DS Lite flex ribbon cable upper screen replacement

[Idrolitina]

Hello to everyone!

I was trying to look for some tutorial or suggestions on how to fix the ribbon flex cable of the DS lite's upper screen. I got the part for very cheap here in Japan (less than 100jpy lol).
I found a similar post here https://gbatemp.net/threads/ds-lite-ribbon-cable-replacement.248635/ that directed that OP to a page that does not exist anymore.

Can anyone help?

Thank you for reading!

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Fix the screen cable? Not sure how this should be possible. Anybody with ideas: Go ahead and tell.

Replacing the complete screen:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+DS+Lite+Top+Screen+Replacement/1979
It is not an easy thing to do, as always when DS hinges are involved. This requires soldering the speakers to the new screen(-cable); the soldering is not hard to do.

The internal GBAtemp link (https://gbatemp.net/t160923-how-to-repair-the-screens-on-a-ds-lite-and-the-hinge) in the thread you mentioned uses an old format. The target page does still exist, but the mentioned videos are nowhere to be found.

 

[Idrolitina]

Thanks for your reply and the suggestion.

I actually have fixed DSLite many just changing parts but I kept encountering these flex cables so I ended up buying a few.
They are exactly like this picture

I might be wrong but I doubt the flex cable would be available without a reason and they are in all stores of electronics here. I marked where I think they can be soldered but I wanted to double-check since flexes are very easy to break.

Thank you anyway let's see if someone else can share something about them!

 

[ekardon]

Recently i got a ds lite, which its upper screen flex broken, and i did disassemble it. I would like to share the info I got, so that maybe it could be useful.

After removing the upper screen you will realise there are few things that has been soldered to the flex: speakers, backlight of the lcd and a ground copper to the backplate of the screen. First you need to desolder these, because they are easy to break, especially backlight flex.

Next you will realise that flex cable is coming out of backplate, which has been put together with strong two sided adhesive tape. To remove the backplate, easiest way is inserting something like a screwdriver into the lower right corner. Be careful though, flex cable is extending till around the bottom center. Also there is another backplate, which you shouldn't meddle with. Try to make sure its intact.

Once you removed the backplate, you will see the half of the flex is taped to the back of the lcd. Gently remove the flex from the lcd. You will realise that flex is folding into the front of the lcd.

In the front of the lcd there is a plastic cover, which put together with adhesive. Gently remove the plastic. You will be left with lcd's front plate.

At this point, you should take off the front plate through notches. There will be a black tape at the bottom of the screen covering flex cable. Just remove that tape, and you are left with flex cable's connection to the lcd.

Now, if you come this far without a problem, be extra careful. The flex seems like it has adhesive, and can be removed like a tape. However, if you don't use a constant gentle force through out, some resudue of the flex may stuck at lcd's board. I had this problem, and couldn't remove the resudue later on.

Happy ending. You succesfully removed the flex. I don't have the flex replacement so i didn't put it together, but to put it back you gotta follow the steps backward. Be cautious though, you remove some parts irreversably. For example, black that was on top of flex cable. You may need more than just the flex you got.

PS: I may add some images later, but i didn't took much photo and they are not high quality.

 

[Thomas28]

Thanks for your reply and the suggestion.

I actually have fixed DSLite many just changing parts but I kept encountering these flex cables so I ended up buying a few.
They are exactly like this picture View attachment 280079
I might be wrong but I doubt the flex cable would be available without a reason and they are in all stores of electronics here. I marked where I think they can be soldered but I wanted to double-check since flexes are very easy to break.

Thank you anyway let's see if someone else can share something about them!

Did you manage to replace the flex cable of the ds lite lcd successfully? There still no information on how to do it online apart from this thread. If you can offer any guides or videos you found I would appreciate it.

 

[Luisao]

Recently i got a ds lite, which its upper screen flex broken, and i did disassemble it. I would like to share the info I got, so that maybe it could be useful.

After removing the upper screen you will realise there are few things that has been soldered to the flex: speakers, backlight of the lcd and a ground copper to the backplate of the screen. First you need to desolder these, because they are easy to break, especially backlight flex.

Next you will realise that flex cable is coming out of backplate, which has been put together with strong two sided adhesive tape. To remove the backplate, easiest way is inserting something like a screwdriver into the lower right corner. Be careful though, flex cable is extending till around the bottom center. Also there is another backplate, which you shouldn't meddle with. Try to make sure its intact.

Once you removed the backplate, you will see the half of the flex is taped to the back of the lcd. Gently remove the flex from the lcd. You will realise that flex is folding into the front of the lcd.

In the front of the lcd there is a plastic cover, which put together with adhesive. Gently remove the plastic. You will be left with lcd's front plate.

At this point, you should take off the front plate through notches. There will be a black tape at the bottom of the screen covering flex cable. Just remove that tape, and you are left with flex cable's connection to the lcd.

Now, if you come this far without a problem, be extra careful. The flex seems like it has adhesive, and can be removed like a tape. However, if you don't use a constant gentle force through out, some resudue of the flex may stuck at lcd's board. I had this problem, and couldn't remove the resudue later on.

Happy ending. You succesfully removed the flex. I don't have the flex replacement so i didn't put it together, but to put it back you gotta follow the steps backward. Be cautious though, you remove some parts irreversably. For example, black that was on top of flex cable. You may need more than just the flex you got.

PS: I may add some images later, but i didn't took much photo and they are not high quality.

Hey pal, can you upload the images of that procedure? My friend's DS lite has a fault on the flex connection and I just need to gain more confidence on how to do that flex replacement correctly. Thanks

 

[Gromber]

Any more info about this? i found this product "Soft cable For DS Lite for NDSL Modified LCD Screen Bottom Screen Change To Up Screen Flexible Cable Replacement repair Part"

 

[Nix_Lon]

I hate necrobumping this thread but I can't find a single thread in the internet that discusses the idea of replacing the entire ribbon cable flex of the DS LIte top screen with any closure on it. I tried removing the ribbon cable flex on one of my already-shattered top screen DS Lite to see if it's still worth saving one of my DS Lite top screens that has no physical damage except for its ribbon flex cable.

It's not worth it -- what @ekardon described is correct except for the "reversible" part since they forget to mention how comically small the copper pads are than what I expected it to be, and I have no clue to how to weld it back in place. Here is the DS Lite top screen ribbon cable flex with one dime beside it to display how small the copper pads are:

Here is the full image (the ribbon cable flex was already damaged, but I can't find any photos of it with any "scale references" at all, so here is a serviceable one imo)

The adhesive was also weird, once you've peeled off the ribbon cable flex on the top screen, there is no sort of sticky residue at all like I was expecting a double-adhesive in between the copper pads, so I was left wondering how to weld it back.

I don't think this can be DIY'ed by anyone due to the precision needed to weld the ribbon cable flex back to the top screen copper pads, you probably need a specialized tool to weld all pins/copper pads together with no issue.

All of this is not worth doing imo, just go buy an aftermarket replacement via AliExpress at this point (though DS Lite screens manage to be more expensive than DSi screens despite the latter having better viewing angles imo ), or find a "defective" or poor-condition DS Lite that should pass the following criteria:

• It doesn't have any black dead pixels.
• It doesn't have the "white vignette" effect (allegedly delamination) across the edges.
• It doesn't have any signs of cracked LCD (duh).
• It doesn't have a garbled display output which is a sign of an already-damaged ribbon flex (or it's FPC connector isn't seated properly which is a very rare case when the DS Lite never had a history of getting disassembled).
• It doesn't have a warped polarizer.

All of the bullet points I've listed can't be repaired as far as I know, except for the polarizers which can be replaced as someone recently documented it being possible (Search for "Repairing a burnt-out screen on a Nintendo DS Lite (polarizer change) - vinegar syndrome."), and some stores in AliExpress are now selling polarizers for the DS(i) lineup. There are also adapters to convert the bottom screen into a top screen as well, though some reported fitment issues with it on the DS Lite shell.