Gaming Fixing Shoulder buttons.

[MandL]

so my shoulder buttons have stopped working... again. this is a very persistent problem for me. Blowing into the shoulder buttons does work for me, but I have to do this every time I play.
I'm looking for a solution that will fix the buttons more permanently, so that maybe it'll last me a month or so before they begin to act all spotty again.
So I used my trigram screwdriver to take apart my ds and attempt to clean my shoulder buttons. I don't know what I was expecting to find, I guess a bunch of dust clogging the button.
it looking basically clean, so I lightly dusted the buttons with a q-tip and slightly dabbed some rubbing alcohol on them.
I blew on them some more and let it dry before putting my ds back together. It worked for a while, but once again my shoulder buttons have stopped working and i need to blow into them to make them work.

anyone have any idea as to what I should do?

 

[AlanJohn]

I think that its circuting problems

 

[hunter291]

if i remember correctly, there were some kind of small round metal plates under the shoulder buttons. you should clean them. they have some kind of grey brown shit on them if you used the ds a long time. clean them and it should be ok. you must look for small, silver o under the shoulder buttons. do it NAO!

 

[MandL]

@alanjohn So maybe I should try to clean the entire circuit?

@hunter291 That was what I was trying to clean, I should probably try again cause I kinda did a rushed job of it

I have noticed that there's a very large whole inside where the stylus goes. seems like a big design error on Nintendo part. I imagine that alot of the dust enters through there more the any other gap.

 

[Pyrofyr]

I get this problem about once a year, always happens.
11 months after the last time I sent it, I send my DS to Nintendo, they send it back fixed, extend warranty, I'm happy.

 

[MandL]

@pyrofyr I'm definitely not under warranty. It's been far over a year since I brought this. I one of the early limited edition Ds Lites that's gold and has the Zelda Tri-Force image on it (and came with the game included) :-)

 

[CannonFoddr]

I'm a bit puzzled - are we talking DSLite or DSi ??
EDIT: Post above was done as I was writting this one

'cos a DSi has small semi-sealed 'micro switch' under the shoulder buttons like these

(I guess the DSLite has the same) & the way I cleaned them was giving them a good blow with a can of compressed air

They've been OK now for ~week now (where before I had to 'blow' into the R-Shoulder button every time I switched on)

 

[MandL]

@cannonfoddr
Ya, it's a dslite.
they have the same buttons.
rather than just dabbing made sure to get them good with the alcohol this time. because I was a little excessive I'm going to wait a while longer to make sure they are completely dry before i put it back together, maybe I should go out and get ome compressed air for good measure.

 

[Omninox]

there's quite a few threads about this, as it's a common problem. I've been having the same problem for the past 2 years aswell :/

the blowing and cleaning only works for a few hours/days for me :/

 

[MandL]

I'm thinking that maybe I should put a piece of paper or something to black of the opening inside where the pen enters. I don't know what there's a whole in that slot anyhow

 

[MandL]

Damn, I don't think I waited long enough for it to dry completely. it now doesn't turn on. any ideas or do I have a total brick?
I had unplugged the ribbon cables when I did it. I'll try to re adjust everything

 

[MandL]

haha, after playing with it a bit more I realized that the ribbon cables go in a wee bit further than i was putting them. it works now.

anyway, the shoulder buttons are also working but seem slightly abnormal... mission accomplished? I'll go get some compressed air and try again next week. thank you everyone.
you can close this thread now

 

[phoenix1234]

seein as ur confident enuff to take the back off try this, make sure the actual shoulder buttons are clean around the edges, it may not look like much dirt is under there but it will stop the microswitch from bein fully depressed, causin the eratic behaviour, also just put some slight pressure on the microswitch to push them up towards the shoulder button (be sure u dont apply to much pressure, u dont want to snap it off), as alot of usage will cause them to mis align, again causin the erratic behaviour, n if all else fails just replace the microswitches.......

 

[MandL]

seein as ur confident enuff to take the back off try this, make sure the actual shoulder buttons are clean around the edges, it may not look like much dirt is under there but it will stop the microswitch from bein fully depressed, causin the eratic behaviour, also just put some slight pressure on the microswitch to push them up towards the shoulder button (be sure u dont apply to much pressure, u dont want to snap it off), as alot of usage will cause them to mis align, again causin the erratic behaviour, n if all else fails just replace the microswitches.......

Thanks, that's all very helpful and I'll try it later. I'm not so keen on taking it apart again today, but I'll have alot of free time on tuesday to try again.

but when you say to replace the microswitches, (if it came to that) where would I get the replacements from?

 

[Pyrofyr]

Well if you can't send it in, what I found to be the biggest problem always was the little spring, it was basically resting on a little part, and after a while would get jammed, I hated having to open it to do it, but it fixed it for a while on one of my DS Lite's.

(To be honest that spring was annoying and on every DS it's a little too short which is why it has this problem eventually).

 

[sphinx.djc]

MandL, did you follow any sort of guide online for cleaning the buttons?

Mine had begun acting funny the past year, then the L went, and the R finally stopped just last year. I tried blowing into the button, nothing changed. I id take a toothbrush and pushed the bristles into the button between the seam of the body (I did not take it apart) and I scrubbed, didn't do anything either. I'm thinking of replacing the buttons, but I want to try every possible option.

 

[MandL]

MandL, did you follow any sort of guide online for cleaning the buttons?

Mine had begun acting funny the past year, then the L went, and the R finally stopped just last year. I tried blowing into the button, nothing changed. I id take a toothbrush and pushed the bristles into the button between the seam of the body (I did not take it apart) and I scrubbed, didn't do anything either. I'm thinking of replacing the buttons, but I want to try every possible option.

Yeah, I've tried most of those other methods. nothing really works, hence me deciding to take it apart, but I didn't get much out of that either. I might just replace my shoulder buttons switches completly...