I recently dropped my DS Lite, which broke the hinge and caused it to pop off; although I put it back together, it appears that the little metal ring inside the hinge isn't quite where it should be, and is thus savaging the ribbon cable leading to my top screen. As my DS Lite is pretty worn-and-torn (and out of warranty), and repair services such as Nintendo's or Consoledoctor's are too damn expensive, I've been thinking about doing a case replacement and fixing other little problems with it (such as a completely nonresponsive R shoulder button and a poorly responsive L button) at once while I'm at it, but the top screen looks to be the most problematic as while I've handled electronics and worked with their insides before, I'm a total amateur when it comes to actually modifying or repairing electronic components, and I'm not sure how much damage there even is.
The top screen displays everything as extremely washed-out to the point of being off-white; the only color that's not subject to this is black. When most of the screen is black or otherwise dark, however, the top screen instead reverses the colors, but displaying the black as a very light blue instead. At first, I could get it to display normally by opening the DS all the way, but about a week and a half ago (the damage was done a little over two weeks ago) that stopped working, and the top screen now looks the same regardless of screen angle. Will simply relieving the pressure on the ribbon cable be enough to fix it at this point, or is it already permanently damaged? If so, I've read that I need to replace the entire top screen as the ribbon cable is permanently attached to it; however, I've also read that desoldering and soldering is involved in that replacement process. I've never even used a soldering iron before, though, and aside from not having the necessary equipment to do it, I'm guessing a small and expensive piece of electronics like the DS Lite isn't exactly a good place to learn it. Are there any alternatives or suggestions for that? I don't mind leaving the speakers disconnected assuming everything else will work without them (as I mostly use headphones anyway), and though it'd be kind of a shame to damage them, I can accept breaking them now and replacing them in future years once I've got the time, space, and money to monkey around learning electronics.
As for the shoulder button, what do I do to fix that anyway? And are there any replacement parts I should order while I'm at it just in case, besides the case replacement and the new top screen? Thanks in advance for any help and advice.
The top screen displays everything as extremely washed-out to the point of being off-white; the only color that's not subject to this is black. When most of the screen is black or otherwise dark, however, the top screen instead reverses the colors, but displaying the black as a very light blue instead. At first, I could get it to display normally by opening the DS all the way, but about a week and a half ago (the damage was done a little over two weeks ago) that stopped working, and the top screen now looks the same regardless of screen angle. Will simply relieving the pressure on the ribbon cable be enough to fix it at this point, or is it already permanently damaged? If so, I've read that I need to replace the entire top screen as the ribbon cable is permanently attached to it; however, I've also read that desoldering and soldering is involved in that replacement process. I've never even used a soldering iron before, though, and aside from not having the necessary equipment to do it, I'm guessing a small and expensive piece of electronics like the DS Lite isn't exactly a good place to learn it. Are there any alternatives or suggestions for that? I don't mind leaving the speakers disconnected assuming everything else will work without them (as I mostly use headphones anyway), and though it'd be kind of a shame to damage them, I can accept breaking them now and replacing them in future years once I've got the time, space, and money to monkey around learning electronics.
As for the shoulder button, what do I do to fix that anyway? And are there any replacement parts I should order while I'm at it just in case, besides the case replacement and the new top screen? Thanks in advance for any help and advice.
