Hacking NDS Lite "R" button - Help Fixing

[Another World]

Lastnight I was playing some DS Doom, took a break for dinner, came back and found that my "R" button was no longer sensitive. I have to press down so firmly now to get it to respond that my finger actually hurts.

I take good care of my systems, I have never dropped my nds, I carry it in a hardshell metal case, etc. I double checked that this problem existed on other games, as well as retail carts.

A phone call to Nintendo let me know that I can expect to pay $82.50 for a roundtrip mailing and repair and wait a period of 2-3 weeks to get it back.

So far all I have tried is blowing some compressed air in and around the R button, with no positive results.

I do not own the Nintendo specific screw driver, and have tried a 3/64" and a 5/64" screw driver but they were unable to get a grip enough to turn the screw.

If anyone can provide me with suggestions on what I could try please post back. I would like to fix this myself, if possible, instead of spending money. I am willing to purchase a Nintendo screwdriver if that will help me to get this repaired.

I don't really know all that much about the hardware, and repair on the nds at all. I don't know if this is as easy as opening up the nds case and moving something around, or if I would actually have to swap something back into the case and solder it in.

Thanks for reading.
-AW

 

[ACQ]

I've got the same problem with my left trigger. I sprayed electronics cleaner into the button and that only gave me a short period of erratic functionality, but it died again soon after. A few weeks ago I did a search online for the buttons and found some on eBay. You'll have to desolder the old button and solder the new one, no way around it. I haven't tried it yet and I'm apprehensive about doing so.

 

[Omoikane1979]

First of have you tried the search function? I have seen a lot of posts with this problem.

Now for some answers other than blowing air into the L or R button I have found on similar posts:

Quote from ciama81: One thing I have always done to fix buttons like this is an old dry toothbrush. Give the button a good scrub around the edges, it always gives my controllers and gameboys new life

Quote from shuny: It happened to mine too. I smashed the L button with the botton of a screwdriver. It solved my problem

Quote from shakirmoledina: i was once very annoyed when the R button was giving me problems
What to do is that u blow in the button by slightly (very slightly) lifting it and check if it works and thats how mine did
Or if that doesn't work than there are plenty of screwdrivers to go around

 

[terminator99]

I sometimes have that problem,

The way i fixed it was playing lots of mario kart, or metroid pinball.

Note:- I played mario kart nearly everyday with my friends 32 races everytime, I suddenly stopped playing my ds for about 2 months or so and when i came to play my DS again I seemed to have stumbled accross this L and R button problem (mostly the L) ,so after a while of hardcore gaming ............................

. Problem fixed