Fixed clicking / rattling of mirrors

Hi – just joined the community and am amazed by what’s on here.

I’m also pleased to report that I’ve managed to fix a Virtual Boy that had a weird clicking and rattling noise where the mirrors over-shot and hit things.

I couldn’t find this mentioned anywhere else, but please correct me if I’m wrong.

It took me a while to figure out what was going on – but after ruling out various electronic issues I found it was an alignment problem on the PCBs holding the photo-interrupter sensors. I think the VB wasn’t liking the output from these sensors as over time the ‘middle’ position of the mirrors had changed due to the unit ageing and use. As a result it was perhaps over-compensating and driving the mirror oscillation ‘too hard’, resulting in the over-shoots and collisions of the mirrors with other parts.

By loosening the screws holding these PCBs and then shifting them so that the sensors better aligned with the mirror plastic tabs everything started to work properly. The PCB positions probably got calibrated during production as the screws are held with screw-lock glue.

I have photos if anyone else needs help with this.

Thanks again for the forum / website!