Nintendo DS Lite Repair attempt

[MatiPokrzi]

Hello Everyone,

recently I've bought 3 faulty Nintendo DS Lite consoles with hope to repair. Turns out that I've managed to fix 1 of 3. [Replacement of touch screen port on motherboard].

However 2 remaining ones have I would say - same behavior:

- Visually nothing suspicious outside and inside of console apart of F2:
- After I've opened consoles both F2 fuses were dead.
- Both consoles have no voltage over battery terminals or F2 place
- After replacement of F2 fuse - orange light shows for 1 sec
- Sometimes after putting battery to terminals [charged to 3,7V or 0V - because I have both scenarios batteries here] I do get continous orange light, but no reaction to power button.
- No voltage around power button on motherboard

What I've done is I've taken multimeter and measure most of the motherboard on good known working DS Lite. It turns out that I have absolutely nowhere 3,5-3,7 V which on good motherboard is marked in photos below as BLUE color. RED color is power supply 5V over few spots - this I get!

Photos attached.

Does anyone had same problem? Maybe some advices where to look for problem?

No capacitors shorted from what I've looked.

My first question would be - what place/component gives this 3,7 V over battery terminals and fuse spot?

Thanks in advance for Your help!

 

[Chaoticus]

Try with the wifi card attached. If I'm not mistaken the bios is in the wifi card. Might do something..

 

[MatiPokrzi]

Try with the wifi card attached. If I'm not mistaken the bios is in the wifi card. Might do something..

Hey I'll try it but the one I was measuring voltages in was already without wifi card plugged in (in the photos You can see good working board).

 

[Chaoticus]

It's one of those small things easily overlooked. Why Nintendo choose to do it that way still mystifies me..

 

[MatiPokrzi]

It's one of those small things easily overlooked. Why Nintendo choose to do it that way still mystifies me.

Hey Chaoticus,

First of all thank You for Your hint. The topic was not solved exactly due this wifi card but the idea gave me some further analysis.

So first of all turns out that motherboard of ds lite could be different one from another. For instance my measured motherboard was having voltage on battery terminals without any plugged component. My remaining two motherboards had voltage on terminals only with battery put in (even that battery was around 2V terminal gave around 4V and started charging the battery).

I did also resolder inductor below power button but I'm not sure if it was the case since before and after resistance was around 1,1 Ohm (which is to my knowledge okay).

However with one of two motherboards I've desolder completely cartridge slot. Without cartridge installed the console only turned for 1 sec then shut down.

I've resoldered the cartridge but I'm missing bottom left solder pad from ground connection. I pulled it too much.

After resoldering the cartridge the console starts but interesting thing is happening - I cannot get over initial setup which means after setting up the date and colors the device ask for reset and after powering it on once again - the initial setup goes once again. So I'm in loop with it.

Any idea to such topic?

Thanks so much!

 

[Chaoticus]

Is it with all the wifi card's? I'm curious to know if your getting the boot loop that no matter which DS Wifi cartridge you plug in the motherboard.

 

[MatiPokrzi]

Hey, tomorrow I will swap the known working motherboard wifi card with this one.

I'll keep You updated!

Post automatically merged: Nov 15, 2023

Is it with all the wifi card's? I'm curious to know if your getting the boot loop that no matter which DS Wifi cartridge you plug in the motherboard.

Hey,

Two different wifi cards tried - no fix
Two different batteries - no fix
Tried to boot without wifi board - no response from screens only green continous light.

So I guess... It has to do something with cartridge since without it the console did not even start.

Tomorrow I'll try to resolder it and think about solution with this tore ground pad.

 

[kjhota123]

Try with the wifi card attached. If I'm not mistaken the bios is in the wifi card. Might do something..

 

[Chaoticus]

eh, this is starting to look like its getting to component level failure. Maybe check out The Cod3r's Discord and maybe get someone there to put in their 2 cents.

 

[JuanMena]

I'm no expert, but the DS needs their Wi-Fi boards to boot.
Also, I believe both Wi-Fi boards and batteries are region locked.

I hapen to have an AUS DS Lite battery that refuses to turn on both of my DS Lite turned to GBA Macros. So I'm assuming Batteries must be region locked.

If you have a working DS board, go check continuity and values and compare readings between faulty boards and working board.

Also, if your fuse keeps blowing, it means there's something elsr blowing it, might be another component tied to your fuse's trace.

 

[Theoretical Limi]

I'm no expert, but the DS needs their Wi-Fi boards to boot.
Also, I believe both Wi-Fi boards and batteries are region locked.

I hapen to have an AUS DS Lite battery that refuses to turn on both of my DS Lite turned to GBA Macros. So I'm assuming Batteries must be region locked.

If you have a working DS board, go check continuity and values and compare readings between faulty boards and working board.

Also, if your fuse keeps blowing, it means there's something elsr blowing it, might be another component tied to your fuse's trace.

I have a single C/USG-BP-AUS battery and it works fine in both USA and JPN DS lites.