Gaming I think I messed up my GBA

[PatGuy785]

I was doing a mod which involves installing the GBA SP frontlight into the original GBA and it sort of worked but the problem was was that it washes out my the colors of my GBA screen and it kept on switching to GBC mode.

I decide to once again give up the mod, I took out all of the wires and frontlight and desolder the stuff I soldered and put my GBA back to normal, and when I put everything back in and pop in a GBA game. The GBA screen loads up fine until it took 6 seconds for the game to pop up (normally after the GBA intro finishes it takes 1 second for the game to start).
The colors looked all weird.
It's fine when I play a GameBoy or GameBoy Color game. But when I play a GBA game the game it has all these weird colors.
What did I do to my GBA??!!!! I'm so screwed!!!!!
Well looks like I have to waste my money on a new GBA and think twice before modding it.

 

[Lemmy Koopa]

Uhhh that's not working, it almost looks like you don't even have the panel to distribute the light across the screen.

 

[Monty Kensicle]

Might the battery life have something to do with it? When I backlit a Gameboy Pocket the display was really dim until I put fresh batteries in it.

 

[PatGuy785]

Guys this isn't about the frontlight mod. I gave that up already as you can see I removed the frontlight and the wires.
I'm saying I'm having a serious problem with playing GameBoy Advance games. Because it keeps switching to GameBoy Color Mode instead of the normal GBA mode. The GameBoy/Color games work perfectly but for GBA games it's as if it doesn't play them anymore.
Was there something I did wrong?
I've tried fixing it by soldering it to see if they might be stuck together but even when I fixed it, it's still does not want to switch to GBA mode.

Getting the GBC intro instead of GBA (I didn't even put a game in there yet).

 

[DjoeN]

that looks ugly soldering/desoldering!

Somhow you have somwhere a contact that shots and lets the gba switch to gbc mode

 

[PatGuy785]

that looks ugly soldering/desoldering!

I know, soldering can sometimes be a pain in the *** sometimes.

Somhow you have somwhere a contact that shots and lets the gba switch to gbc mode

I wonder if there's any other way to fix this problem. GameBoy/Color games are cool and all, but I also want to play GBA games!!!

 

[Nusdogg]

I suggest you try to clean the soldering point messed you made there.

 

[PatGuy785]

I suggest you try to clean the soldering point messed you made there.

I spoke about this problem with my uncle, he said the same thing he also suggested me to use the desoldering braid solder remover to remove the mess I made. I bought it and have it now. I might return doing this mod when I'm off from school/ ready.

 

[Nusdogg]

I spoke about this problem with my uncle, he said the same thing he also suggested me to use the desoldering braid solder remover to remove the mess I made. I bought it and have it now. I might return doing this mod when I'm off from school/ ready.

Looking at the picture, it seems like all three points are connected, which is a no no. So I would clean those up with that desoldering braid you just bought and see if it'll still work with GBC games.

 

[PatGuy785]

Good news, today I was trying to do the frontlight mod. I saw the soldering mess I made, I struggled getting the mess cleaned up, I used a desoldering braid.

Yes it may look messy again. (I need to start taking pictures in a better light)

But at least my GBA is back to normal.

I tested it out with every game I owned, and their seems to be no issue.

As for the frontlight stuff, I'll probably do it another time. I was too busy struggling a little trying the clean the points on the motherboard. But hey, at least I got the Stealth Dimmer chip.
I was going to use my SP AR Film,but by the looks of it, I might need to get a new one.

^(Keep in mind this is my GBA SP screen with the AR Film).


Now that I installed the Dimmer Chip v4. Friday and Saturday, I've been trying to solder the resistor to the S2 point of the GBA motherboard but it just keeps easily coming off, which really is starting to frustrate me. I was wondering if it was either the solder or the soldering iron thats the problem.