Hardware Circle pad is messed up.... how can I tell what is wrong?

[Cyber Akuma]

I have an original 3DS, and the Circle Pad is really messed up on mine... and no, re-calibration does not help.

I know it can be one of two things.... either the electronics of the pad itself have gone bad.... or the plastic parts have broken.

Is there any way to tell what exactly is broken without completely taking the 3DS apart? The electronics being broken would be cheap and easy to replace... but the plastic components require utterly disassembling the entire system and I really don't want to do that, plus I am worried I would break it in attempting to do so.

 

[tigerfrost]

Hi, the circle pad is just one piece that can be removed pretty easily, replacement is slightly more difficult as there is 1 ribbon to fit back in the grey pop clip. This is an easy fix, the only way you can really mess things up is if you break the pop clip for the ribbon. I would advise looking at www.ifixit.com for some pictures so you know what your dealing with

Its contained in 1 unit so replace that and you should be good to go !

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Yeah, iFixIt's teardown of the system is where I got this information.

Namely looking at this photo here: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/CMyvFq3H6EJWqGHZ

The electronics of the Circle Pad have been removed, but you can see the plastic bit of it in some kind of receptacle... and you can see that one of the 4 screw holes of that receptacle is under the motherboard.

From what I understand, if that part of the Circle Pad is broken (and from what I have seen from photos of others with a malfunctioning Circle Pad on their 3DS) you pretty much need to take the entire thing apart in order to remove it.

Was I misinformed about this? Can you completely remove the circle pad without having to remove anything else other than the electronics of the pad itself?

 

[SmileCitrus]

Was I misinformed about this? Can you completely remove the circle pad without having to remove anything else other than the electronics of the pad itself?

Yep, you can do that easily without removing anything else. The iFixit guide is great, but they suggest removing the entire motherboard to replace the circle pad, which is totally unnecessary.

Just remove the back cover of the 3DS, remove the 2 long silver screws that hold the analog stick in place and you should then be able to lift the analog stick up and disconnect the ribbon cable. Depending on the model of 3DS there should be either one or two papery washers in the opening for the analog stick. Remove those and then use some tweezers or any pointy object to remove the one remaining washer that has an opening cut into it. Just rotate the washer so the opening in it and the opening in the circle pad line up.



Once you do that you can simply push the circle pad out through the hole using your thumb. You can then insert the new rubber circle pad piece from the exterior and just exert a bit of pressure on it and it'll fit through the hole into place. There's no need to remove the motherboard or anything other than the analog stick and the washers beneath it. In fact, as long as you're careful not to damage the ribbon cable, you don't even really need to disconnect the analog stick if you don't want to. Lifting it up and out of the way is all you really need to do.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Huh..... so do I not need to remove that square-ish shaped plastic receptacle holding the circular part of the circle pad in place to remove it and that black sleeve around it?

 

[SmileCitrus]

Do you mean this?

If so, yes, you do have to remove that. It's held down by just two long silver screws. But there's no need to remove anything else like the guide suggests.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

No, I meant after you remove that. That is the electronics for the circle pad, right?

After you remove that, I am guessing that I would see this part circled in red... right?

http://i.imgur.com/X6mUFgT.jpg
(I don't know how to post thumbnails, and the image is way too big to post otherwise)

What I mean is, in order to remove that part circled in green, the plastic nub and the black mat surrounding it, do I need to remove that entire part circled in red? And if so, then wouldn't I need to remove the motherboard due to that screw hole circled in blue being under the motherboard?

 

[dark_samus3]

No, I meant after you remove that. That is the electronics for the circle pad, right?

After you remove that, I am guessing that I would see this part circled in red... right?

http://i.imgur.com/X6mUFgT.jpg
(I don't know how to post thumbnails, and the image is way too big to post otherwise)

What I mean is, in order to remove that part circled in green, the plastic nub and the black mat surrounding it, do I need to remove that entire part circled in red? And if so, then wouldn't I need to remove the motherboard due to that screw hole circled in blue being under the motherboard?

Nope, no need to remove any more electronics... Follow the ifixit guide here https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+3DS+Circle+Pad+Replacement/6064 up until step 9, then skip to step 21 (that's a lot of unnecessary steps...) And follow the rest of the way, to reassemble just do the steps in reverse, ofc still skipping the steps that are unnecessary

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Wow, that REALLY makes this a lot easier, thanks..... and am I crazy.... or is Nintendo using normal philips screws for the 3DS, not their "security bit" that are in pretty much everything else they ever touched? (Wish my Virtual Boy used philips screws so I could actually open it to fix it)

Err, one last question about parts, do you know of anywhere other than ebay or DealExtreme to get parts?

Mainly because I can find the electronics board for the circle pad shown here:
http://i.imgur.com/SslIeot.jpg
Easily on ebay, DX, and many other sites. (By the way, do all models of the 3DS use the same one? Many don't specify if it's for the original 3DS 3DSXL, N3DS, N3DSXL, etc)

I can also find the plastic/rubber part shown here easily on ebay... though strangely DX doesn't have it:
http://i.imgur.com/mAOzd1z.jpg

But I can't find these two flat circular pads/washers anywhere:
http://i.imgur.com/plibHAb.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7PQ2PuO.jpg

Nor the black ring that keeps the plastic pad in place shown being removed here:
http://i.imgur.com/Epmas1L.jpg

They don't seem to come with either the electronics board or the plastic part from the various sellers I saw, and I couldn't find them for sale anywhere....... not sure what they even are called. Is it possible for these parts to be broken in a way that is causing the problem, since it seems like that black ring can get damaged or bent/warped easily while trying to remove it. Is there anyway I can get replacements for those?

 

[dark_samus3]

Wow, that REALLY makes this a lot easier, thanks..... and am I crazy.... or is Nintendo using normal philips screws for the 3DS, not their "security bit" that are in pretty much everything else they ever touched? (Wish my Virtual Boy used philips screws so I could actually open it to fix it)

Err, one last question about parts, do you know of anywhere other than ebay or DealExtreme to get parts?

Mainly because I can find the electronics board for the circle pad shown here:
http://i.imgur.com/SslIeot.jpg
Easily on ebay, DX, and many other sites. (By the way, do all models of the 3DS use the same one? Many don't specify if it's for the original 3DS 3DSXL, N3DS, N3DSXL, etc)

I can also find the plastic/rubber part shown here easily on ebay... though strangely DX doesn't have it:
http://i.imgur.com/mAOzd1z.jpg

But I can't find these two flat circular pads/washers anywhere:
http://i.imgur.com/plibHAb.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7PQ2PuO.jpg

Nor the black ring that keeps the plastic pad in place shown being removed here:
http://i.imgur.com/Epmas1L.jpg

They don't seem to come with either the electronics board or the plastic part from the various sellers I saw, and I couldn't find them for sale anywhere....... not sure what they even are called. Is it possible for these parts to be broken in a way that is causing the problem, since it seems like that black ring can get damaged or bent/warped easily while trying to remove it. Is there anyway I can get replacements for those?

Yep, Nintendo uses plain Phillips screws (well they're actually JIS screws but whatever)... They realized that it doesn't really do any good to have special screws.

On those parts, I'm not sure where you can get then other than eBay or DX (eBay ones should work fine though, I know a bunch of guys who use them for other purposes and they couldn't really tell them from an OEM one) also the only real difference between different models (of 3DS) is the XL models use a circle pad with a slightly longer ribbon cable, otherwise, electrically, everything works 100% the same between all circle pads.

The washers and the little ring you need to get out of the way can simply be reused (or you can take them the washers out completely, it gives the circle pad a different feel... )

As someone who has taken my circle pad completely out I can say that it's super easy, and you don't need to worry about damaging the little black rings and washers, they're easy to work with. Good luck to you