Gaming Why do L buttons break so much?

[boot2490]

See topic. Several of my friends (And I) have either only had our L butons break or had them break first. All outside of warranty. I know it is to get you to pay nintendo for repairs, but why the L button?

 

[1234turtles]

i dont think they break. dust gets under the buttons from what i have heard.

 

[Waflix]

I have the same problem. My DS Lite his L button is the only button that did break.
I did a little research, and it seems that most of the times the cause is that dirt comes to stick underneath it inside the DS.
Why the left button? I really have no idea.

EDIT: D'oh! Ninja'd.

 

[Clydefrosch]

weird, on my gba, sp and ds lites, it usually starts with the d-pad.

my ds's L button still works too, even though i played at least 600 hours with L=A

 

[Deleted User]

you play too much CoD on ds; thats why

 

[Ziggy Zigzagoon]

Mine only broke due to me accidentally dropping the DSiXL console on the L-button. I wish someone can repair that thing.

 

[Waflix]

Mine only broke due to me accidentally dropping the DSiXL console on the L-button. I wish someone can repair that thing.

Here is a guide for doing that.

 

[ehayes427]

idk. i had 2 dsi's in my time, one used and one new, and on both the l button stopped working properly.
maybe faulty design?

 

[zygie]

My L button broke playing LEGO Rockband, as with all my other buttons. Lol.

But on my new DS it's the R one that's a bit "soft" now.

 

[_Chaz_]

I think it was a real design flaw on Nintendo's part. I never had any problems with the Phat, but I dropped it once too many and had to get a Lite.

 

[Issac]

Yep, seems like it was a design flaw, probably some opening somewhere near the left button where dust can come in. I never had any problems with the buttons, but I take care of my handhelds to be on the safe side (not implying you / those with broken L-buttons are careless).

 

[Anne Noise]

My R-button ate shit on my DSL, but I just had to open it up and unstick it a few times. Otherwise, no broken anything on any DS - super satisfying.

 

[MasterPenguin]

My R button also has broken down on my DSL.. But that's 3 years after I bought it, ontop of literally hundreds if not in the thousands of hours of use. I'd say it had a perfect run, considering how much I used it. (Then again, I did take nearly perfect care of it.. No cases or the like though.)

 

[ShinyJellicent12]

See topic. Several of my friends (And I) have either only had our L butons break or had them break first. All outside of warranty. I know it is to get you to pay nintendo for repairs, but why the L button?

It's so cheap that when my friend bought his DS, his L button broke a day after
Tough bonkers!

 

[Maninder]

My A Button is busted I need to press it really hard for it to work, found out in MK

 

[N00ByBo0]

My status:

DS lite: Both L and R no longer working
DSI: L and R no longer working.
DSIXL: Both still work perfectly (bought when L and R no longer worked on I normal)
DS3D: Both still work perfectly
Gameboy advance SP: Both work perfectly

Hm.