Misc DSi LL De-Yellowing Experiment

[Apache Thunder]

File?

If you are looking for an app that you can use to control what color to put on the screens, I posted one near the top. Scroll up. It's gonna be one of my posts that has an attached zip file titled ScreenTest.

It's specially made to not go into sleep mode too so you can set a color via dpad/shoulder buttons and then you can close the console to save space.

 

[balls003914]

If you are looking for an app that you can use to control what color to put on the screens, I posted one near the top. Scroll up. It's gonna be one of my posts that has an attached zip file titled ScreenTest.

It's specially made to not go into sleep mode too so you can set a color via dpad/shoulder buttons and then you can close the console to save space.

What color should i go for
My dsi screen has faded yellowing
Both top and touch screen

 

[devlman127]

What color should i go for
My dsi screen has faded yellowing
Both top and touch screen

White
Currently trying this with my own DSi LL, it's basically mint except for the screen

 

[Artegonit]

I have an issue with my Nintendo DSi (not XL) screens - they are just slightly pinkish. I will use this app and left the console for a few days with white screens.
P.S.: Does this method decrease lifetime of those screens?

 

[KIlly728]

Hello does this work with an dsi there some yellowing on the top and bottom screen but not noticable when play and should i do it?

If the yellowing is that mild, the consoles I tested did get better. So, if you wanted to try and leave the console on a white screen for a couple of weeks, go for it.

But really, if you don't notice it while playing a game, why bother?

I have an issue with my Nintendo DSi (not XL) screens - they are just slightly pinkish. I will use this app and left the console for a few days with white screens.
P.S.: Does this method decrease lifetime of those screens?

So, I have noticed that some screen pairs will lean Red or Blue (haven't seen a green one for some reason) which makes them a pain to match when assembling consoles (Trying to pair a bottom screen from one console with a top screen from another, for example). It never gets as bad as screen yellowing, but it is noticeable on white screens such as that start up. I am less inclined to believe it is damage due to humidity or non-use and more due to the age of the screens. I could also be voltage related components on the Motherboard, but that's quite a bit beyond my understanding to test for.

And I do not know enough about LCD displays to say whether or not extensive testing like these harms the overall life of the screen. Non-use, as I theorize with the yellowing, sure isn't helping these screens, and as screens are expected to be used, it stands to reason that using a screen and not using a screen has little to no difference on its longevity. This is, of course, excluding a lot of external factors such as impact, moisture, UV exposure, and whatever else may negatively impact displays.

 

[kazuya8]

do you think that this method could help in those two cases; dsi got dark spots, which is probably mold, and ds lite screen faded on the edges. Im thinking to give it a try, should I use white screen or some different color? what do you think

 

[KIlly728]

do you think that this method could help in those two cases; dsi got dark spots, which is probably mold, and ds lite screen faded on the edges. Im thinking to give it a try, should I use white screen or some different color? what do you think

I don't expect the screen technologies to be much different, but I am not familiar with DS Lites or their screens. Everything that I say next is based on my experience with DSi consoles.

No, I don't think either of these consoles will be fixed by leaving them on.

For the first one, it was helpful to know exactly where those spots are. If they are on between the Lens and the LCD, they should just clean off. If they are within the actual LCD, like on a diffusion layer or something, then it's safe to call that screen junk and get a new one (You can try prying it apart and cleaning it, but my few attempts always made the problem worst).

For the second one, I understand that to be vignetting. One of my bronze consoles tested had that on the bottom screen, and it was not noticeably impacted by the experiment. I am less inclined to think it is a screen issue and may be related to the screen voltage potentiometers. If adjusting them doesn't do anything, it's safe to say those screens are toast as I do not know of a fix.

 

[kazuya8]

Thank you!

 

[killmefam]

"For the two consoles with the more extreme yellowing, White 2L and Burgundy, the yellowing appears to be irreversible"

the before and after pictures for those 2 look pretty good tho, no?

 

[edale]

I notice your first datapoint is on day 11, and pretty much everything that can be done has been done for almost all the screens at that point.

It would be interesting to see this tracked a bit more closely in the first week, to know at what point the majority of the work is done, and when you hit the point of diminishing returns.

 

[konakona7]

After some more time testing this, I've noticed a few things worth mentioning:
While the screens are whiter, on lower brightness levels you can still see "shadows" where the yellowed areas used to be on the screen. This matters more if there was a pattern and not just an even vignette of the yellowing. Looks kind of like that stage light defect on most macbooks.

A friend had an extremely yellowed top and bottom screen DS Lite.
Testing for 2 weeks with full brightness and black screens on it resulted in almost no noticeable change.
Further testing for 2 weeks with full brightness and white screens resulted in some improvement, but the screen tone is still noticeably very yellow compared to my 2 DS Lites.

 

[KIlly728]

"For the two consoles with the more extreme yellowing, White 2L and Burgundy, the yellowing appears to be irreversible"

the before and after pictures for those 2 look pretty good tho, no?

For the photos, it is tough to convey what I'm seeing and what the camera is seeing. The more objective data points using a color picker on GIMP have both the White 2L and Burgundy at a CIE DE2000 of or around 20 for the top screen. For that Y axis, the closer to zero, the more similar the screens are to my control console, and a score of around 20 is noticeable to my eyes as yellowed.

I notice your first datapoint is on day 11, and pretty much everything that can be done has been done for almost all the screens at that point.

It would be interesting to see this tracked a bit more closely in the first week, to know at what point the majority of the work is done, and when you hit the point of diminishing returns.

Indeed that would be interesting. It would take a much better testing rig than I had to have it sample every day or hour without human interference.

I would think that it would also be a bit hard to determine what to do with the information. If you had a lot of consoles, with differing levels of "yellowness" that you could closely test, you could, in theory, nail down a minimum number of days required to "de-yellow". I'm not exactly sure how that information would be useful as this process is, more or less, a last resort before getting a new console or replacing the screen.

After some more time testing this, I've noticed a few things worth mentioning:
While the screens are whiter, on lower brightness levels you can still see "shadows" where the yellowed areas used to be on the screen. This matters more if there was a pattern and not just an even vignette of the yellowing. Looks kind of like that stage light defect on most macbooks.

Oh, I never thought that could happen. That is something I never would have considered. So in some ways, whatever damage is on the LCD, it cannot fully recover.

A friend had an extremely yellowed top and bottom screen DS Lite.
Testing for 2 weeks with full brightness and black screens on it resulted in almost no noticeable change.
Further testing for 2 weeks with full brightness and white screens resulted in some improvement, but the screen tone is still noticeably very yellow compared to my 2 DS Lites.

Interesting that you saw no change. I have to imagine they are the same tech, but I won't pretend to know anything about DS Lite screens. But, yeah, the heavily yellowed screens appear to be beyond repair for the test I performed.

 

[kazuya8]

i had a thought that... maybe yellow part is not a screen itself but only a lens!, what do you think about it? did anyone checked which part is actually getting yellow?

 

[Apache Thunder]

Understandably you can't see this in photos but in person, anyone with working depth perception will know that the yellowing is not occuring in the cover lens.

 

[KIlly728]

An interesting discovery from @gorgyrip, and most recently confirmed by myself, is that the physical part of the LCD assembly that is yellowing is the plate that the LED light bar for the backlight attaches to.

The best term I could find to describe this piece is the "Light Guide Plate," which has the LED strip attached to it.

Now, that light guide plate in the picture above came out of a fairly aggressively yellowed display. In person, if I didn't know it was yellowed, I couldn't tell. Not a faint hint of yellowing even when held up to a bright light. Trying to clean it with rubbing alcohol was futile.

But when I swapped in one from a display with a torn ribbon cable, the results were astonishing.

Before:

After:

Swapping the backlight isn't that horrible of a process, but you have to be extra careful not to crack the LCD when pulling the housing apart and keeping foreign material out.

I recorded myself doing all of this "discovery", if you want to call it that, as well as a repair attempt that produced the results above.

 

[gorgyrip]

I think the correct term is light dispencer, because it spreads the light.
I don't think it's a good idea to leave the console on for so long. too much stress on the battery and on the screen itself.
Not realy sure if the white picture is that important. if it's not, you can power only the backlight. that way you will stress only the leds.

 

[KittyLee]

58 days...! Those poor DSes! Does leaving them on that long cause any damage? because I would think the battery life would be shot after that!
Also, I really like that this is laid out like a scientific paper

 

[gorgyrip]

The light from the leds enters the dispencer from the side, not from top or bottom. So I don't know if this will work, but you can get some leds from a broken tv, Remove the light dispencer from the ds and put it in a box with the tv leds under it. Keep in mind that those leds generate a lot of heat.

 

[KIlly728]

I don't think it's a good idea to leave the console on for so long. too much stress on the battery and on the screen itself.
Not realy sure if the white picture is that important. if it's not, you can power only the backlight. that way you will stress only the leds.

It is an awful idea, I knew that going into it. I had the DSi LL consoles to spare, with, at the time, irreparable screens. I collect junk consoles, like these, to refurbish and sell. I have been interested in solving the yellowing screen phenomenon since I am sitting on a literal box full of yellowed displays that I cannot sell.

Even if leaving those consoles on for two months destroyed them, there is enough value in the data collected and in the unimpacted parts (shell, camera, mic, etc.) that made it well worth it to me. And sharing it, in the form of the original post, hopefully adds more value so others don't have to do that same thing I did.

 

[k66]

Replacing the Light Guide Plate is difficult..
The problem of blackening at the corners of DSiXL/DSiLL is more serious, DSLite&DSi is the whitish corners of the corners.
It will recover for a while after freezing, is there any research on this?