Gaming DS Lite won't turn on or charge

[NoSnake221]

So yesterday, a friend of mine just brought me a DS Lite, and basically, when you turn it on, the green led stays on for about two seconds, the bottom screen flashes white, and then the led turns off again. Same thing happens when charging; orange leds turns on, stays for about two seconds, then turns off again. They seem to have let it fall many, many times, so I'm guessing there's something broken in there, tho I can't see what is it. Only tested the EM10 Fuse with a multimeter and it seems to have electrical continuity alright. What could be the problem? Anything else I should test for continuity and see if it's broken and needs replacement?

 

[IC_]

If the bottom screen flashes it means the top screen is broken or not connected properly

 

[NoSnake221]

If the bottom screen flashes it means the top screen is broken or not connected properly

I know. The top screen flex cable is broken alright. But I'm mostly wondering why is it turning on and dying 2 seconds later. Guess it must be a fuse, but which one?

 

[IC_]

I know. The top screen flex cable is broken alright. But I'm mostly wondering why is it turning on and dying 2 seconds later. Guess it must be a fuse, but which one?

It's normal that it shuts off if the top screen is broken or not connected

 

[NoSnake221]

It's normal that it shuts off if the top screen is broken or not connected

Are you sure about that? I once had a DS Lite which had the top screen flex cable broken, and it still turned on perfectly. The top screen only showed solid gray color tho

 

[IC_]

Are you sure about that? I once had a DS Lite which had the top screen flex cable broken, and it still turned on perfectly. The top screen only showed solid gray color tho

Yes I'm 100% sure
The other screen probably had other pins broken that only broke the video signal but on this one it's probably the important pins

 

[NoSnake221]

Oh, I see.. well then, now the only thing that remains for me is knowing how to tell my friend that her DS has no fix (Since I haven't got the top screen replacement). Thanks for the answer Extrasklep!

 

[IC_]

Oh, I see.. well then, now the only thing that remains for me is knowing how to tell my friend that her DS has no fix (Since I haven't got the top screen replacement). Thanks for the answer Extrasklep!

It's possible to make it turn on without the top screen by soldering a resistor to the board but you need some soldering experience and you won't have the top screen anyway

 

[NoSnake221]

I know someone who has experience with soldering. Not me, tho. Still, it's worth trying since right now that DS is thrash, and I'm pretty sure my friend would rather buy a used one than pay for the top screen replacement

Where should it be soldered and how many ohms is it then?

 

[IC_]

I know someone who has experience with soldering. Not me, tho. Still, it's worth trying since right now that DS is thrash, and I'm pretty sure my friend would rather buy a used one than pay for the top screen replacement

Where should it be soldered and how many ohms is it then?

https://gameboymacro.com/macro-tutorial-ds-lite/
I think I used a 1K resistor so that should work too but in my opinion it's better to just keep it like this and maybe get a top screen replacement or get another broken DS and try to make a working one from them because you can't really play much only on the bottom screen unless it's only gameboy games

 

[Foxi4]

How long has it been since the last charge? Chances are that the battery has lost its charge below the level the DS charge circuitry would consider "safe" and is now in a trickle charge state or detected as defective. If you're confident that the lead or the port is not at fault, leave it "charging" to see if the DS trickles it back to the safe 2.6V minimum voltage, at which point it will resume standard charge. If that doesn't happen, there are other methods of recovering the battery from this state, but they require some additional hardware in order to be performed safely. It's a common issue across all devices using li-ion cells - they do not like being discharged beyond their safe limit. You can check if that's the problem by probing the battery with a multimeter set to the voltmeter setting.

To be fair though, the DS does "wake up" briefly, so it *seems* to have some charge. Still, I would definitely investigate the battery, and the battery circuit if the former doesn't give you any results. It is "safely shutting down", so it very well may be a problem with the screen, this behaviour would be consistent with that kind of fault.