel like i should have just left alone to begin with.
edit: just in case, i'd like to state ahead of time that soldering is currently outside of my capabilities, and i worry that attempting anything of the sort would be a very bad idea. both to compensate for mistakes and for longevity's sake
Last edited by gir-posting,
