Hacking Broken/Jammed(?) L Button DS Lite

[granville]

Hi. My DS Lite has been having difficulty with the L button lately. A few months ago, I noticed it was rather unresponsive. It would work, but required harder/precise presses to function. At any rate, after a while, the L button would work again. I've had this problem for a while and it always seemed to correct itself after a while (but would reappear off and on).

Now for the real trouble. Only today, the button has gone haywire. I first noticed it in the R4 game selection. The brightness fluctuates like the L button is held down. Games have this problem as well. any game that uses it for camera rotation acts as if it's constantly being held down. Final Fantasy 4 DS's text boxes always scroll like on steroids. ANY game that uses the L button is affected as if it were constantly being held down.

The physical L button still presses and clicks normally, so it's not broken off or jammed into the system. It just acts similarly to autofire. I'm suspicious that it may be a connector issue because of my original problem with having to press down hard.

I've tried shaking or pressing down hard without success Is there ANY solution that could be had without replacing the system? I've really no money to get it replaced/repaired. Can I unscrew the system and try to clean out the L button contacts safely? Absolutely ANY advice would be extremely welcome and you have my sincere gratitude. Thanks in advance.

Progress Report: I opened the system partially and took the button cover off. There's another little rubber button inside the system. I turned the system on and tried it without the cover. It still had the same problem, leading me to believe it's a circuitry issue. When I turned the DS off and on again it was working again. But then off and on again....broken again. It seems to be sporadic as to when it works. It's looking like i'm going to have to replace the system. It would have been better if it just stopped responding. It acts like an autofire button and make some games impossible to play properly.

 

[krazykirk]

The first, least intrusive thing you could try is to buy a can of compressed air and try blasting the crap out of the space between the L button and the DS. If that doesn't work, you could try to carefully take it apart if there is a connector issue.

EDIT: Near the connectors in the L button, is it clean and free of dust or anything? Anything could cause the circuit to close and to cause the L button to be pressed.

 

[granville]

Thanks for the help. The inside seems to be completely devoid of dust/grime. It's working at the present time and has been for a little while. I expect it to mess up again, but removing the button cover and touching the insides seems to fix it temporarily. If my problems continue, I may try calling up Nintendo to reason with them about replacing it. I've heard some success stories on DS Fanboy about how people have taken out-of-warranty DS' to be repaired for free (some of which have involved stupid blunder breaks involving liquid or other accidents).

It's still working after a few minutes/startups, so i'll play it out for a while. What a strange DS.

 

[krazykirk]

That is pretty strange...

Good Luck!

 

[granville]

Thanks! It's been working properly again, but I'd best not get my hopes up too high. Still, no problems yet.

 

[beedog19]

I've been having a very similar problem. It works when it wants to work and really hasn't given me any huge problems, as I can usually find a way around not having a working L button. I just chalked mine up to me abusing my poor DSL but it's interesting to see someone else having the same prob. I would like to hear if you can find any definite fixes for it.

 

[Anakir]

I've been having a very similar problem. It works when it wants to work and really hasn't given me any huge problems, as I can usually find a way around not having a working L button. I just chalked mine up to me abusing my poor DSL but it's interesting to see someone else having the same prob. I would like to hear if you can find any definite fixes for it.

Do you put it in your pocket often? Or in any location that may build up dust and such? Things usually get in between the gap so, give it a few good blows in the same gap of your shoulder buttons. It should start working again. And like mentioned, you can always open it up to clean it. Mine worked after a few blows.

 

[beedog19]

I've been having a very similar problem. It works when it wants to work and really hasn't given me any huge problems, as I can usually find a way around not having a working L button. I just chalked mine up to me abusing my poor DSL but it's interesting to see someone else having the same prob. I would like to hear if you can find any definite fixes for it.

Do you put it in your pocket often? Or in any location that may build up dust and such? Things usually get in between the gap so, give it a few good blows in the same gap of your shoulder buttons. It should start working again. And like mentioned, you can always open it up to clean it. Mine worked after a few blows.

Sorry for the late reply, been busy with finals and such, but yeah, my DSL used to live in my pocket. I had resorted to blowing in the cracks and have had decent success in getting it working again. I should probably invest in a can of compressed air sometime soon but this definitely works for the time being. Thanks for the suggestion!