Gaming DS Lite not holding charge and erasing user settings

[MegaGenesis]

Hi. My Nintendo DS Lite has beens presenting some weird behaviors lately. I don't play much of my NDS nowdays, and its always been on lowest brightness settings, yet, it seens that the battery has been losing charge much faster now. Its the second time i turned my NDS to a red light, after weeks of not touching it. Two days later, it was totally dead. I plugged the charger, and it started charging, but it wouldn't turn on. Both times it wouldn't turn on. I had to wait a few minutes to be able to turn the console on. In both cases, when the system was on, i had to set all the user setting from scratch again. My user settings had been erased, like it was new from the factory. When its fully charged, i can play for a hour or so all good in green led. Then i turn off and left it for a few days of weeks, and then when i turn it on again its battery is already on red led.

My DS i is much older, i got it refurbished in 2012. I had to change the battery one time, in 2013, and the upper screen (my fault) last year. Other thing i've been noticing too, is the shell, which started bending. The entire lower shell is a bit twisted, and it was like this before i sent it to repair the upper screen.

I still can my DS games on my 3DS and smartphone, but i want to know what could been causing this.

 

[Natsuru]

Sounds like a battery issue. 6 Years is old for a battery.
If the unit can remember the settings when connected to power, it will be the battery.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Could be a case of elevated self discharge on aging li-ion battery. To make sure you could try the following:

Charge the battery for about an hour then disconnect the charger and take out the battery. Wait for some hours and measure the voltage of the battery. Don’t put the battery into the DS again and repeat the measurement some days or even two weeks later.

If the battery has elevated self discharge you will see a noticeable drop in voltage after some days or two weeks even when not connected to anything that could draw power. Cutoff voltage for automatic shutdown normally is about 3.3V for a single cell.

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Or just replace the battery and see if the issue is gone. These small cells are not expensive.

 

[FAST6191]

What does the battery look like? If I see bulging shells I tend to wonder if the battery has gone a bit puffy, which also tends to mean a far lower charge capacity and all the other issues you are seeing.

It could still be something else but starting with the most obvious...

 

[cimo95]

What does the battery look like? If I see bulging shells I tend to wonder if the battery has gone a bit puffy, which also tends to mean a far lower charge capacity and all the other issues you are seeing.

It could still be something else but starting with the most obvious...

why dont buy the battery, i mean buy the broken or any cheap used DS Lite, and get its battery to replace yours.. it seems the problem is just on battery

 

[AnotherMuggle]

I hope I don't upset anyone by commenting on this thread that is a few months old... but I have to ask...

Regarding the suggestions of replacing the battery, are we limited to pulling batteries from other ageing systems or is there a known good supplier for new replacements?

 

[KleinesSinchen]

I hope I don't upset anyone by commenting on this thread that is a few months old... but I have to ask...

Regarding the suggestions of replacing the battery, are we limited to pulling batteries from other ageing systems or is there a known good supplier for new replacements?

Your question is a very good one but I have no good answer for it. (Don't know a good brand).

It is hard to get the original battery nowadays and replacing an old battery with an old battery does not make much sense sind Li-ion ages even when not in use.

In general you don't risk much money when ordering cheap third party replacements. Just have an eye on the battery if it inflates early (and too much) after some cycles for safety reasons. Note that you will find offers for batteries claiming to have ridiculously high mAh (double or even more compared to the original). Those ratings are fake. Some cells perform much worse than the original – no matter what rating the manufacturer printed on.

Third party aftermarket batteries are a bit of a gamble. Depends a bit on luck what you get. I've had good luck with the Cellonic brand for 3DS consoles (Nintendo of Europe does not sell batteries anymore; "Send your console in…") but those are not available for DS-Lite.

 

[AnotherMuggle]

Your question is a very good one but I have no good answer for it. (Don't know a good brand).

It is hard to get the original battery nowadays and replacing an old battery with an old battery does not make much sense sind Li-ion ages even when not in use.

In general you don't risk much money when ordering cheap third party replacements. Just have an eye on the battery if it inflates early (and too much) after some cycles for safety reasons. Note that you will find offers for batteries claiming to have ridiculously high mAh (double or even more compared to the original). Those ratings are fake. Some cells perform much worse than the original – no matter what rating the manufacturer printed on.

Third party aftermarket batteries are a bit of a gamble. Depends a bit on luck what you get. I've had good luck with the Cellonic brand for 3DS consoles (Nintendo of Europe does not sell batteries anymore; "Send your console in…") but those are not available for DS-Lite.

Thanks for confirming my worry

I've tried cheap batteries in old phones and they only (at best) extend the life of a device by a few months. It's a shame batteries are usually the death of modern devices...

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Thanks for confirming my worry

I've tried cheap batteries in old phones and they only (at best) extend the life of a device by a few months. It's a shame batteries are usually the death of modern devices...

It can be frustrating sometimes; but it does not have to be the end of a device. Even trying three different batteries might still be cheaper than some originals and as long as we are talking about simple replacement like on the DS systems (unscrew, battery out, battery in, tighten screws) it doesn't matter if you get an extremely durable cell.

When it comes to modern phones or tablets this is a different topic. Trying three different battery vendors and opening such a bull…. every few months is not a good option.

 

[AnotherMuggle]

It can be frustrating sometimes; but it does not have to be the end of a device. Even trying three different batteries might still be cheaper than some originals and as long as we are talking about simple replacement like on the DS systems (unscrew, battery out, battery in, tighten screws) it doesn't matter if you get an extremely durable cell.

When it comes to modern phones or tablets this is a different topic. Trying three different battery vendors and opening such a bull…. every few months is not a good option.

I'm not sure I understand the last sentence but I think I get what you're saying. Basically they're not all bad and with luck one in three will be a good replacement?

It can be frustrating sometimes; but it does not have to be the end of a device. Even trying three different batteries might still be cheaper than some originals and as long as we are talking about simple replacement like on the DS systems (unscrew, battery out, battery in, tighten screws) it doesn't matter if you get an extremely durable cell.

When it comes to modern phones or tablets this is a different topic. Trying three different battery vendors and opening such a bull…. every few months is not a good option.

Fair point. Maybe it's worth buying a couple and keeping fingers crossed. But where to start? Lol

 

[DjoeN]

I bought a cheap one in my local game store that still had a few old DSI batteries and for my other DSI i bought one very cheap online, both are still working perfect after a year

 

[AnotherMuggle]

I bought a cheap one in my local game store that still had a few old DSI batteries and for my other DSI i bought one very cheap online, both are still working perfect after a year

That's encouraging. Any identifiable branding?

 

[DjoeN]

For DS lite, really don't know, i would say, try to Google what local stores are local online retails still sell them and buy the one available