Vince's Repair Thread - (Console Repairs & Mods)

The 3DS came in, no power, stripped it down, checked all the fuses, all checks out. Bodged in a dsi battery and got a blue light. First thought is straight to the port. Bent it about a bit and it fired into life...











Sonic was rotten so I had to tin the cart up but other than that all is well. This lot has to be worth more than the £37 I paid. Just need to order in a new charge port for it.

Screens are in top condition, couple of small scratches to the console but otherwise good. I have updated the spreadsheet and given this one a value of £70 with the case, charger and 5 games. I think that seems a fair valuation.
 
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[Death] said:
Smashed that one out the park with luck!
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Yea wasn't a tricky one at all, will put a new port in it though and will likely list the DSi XL for sale now as this can play the games. Both the other two switches are also listed locally so will update the spreadsheet with what I get for them.
 
Much love for the wife today. She told me she was ordering that microscope for me, just had an adonstar ad407 arrive! Told her it was just for a hobby and she said oh well, enjoy! Lol
 
Spreadsheet updated, 4 switches arrived, 3 are fixed and one is a 50/50, the yellow £50 one somebody has been pretty heavy handed inside, it's booting but is stuck on the switch logo screen, which is better than when it came to me. I've pulled the wifi IC out as I think this is where the problem is (its close to the charge port and somebody has had at that with a pair of pliers. It's a decent size bga chip so ive got some on order. In this batch I had mostly charge port and M92 issues so replaced 3 charge ports, 2 m92's and also a Max17050. I didn't take many pics but I did stream the fixing to a load of people (mainly US based guys) on a repair discord which was different and interesting.

Behold the full collection (minus a blue one):



This is the one im still working on:



Look at all the damage around this port:



This is what im talking about, somebody went at it massively!

Ignore the cracked screen its the hanging on boot on the switch logo thats the killer. Somebody is apparently coming to pick up one of the Turquoise ones this afternoon @£130.

I'm quite impressed that I currently have a 100% success rate on the consoles people haven't gone ham fisted on. The ones where they have make troubleshooting much, much harder as you are looking for a needle in a haystack at that point.

Also quite interesting that if the spreadsheet is to be believed in terms of value I will be about £450 up from fixing these and I still have a ton of donor parts!
 
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Good news, somebody local spotted a switch I had advertised and got in touch, we got chatting and I have my first switch lite trade in. 70 plus a water damaged switch lite for the pink switch lite I have refurbished. Result some cash my way and something to fix.

I also bought a bunch of stuff...



There are a couple of little hidden gems in there :) But the DMG gameboy looks to be in great condition externally and even rough they go for more than this sold for. This ladies and gents is the sign of a poorly listed item as it should have went for more.
 
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thats a super bargain., been keeping my eye out for a DMG, they do go silly money. ordered more fuses for the gba, dropped it and it vanished haha . just picked up a solder matt too so it cant dissapear if it falls :)
 
You are doing great work, mind boggles on how you know all this.

I have a small quad and the damn micro usb connector pulled out of the flight controller. I've managed to source a new one. But I will need a magnifying glass and steady soldering hands to remive the old one and put the new one on. Its not going to be easy.
 
[Death] said:
thats a super bargain., been keeping my eye out for a DMG, they do go silly money. ordered more fuses for the gba, dropped it and it vanished haha . just picked up a solder matt too so it cant dissapear if it falls :)
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I don't have a matt I work on an old glass 3d printer top. Pro tip put a bit of gel flux on your tweezers and on the board where the part is going before you pick up the smaller components, they will stick to the flux on you tweezers and not fly off. When you put it on the board just add a tiny bit of air and the flux will run and the component will run with it onto the board.
 
Magic_x_uk said:
You are doing great work, mind boggles on how you know all this.

I have a small quad and the damn micro usb connector pulled out of the flight controller. I've managed to source a new one. But I will need a magnifying glass and steady soldering hands to remive the old one and put the new one on. Its not going to be easy.
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If its a small board I am happy for you to send the board my way and ill throw the micro usb on it for you :) Is there any trace damage or missing pads where the old component got ripped off? Looking for a reason to use my pad/trace repair kit :D
 
Sold Items: I will update the spreadsheet accordingly!

The grey switch - managed £123 after fees/postage so a solid £47.50 profit in that console.
One of the Switch Turquoise also sold at the same as above £123 after fees.
The other turquoise is also sold at £123
Pink one is gone £70 plus another pink switch.
Yellow switch went for £120 after fees.
Megadrive Mini is also gone at £65 after fees, postage etc,

This morning we made a total of £689 after fees.

:)

I've had offers on every switch, all of them at £120 but given I had offers moments after listing them all ill leave it for a day or so and see where we end up :)

My switches are seemingly the cheapest switches available which is bizarre.

I did have some wally contact me over facebook and insultingly tell me none of them are not worth a penny more than £50 because there is no warranty :cry: I told him he can go buy all the £50 working switches he can find then and not bother me... You do get them! Seriously you can't really buy even broken ones at that price let alone a working one with new digitizer, 2 new analogues and a new charge port :cry::rolleyes:
 
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Emlyn_Dewar said:
Slightly related to this thread. Macho nacho has a Game Gear video up this week. A new 2021 motherboard reverse engineered. Really cool stuff.
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I saw it and it's awesome!! Meanwhile...



Ever wondered why 128mb of storage was used on the megadrive mini? Well I've been digging and noticed that the USB controller is a 4 port controller but is only connected to 2 ports... later today we shall add internal storage to the mini by utilising what's already inside... watch this space. I'll detail all of the stuff you need to make this mod work. What I would say though is please do not discuss any ROM's, emulation or anything like that in this thread, this is purely to see how doable this is and not to take advantage of such things.

Edit: and yes the second 1.2v power stage is still broken and I may also fix that tonight if I can. I swapped my mini for this one and sold my one as I plan some mods and messing about so may as well do it to one that has already had some work... plus because it's mine I dont feel the need to have to replace the power stage if I dont want to.

This is the datasheet on the USB controller: https://datasheetspdf.com/pdf-file/1312067/Prolific/MA8601/1

Ill update with what im doing later :)

Edit: Small update, the coral switch (trade in) that I got yesterday is now also fixed and sold. Spreadsheet updated. Switches fly off the shelf, every single one I have listed has sold within the hour.
 
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Little update because I've had some fun. The mini has a 4 port controller with only two in use so what better way to mod it than add a USB port. I worked out what pins are being used by the front two ports and added my USB port around that... Currently it's serving as extra storage so the mini with the broken power stage is now the mini with a broken power stage and 16gb of internal storage. But it got me thinking, I might buy another and give it the ability to plug in 4 pads without adapters and stuff. Perhaps even design a quick pcb online.





 
Everything come for the GameBoy Colour!!









I think I want to keep this one even though I don't have any games yet. Games on the colour are also really expensive so I am in two minds. I ended up going for a screen that exactly matches the size of the original screen to keep it looking stock but with upgraded internals.. if you touch the IR port it will adjust the backlight, tap the other corner and it cycles through different colour pallets.

The charge port also turned up for the 3DS so might just swap that over quickly later today. Still waiting on more new toys to turn up so not much else on right now.
 
My gba is up and running , snes waiting on caps and pick fuses. Mega drive is proving to be a pain :) voltage everywhere it should be yet still no pic, not got a scope to check data signals tho unfortunately , 5v is perfect on every chip
 
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