#GameBoy Color not turning on anymore (OLED mod was working)

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

winged shadowBOT
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Please remember to provide as much information as possible including all troubleshooting steps you have already taken. If this is a hardware issue, please provide clear in-focus images of the issue, PCB (circuit board), installation, and any soldering you have done. Help us help you, posts with insufficient information will be deleted

Because this post has the "Game Boy Color" tag, we recommend checking out this wiki page https://gbwiki.org/en/consoles/color

frail plinth
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Can you post pictures of the whole board

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Do you have a multimeter?

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When you were installing the mod, did you happen to open up the power switch?

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Are you comfortable soldering and, more importantly, desoldering tiny components?

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(Without destroying them)

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Quick obvious check: the batteries are good?

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And less obvious check, what exactly happens when you turn it on? Just a whole lot of nothing?

tender osprey
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Butting in with another question. Did you put kapton tape on the cart pins?

frail plinth
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(Jack take over, I gotta get back to work

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thx bby)

tender osprey
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Yes the cart pins on the front of the board. I’ve noticed that with the OLED screens, it’s very easy to cause a short

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Like this

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Does it work when it’s disassembled or do you get the same issue?

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Take off the front and have the board in the back shell. This is to test and see if it’ll work without the display and if that is what is causing it to not turn on

frail plinth
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Different kit, but kinda like this. Board is in the back half of the shell

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Now that you have the screen in the front shell it's a lil more complicated; what we want to test is it all splayed out with the gold ribbon cable still connected

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Be very gentle with it

tender osprey
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That’s fine

frail plinth
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Does it power on in this state?

echo slate
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Make sure the ribbon is attached the right way, especially since you’ve got the main board flipped over.

frail plinth
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It is correct

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If the back shell is not fully on, find the obstruction

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Again, being very careful of the ribbon cable

tender osprey
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It should look very similar to March’s setup. So do you have kapton tape on the pins?

echo slate
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Yup

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That’s also kapton tape

frail plinth
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My theory is that you potentially shorted the ribbon against the cart pins and blew fuse F1

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It's a very cheap part to replace, but
A: determining that as the issue requires a multimeter
B: it is a hair above a novice level install

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Multimeters are cheap and handy to have. Shelving this until you get one may not be a bad call.

Also, how's your solder setup? Got a good iron, tweezies, and flux?

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One that beeps on continuity mode should be fine. Those can be had around $10

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Should be more than fine. Mine was $8 at Harbor Freight

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So even if we determine it to be the fuse, your current setup isn't up to snuff. Check the Server Guide at the top, it should recommend some resources

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Had you a better kit and more practice I could have suggested swapping F1 and F2 for now, but best to wait and not make things worse

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The worst part here is buying tools. Once you have em though, you have em forever

echo slate
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My go to recommendation for a first soldering iron is the Pinecil. $26 for a hackable USB C soldering iron that actually does an amazing job.

frail plinth
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Tbh

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If you get some flux, leaded rosin core solder, and a fat tip (not the cone), you'd prolly be fine

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If you're on a budget, just get the flux, solder, and an SMD practice kit

echo slate
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Also recommend getting some good solder wick as well for SMD. Any wick works if you get flux as well, but I’ve had best results with the super wick I’ve recently started using.

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Yeah just get some flux, wick, and a cheap multimeter and you’ll be set for learning simple SMD soldering. A chisel tip would be good as well, but I can easily do SMD work with a fine tip as well, just takes practice.

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  • Rosin flux
  • multimeter
  • solder wick (optional, I highly recommend it for cleaning up excess solder)
frail plinth
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Do you have any other tips for the iron?

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I used this phat tip to solder on all these tiny components, because a thicker tip transfers heat better. Cone tips are like the worst

echo slate
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Do be careful with that though - you do not want to burn up the pad or trace.

frail plinth
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TLDR for tonight: maybe a fuse? Tools needed. Maybe an SMD solder practice kit (they're like $4) for good measure

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Locally? Unlikely

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But you can get five for $4 before shipping, so they're pretty dang cheap

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That's just how they're packaged, you don't need it

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You like, already have the iron. We'll see how it performs on the practice kit. Ventilation is more important than magnification, this stuff is had fer yer lungs. A fan and a window will work for now, but if you really commit to modding you'll want a ventilation fan with a filter (search: soldering fan)

frail plinth
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So looking at the bottom of your board, find a component labeled F1. That's a fuse, which is designed to break if something goes wrong so more important things don't break.

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A quick YouTube search should show you how to use a multimeter to check continuity on a fuse to see if it popped