My son has one of the original Nintendo DS consoles. The hinge broke a while back and the upper screen finally started intermittently going blank -- he said he could revive it occasionally by tapping it (he's 7 years old, so who knows what "tapping" really means...). I was hoping that if he could occasionally get the upper screen to work that it was probably some type of connection problem or short.
I read some online repair articles and watched some disassembling videos and took the thing apart. (I'm new to game consoles, but build PCs -- am fairly familiar with motherboards, ribbon connections, etc.). I checked every connection I could think of and reassembled it -- and now it won't even power on. All soldering looks good; ribbon cables are connected; not missing any screws, etc.
I'm stumped. I realize that there was a chance that the hardware was hosed to begin with, but I had hoped to at least not make the problem worse. It will not power on. I can't even get the orange light to turn on when charging the battery (it was fully charged before disassembly). I read that you need to be careful and not connect the ribbon cables upside-down -- I think I did it correctly. The broken hinge exposed a bit of ribbon cable and it was dirty, but did not appear damaged. Same for the black wire that goes through the hinge.
Has anyone out there had any experience with repairing these units and do these symptoms sound familiar? Is there a reset feature I need to perform? I'd appreciate any tips you have. (I like tinkering and am tempted to buy a broken DS for parts, but don't even know what part to begin to suspect...) Can anyone recommend a good DS repair info site?
On the back of the bottom display, it's
covered with foam, you'll have to carefully peel the cable off. When you put it
back together, you have to tape the foam and cable back on. That metal
backing on the display cannot touch the board or you will likely blow the board.
