Hacking Couple of things I need to fix while changing the shell

[rajendra82]

We have an old white DS Lite that we bought for our son way back in 2006, shortly after launch. It has since been inherited by my daughter, as our son got a replacement unit last year. Our daughter will be getting a new pink DS this Christmas, to replace this old one that currently has two broken hinges and a floppy (but still fully connected and fully functional) screen.

I have ordered a new green shell for this soon to be spare DS Lite, and will be following directions in the online guides and hope to correctly to dis- and re-assemble it. This will obviously fix the mechanical problems. There are a couple of other issues, that I have noticed during gameplay, which I'd like to address while I have the unit taken apart. I am wondering what the best way (if any) to address these is.

1. This DS Lite sometimes has a hard time detecting the R4DS we have, and requirs us to blow in the slot before it will boot the menu. I have cleaned the contacts of the cart, memory card, and Slot 1 with a Q-tip soaked in anhydrous rubbing alcohol, and the issue has almost, but not completely been resolved. Is there sometimng else I can do to more thoroughly clean Slot 1, while I have better access to it during the shell replacement?

2. The sound form this DS Lite is sometimes staticky, sounding a little like having tuned into an AM radio station with interference. Since I will be handling the speakers and their wires, how do I go about locating the cause of this problem, and how do I fix it?

 

[gratefulbuddy]

1. I bet this problem has more to do with the r4 than your DS. It really won't be any easier to clean/access the innards of the slot1, even with the case off.
Fix: Try use a thin piece of paper to shim the backside of the cart forcing the cart into the pins more.
2. Probably related to the hinge breaking; the speakers' signal is on the same ribbon cable that feeds the upper screen. It is very likely you might have damaged that ribbon cable either when the hinge broke or sometime after, given its floppy nature.
Fix: Replace the top screen as the ribbon cable is attached to it.

 

[rajendra82]

I will attempt the paper inside R4 fix later on, as that might very well be the cause of the intermittent cart reading issues. As to ribbon cable, I'll probably leave that issue alone. The static is not that loud, and seems to occur only when the DS volume is turned up all the way. I am no good at soldering, I am more likely to do more harm than good while trying to detach the speakers from the current screen and attempting to attach them to the new screen cable.

 

[Joey90]

As he said, the DS slot is just as inaccessible when the case is off, so doesn't provide any real benefit - you could possibly try cleaning inside the slot, though that could do more harm than good.

The speaker cable may have just come loose from the motherboard (it's just pushed on) though it is also possible that there is internal damage (which would only be fixable with soldering...)