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.