Hacking DS shuffled off its mortal coil...

[granville]

In un-Shakespearian terms, it's dead. The power won't come on and the green light only flickers on for about a half a second with the power cord plugged in. I'm going on overtime to make money to get a new DS Lite. I guess it never recovered from that fall on wooden floor.

Should I wait till e3 to see if they've got a new model, or work on getting one now? Needless to say, I'm VERY disappointed.

 

[jalaneme]

u should try selling the spare parts on ebay and make a bit of cash that way.

 

[granville]

I'm on there now looking. They DO seem to be pretty popular for spare parts.

 

[Doomsday Forte]

If you're willing to open it up, you can always try to repair it yourself (though I have no idea where you'd look to find help on it). I mean, it certainly sounds like you couldn't do it much further harm, no?

 

[granville]

True, but I don't think it would be worth it anyways. My screens and L button were dying as well. It just needs a replacement.

 

[paul3100]

it would be a good idea to open it and see perhaps if the bios chip has just come loose! The bios chip by the way is a silver square with a little black foam padding on top and a yellow wife leading to it , It just pushes into a little plastic housing on the main board and could easily be lodged out by a hard drop.

Other than that check the ribbon cable which connect both lcd screens and touch screen and any other signs of obvious damage , just remember to use sticky tape on the shoulder buttons and on/off - volume buttons so they all stay together with the housing (saves a lot of time)

EDIT, u bet me to my reply :-)

Anyway if you go to dealxtreme.com they sell replacement screens, cases, touch screen and other spares and are really cheap .

 

[Doomsday Forte]

Well...yeah, then I guess you're better off selling it then. I'd look into picking it up but I have no experience with the machines so that's a no from me.

How far away is E3 anyway? No harm in waiting, I'm sure.

 

[Joey90]

So the power light doesn't even flash on when you try to turn it on? Do either of the screens flash?

If neither of those happen, then it's pretty critical - not just a minor fault. However there will be lots of salvagable parts (case, screens, triggers, power switch, battery, speakers, mic, aerial)

So I'm sure somebody could use it... eBay may be a bit unreliable (in terms of how much money you could get for it). You could try the trading forum...

 

[granville]

The power light (green) flashes on for a small instance when I attempt to turn it on with the AC adapter plugged in (it doesn't do it if fit's just using battery). The charging light (orange) comes on if it's plugged in. The screens remain black no matter what (NO flashes or anything).

I was already ready to get a new DS due to my top screen having very strange glitches (scanlines and CRT flashing) and discoloration. My L button was also causing me grief. I was still hoping to not have to worry about it for a while though.

I'll sell it for parts on Ebay (the obvious thing to do) and work my ass off to pay for a new system. Hope to get a new DS Lite no later than August 1st.

 

[Pyrofyr]

The shoulder buttons being loose is somethign that's EASILY fixed by opening it up and replacing the little coil between the fork.

As for the screen, not sure what to tell you there.

 

[Sephi]

I think the new DS model won't be out for a long time.

 

[granville]

I was planning on getting a new DS anyways. I'd try to fix it if turning on was the only problem, but there were more very annoying things. I won't attempt to repair it as I don't think it's worth it to fix it. Here's my issues:

L button acts like it's on crack. Sometimes it won't respond or sometimes it acts like an autofire button.
Screen has strange vertical scanlines for certain colors (green is most prominent)
Screen flickers like a CRT monitor
Strange discoloration and has a gray tint (color level is vERY poor).

The L button problem I can solve by taking the button cap off and blow the dust out. The screen issues are the MOST annoying.