Hacking Busted DS Phat

[Mr.Leb]

So, my DS Phat has been sitting around in my room for about 5 months, busted. I bought a decent mp3 player, but it's not filling the void.
The hinge cracked and then I tried a case replacement, when I had nearly wrapped it up, I ruined something.
Here are the symptoms:
1. Power button is totally unresponsive.
2. When the charger is connected. the orange LED turns on for about 1 second and then shuts off again.

I believe it's a bad connection, a broken line of solder, or a bad fuse. Any ideas? I thought I would try and get some help before I started tinkering with a non-static resistant motherboard again.
Thanks in advance.

 

[GhostToast]

did you try try forcing the mp3 player into the void? where on your ds phat is this void exactly?


just kidding. sounds bad man. i wonder if the DS lite will price-drop after the DSi comes out.

you might be able to get a fat or lite pretty cheap used, when the DSi comes out, as a lot of people will be getting rid of their probably.

 

[Mr.Leb]

Heh, I'm willing to put about 50 bucks into another DS, but at this point I really want to see if I can repair this one just for the fun of it,

 

[Ericthegreat]

Idk >.< try making sure the screen is all the way in

 

[Mr.Leb]

The thing doesn't even flash its screens; it's not actually going through PaOST to check for them. I have no earthly idea where to start, so I thought I'd come here. The unit is at home nd I'm not, so I guess the tinkering will have to wait until then.

 

[tedmg09130913]

I seem to remember someone else reporting the same symptoms on a gba sp. They found out the battery was dead.

 

[Swifty69]

My advice is to take it to a repair shop (if you wish to get it fixed that much)

Buh the downside of that is it would cost more than a new DS would, so pointless imo.

Just buy a new DS, it sounds like its dead to me mate.

 

[Mr.Leb]

I almost certainly won't take it to a repair shop and I definitely won't buy another. If I can't fix it myself (or get my friends to fix it), I'll just wait it out for the Pandora. Tonight I'm going to take it apart and put it back together again, just to see if something is amiss.

 

[tedmg09130913]

I recommend trying a new battery first. I have confirmed that neither the gba sp or the ds phat or ds lite will start if the battery is missing or dead. Also if the battery is present but dead the charging light will come on for a moment then go off. This is because the charging circuitry is detecting the battery is dead and can't be charged and is shutting itself down again. Again for some reason the gba sp or nds can't be turned on without a working battery in the systemeven if the system is plugged into a power supply/charger).

 

[Mr.Leb]

The battery was working fine before I started working on it; could I have fried the battery somehow while working on it?
(Also, I don't have access to another battery, so I would need some other way to test it unless I wanted to wait two weeks.)

 

[tedmg09130913]

If the battery is the problem you will only waste time and money trying to repair your ds phat. When the ds battery only costs $9+$7 shipping handling this is probably your best bet to get the ds working again. If it isn't the battery, the cost of repairs may not be worth it. However if you have a friend who has a ds phat you could ask them to let you use their battery to test your ds phat. Here is a link to a site that sells ds phat batteries.

http://www.calcellular.com/ntd-ds.html

 

[Mr.Leb]

Lol, I can get a battery for $3.62 shipped. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13321
For now, I'll just try to get my hands on a test battery (I know a guy who runs/owns a pawn shop)

 

[wchill]

This problem also happens if the connector for the top screen isn't secure.
Maybe you should check that.

 

[Mr.Leb]

I"ve tried reconnecting the ribbon cables several times (and I believe if that's the case, the unit will at least turn on, then shut back off after POST occurs) I'll try to find a working battery and see how that goes.

 

[Capn_Makeveli]

Let us know if you find anything, because I found some used ones for sale that has the same problem. And if that's all it is I can get it really cheap.

 

[Mr.Leb]

I doubt it's the battery, but it's worth a try. I'm going to town tonight, so I might be able to pick one up. Likewise, if anyone finds a fix please tell me.

 

[zxr750j]

I've had the same symptons, my fuse was broken. Bridged it with solder.

 

[Mr.Leb]

If the fuse is bad, will it still be in tact? There is no gap between the points, so I don't know if mine are bad or not.
As for the battery, I checked it with a multimeter and it reads 3.8v, should be providing plenty of power.

 

[Capn_Makeveli]

If you have a multimeter you can check the 2 fuses to see if they are blown or not with the ohm meter. Just to make sure that there is not a resistance between the two points. I've often had fuses in other things that I could not see a gap with the naked eye, but there was a gap and successfully replaced it.

 

[radorn]

Just my experience.
I have had completelly disassembled and reassembled my phatty twice, and both times I had trouble with the thing not properly powering on after assembling. I almost panicked, but the problem was rather stupid and, actually, not much of a problem.

The ribbon cables' leads are a bit of a bitch to be properly inserted back in their clip-like sockets (or whatever they're called). You may insert them and have the wrong impression that they are all the way in, but that may not be the case and your DS won't boot. It actually takes a bit of extra effort to fit them well. You should be careful doing it, but you should make sure it really went in. Believe me, when you really get them in you'll know.