Hardware Splicing Multiple GBA SPs?

[link491]

Hey all,

So A few days ago I ordered a AGS-101 at an extremely low price, and the seller listed it as working perfectly. It came in today and while they weren't particularly wrong, the L and R buttons are dead and the shell is an absolute mess, with a crack down the left side of the hinge that I had to glue in place. I decided to open it up as well and look at how it's doing inside, and the bottom half of the device is an absolute mess. It's clearly seen water damage at some point and there's a lot of rust running around the charging and cable ports.

I have a second SP, an original model AGS-001, and while it's a bit dirty it works perfectly well and its internals are in very good condition.

Obviously I have to re-shell the 101, but I was wondering if I could find a way to use the bottom 001 board with the 101 screen? Has anybody tried this with success? Is it as simple as just swapping out the bottom boards or will I need to do some work on it?

Thanks all,
-link491

 

[nero99]

Hey all,

So A few days ago I ordered a AGS-101 at an extremely low price, and the seller listed it as working perfectly. It came in today and while they weren't particularly wrong, the L and R buttons are dead and the shell is an absolute mess, with a crack down the left side of the hinge that I had to glue in place. I decided to open it up as well and look at how it's doing inside, and the bottom half of the device is an absolute mess. It's clearly seen water damage at some point and there's a lot of rust running around the charging and cable ports.

I have a second SP, an original model AGS-001, and while it's a bit dirty it works perfectly well and its internals are in very good condition.

Obviously I have to re-shell the 101, but I was wondering if I could find a way to use the bottom 001 board with the 101 screen? Has anybody tried this with success? Is it as simple as just swapping out the bottom boards or will I need to do some work on it?

Thanks all,
-link491

I suggest just getting the new shell and a new mobo for it. That way you won't have to do any hard work and end up having it now work.

 

[link491]

I suggest just getting the new shell and a new mobo for it. That way you won't have to do any hard work and end up having it now work.

yeah, I just tried splicing the two and the screen stays black, guess they use slightly different configurations. I'll probably order a new shell tonight and go about reshelling it next week when I have the time to. Any recommendations for shells to purchase and tutorials on how to reshell it without demolishing the old shell?

 

[invaderyoyo]

yeah, I just tried splicing the two and the screen stays black, guess they use slightly different configurations. I'll probably order a new shell tonight and go about reshelling it next week when I have the time to. Any recommendations for shells to purchase and tutorials on how to reshell it without demolishing the old shell?

All the shells online are cheap chinese garbage, imo. You can swap the shell with your ags 001, but you're gonna need an ags 101 mobo if that also needs replacing. If it's just the shoulder buttons try compressed air first. There are two types of ags101 mobos; 40pin and 32pin. They're super cheap, though.

 

[link491]

All the shells online are cheap chinese garbage, imo. You can swap the shell with your ags 001, but you're gonna need an ags 101 mobo if that also needs replacing. If it's just the shoulder buttons try compressed air first. There are two types of ags101 mobos; 40pin and 32pin. They're super cheap, though.

Thanks for the tip, is there an easy way to tell which version of the board I'm going to need? It was one of the pearl blue us releases if it matters.

 

[invaderyoyo]

Thanks for the tip, is there an easy way to tell which version of the board I'm going to need? It was one of the pearl blue us releases if it matters.

You can tell by the color of the ribbon cable that's attached to the screen. I can't remember which color is which, though.

 

[link491]

You can tell by the color of the ribbon cable that's attached to the screen. I can't remember which color is which, though.

I'll spend some time next week googling around before I order the board. For now the system is in the 001 silver shell and looks absolutely gorgeous. Everything is clean and the shoulder buttons mostly work. Definitely going to need to replace the board though since I couldn't get off all of the rust without damaging the thing.

 

[invaderyoyo]

I'll spend some time next week googling around before I order the board. For now the system is in the 001 silver shell and looks absolutely gorgeous. Everything is clean and the shoulder buttons mostly work. Definitely going to need to replace the board though since I couldn't get off all of the rust without damaging the thing.

If you take it apart you can blow compressed air into the shoulder buttons and that usually gets them to work like new.

 

[link491]

If you take it apart you can blow compressed air into the shoulder buttons and that usually gets them to work like new.

I could but I don't have any compressed air handy and it costs about as much to get a can of compressed air as it does to get an entirely new board shipped to me, due to the hideous USD to CAD conversion rate right now. So I will probably get a new board and see how that goes.

 

[invaderyoyo]

I could but I don't have any compressed air handy and it costs about as much to get a can of compressed air as it does to get an entirely new board shipped to me, due to the hideous USD to CAD conversion rate right now. So I will probably get a new board and see how that goes.

Hmm, yeah, you're right. I have an air compressor so I just use that.

 

[link491]

Hmm, yeah, you're right. I have an air compressor so I just use that.

Turns out my neighbor had an air compressor, so I opened up the system and shot some air into the holes of the buttons that face the rest of the console. After putting it back together it still didn't work. Did I blow air into it the wrong way or am I going to have some fun on eBay tonight?

 

[invaderyoyo]

Turns out my neighbor had an air compressor, so I opened up the system and shot some air into the holes of the buttons that face the rest of the console. After putting it back together it still didn't work. Did I blow air into it the wrong way or am I going to have some fun on eBay tonight?

There's little rubber things in the shoulder buttons. You have to carefully pop those out and then blow air.

I'm not sure what buttons you're talking about. If you're talking about the a,b, and d-pad, those are micro-switches. There's nothing you can do about those besides clean the rubber pieces.

 

[FAST6191]

Be careful with air compressors and electronics -- if it is not an oil free compressor (it will say on the outside somewhere) then it will also blast oil everywhere and that is not great for electronics. Also be careful if you have fans that might get spun and most laptops, consumer electronics and computers I have pulled apart don't have flyback diode to handle any back emf.

Anyway I don't know what goes with the GBA hardware between revisions. No module is tied to the console it came from (think NAND and CPU on most modern consoles, DVD drives on 360s and so forth) and I am not aware of any burn in/calibration that gets done either but that is about as much as I can offer here.

 

[Cartmanuk]

Hey all,

I was wondering if I could find a way to use the bottom 001 board with the 101 screen? Has anybody tried this with success?

Thanks all,
-link491

Yes I have tried it but its not worth the hassle

 

[link491]

Yes I have tried it but its not worth the hassle

Ok wow, my soldering skills aren't anywhere near good enough to do that. Guess I'm definitely getting a new motherboard for the 101 then.

 

[Gyron_Oldvic]

Hey all,

So A few days ago I ordered a AGS-101 at an extremely low price, and the seller listed it as working perfectly. It came in today and while they weren't particularly wrong, the L and R buttons are dead and the shell is an absolute mess, with a crack down the left side of the hinge that I had to glue in place. I decided to open it up as well and look at how it's doing inside, and the bottom half of the device is an absolute mess. It's clearly seen water damage at some point and there's a lot of rust running around the charging and cable ports.

I have a second SP, an original model AGS-001, and while it's a bit dirty it works perfectly well and its internals are in very good condition.

Obviously I have to re-shell the 101, but I was wondering if I could find a way to use the bottom 001 board with the 101 screen? Has anybody tried this with success? Is it as simple as just swapping out the bottom boards or will I need to do some work on it?

Thanks all,
-link491

You could try cleaning that board up with Isopropyl Alcohol Aerosol and a PCB brush. Also spray some directly into the 'trigger' tactile switches, it may get them working again. Then use compressed air.

 

[link491]

You could try cleaning that board up with Isopropyl Alcohol Aerosol and a PCB brush. Also spray some directly into the 'trigger' tactile switches, it may get them working again. Then use compressed air.

After hitting the triggers with compressed air again, they seem to work around 65% of the time, which is better than no response at all. I could do a deep clean, but I'm not entirely sure how I'd get the rubbing alcohol into the switches themselves without damaging the switches or the rest of the board.

 

[Gyron_Oldvic]

After hitting the triggers with compressed air again, they seem to work around 65% of the time, which is better than no response at all. I could do a deep clean, but I'm not entirely sure how I'd get the rubbing alcohol into the switches themselves without damaging the switches or the rest of the board.

Rubbing alcohol is usually 70% Isopropyl alcohol and 30% water. I'm talking about the 90%+ stuff. It won't damage the board. Isopropanol is used in many contact and PCB cleaners. If you have aerosol IPA, spray the tactile switches with the straw attached. If you have bottled IPA, you could use a dropper to squeeze a few droplets onto the tactile switches. Then press the switches a few times, and finally blast them with compressed air. I've done this with a few DS's, and it has brought the triggers back to life.

 

[codezer0]

Hey all,

So A few days ago I ordered a AGS-101 at an extremely low price, and the seller listed it as working perfectly. It came in today and while they weren't particularly wrong, the L and R buttons are dead and the shell is an absolute mess, with a crack down the left side of the hinge that I had to glue in place. I decided to open it up as well and look at how it's doing inside, and the bottom half of the device is an absolute mess. It's clearly seen water damage at some point and there's a lot of rust running around the charging and cable ports.

I have a second SP, an original model AGS-001, and while it's a bit dirty it works perfectly well and its internals are in very good condition.

Obviously I have to re-shell the 101, but I was wondering if I could find a way to use the bottom 001 board with the 101 screen? Has anybody tried this with success? Is it as simple as just swapping out the bottom boards or will I need to do some work on it?

Thanks all,
-link491

I mianaged to successfully replace and solder a fresh set of triggers on the board for my AGS 101 way back. If you have some soldering skills, it's literally just a process of desoldering the old triggers and putting the new ones in place, apply just enough solder, and reassemble.

Annoyingly, yes, you need to keep with either 001 to 001, or 101 to 101.

On the off chance you decide to sell the screen, though... I could use one.

 

[invaderyoyo]

I mianaged to successfully replace and solder a fresh set of triggers on the board for my AGS 101 way back. If you have some soldering skills, it's literally just a process of desoldering the old triggers and putting the new ones in place, apply just enough solder, and reassemble.

Annoyingly, yes, you need to keep with either 001 to 001, or 101 to 101.

On the off chance you decide to sell the screen, though... I could use one.

Hey, if you're interested in an ags101 screen, I've got two extras.