Fixing a gameboy

See my other Gameboy related pages

Why fixing a gameboy

• A few dead columns on the left hand (let say 3-4)
• Screen protector lid fell
• Dirty

How to fix dead columns

1. Open up, get access to the screen, put some battery at the back or wallwart, you must do this with power ON
2. Remove the black rubber sticker over the screen connector, just at the bottom of the screen. Be nice and don't rip off the connector itself.
3. Apply heat with a 30w iron. Don't worry for the brown connector, it won't melt, it's kapton. Don't try to burn it neither. Use moderate strength, but use it.
4. While heating, check for the other columns that will go blinking. In my case at first everything seemed worse, but when cooling and remounting, it all went fine.

• http://8bc.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5679&p=1
• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_fix_invincible_lines_on_original_game_boy_screen
• Hall of fame http://hackaday.com/2011/04/10/hackaday-links-april-10-2011/

Before : you can clearly see vertical dead pixel columns on the left. The rubber is already removed, apply heat and moderate strength on the left side.	After: perfect! When I finished the heat-resolder part, 2 columns were still dead, but after mounting everything back (and don't ask me why), everything is as brand new (^_~)b

Fix the screen lid

Clean it up

Change the led color

Low voltage forward leds : red, green, blue

1. Open the gameboy
2. locate the front pcb with the screen
3. Unsolder the through-hole red led. I just used some copper solder wick, remove the solder, remove the led
4. Put a 3mm led instead (blue for me) and care for the polarity
   1. You might need a resistor to limit the current though the led. I didn't measure it, but led made lots of progress of the last 20 years in terms of efficiency and my blue led is waaaay too bright, you can't look the screen in front. A small resistor or depolishing the led with sandpaper might do the trick. Maybe both. (edit: my option was the depolishing with sandpaper and it works very nicely)
5. Cut the legs and reassemble : tadaaa♪ you have your custom gameboy

Higher voltage forward : white

• The hard way : replace the led with another SMD led. Careful it's extra small, you need a sure hand to solder it : hard but doable. As I said, name is R8 on a gameboy pocket and value is 46 kOhm => label says "463"
• The easy way : hey, you noticed that just above and just under that resistor there are 2 vias? And did you noticed that they have just the width of a 1/4 watt resistor leg? Well I did. Stick the led in those holes, solder the vias (there's a small border, it's doable, no worries) and you have just made a nice parallel resistor !
  • Explanation : 2 resistor in parallel become a resistor with value R = (R1 x R2) / (R1 + R2). Hint : if you put a big resistor and a smaller resistor, the result will be around the smallest one value.
  • My case : I tested on a breadboard with a potentiometer to find the approximate resistance I needed : about 3 kOhm give a dim yet nice brightness with my white led (remember it will be right in your face, don't make it too bright). I found a 2.4 kOhm resistor in my box, a little math says that R = (R1 x R2) / (R1 + R2) with R1 = 46,000 and R2 = 2,400 makes R = 2,280. Soldered, measured : results are according theory for once! Works nicely, maybe a little dim but better that then too bright, no?

Gameboy color power switch fix

Gameboy DMG (the brick) fix (Jan 2024)