[KR155E]

A problem often encountered by Virtual Boy users are glitchy displays, leading to horizontal lines, reversed or generally distorted images, or even complete loss of display activity.

All those symptoms are usually caused by the ribbon cables connecting the LEDs to the motherboard becoming loose, or peeling away from the display PCB.

Fixing your Diplay: Oven method

DogP has come up with a way to fix the problem by opening the system up, removing the display, sticking it in the oven to re-melt the adhesive, and reassemble. It’s not a difficult procedure, except that the typical security bit can’t get to the deepest screws on the VB, so you either need a special screwdiver, a modified bit, or a modified screwdriver.

You can find a guide to fix your displays on DogP’s Project:VB.

Fixing your Diplay: Bypass method

Another way has been proposed by DanB. To permanently fix the problem, his idea was to replace the loosening ribbon cables with some better wires, which he soldered to the PCB. This solution requires much more skill, though, and should only be performed by solder experienced people with a steady hand and a huge portion of patience.

The complete guide can be found here.

Fixing your Diplay: New methods (RECOMMENDED)

Some more methods have recently been developed by DogP to permanently fix the cable problem (contrary to the probably non-permanent oven method): Thread.

• This topic was modified 15 years, 9 months ago by KR155E.

DogP wrote:
That’s mbuchman’s video, from this thread:

http://www.vr32.de/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=8767

DogP

oh bugger!

if I had seen that before I wouldn’t of bothered posting the URL to the video 😕

PeckGoesVirtual wrote:

DogP wrote:
That’s mbuchman’s video, from this thread:

http://www.vr32.de/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=8767

DogP

oh bugger!

if I had seen that before I wouldn’t of bothered posting the URL to the video 😕

I am glad you did, this seems to be the easiest method for me. I tried getting the copper out of the plastic with a knife, though that didn’t go as well as I hoped.

I guess I was wrong then, it has been known for five months.

I know it’s not easy being new, wait until you try and find all features that everyone else is talking about. 😉

FUCK YOU GUYS, STOP BEING SO FUCKING GAY WITH VIRTUAL FAG BOY YOU FAGGOTS.

Seems we caught retardia insuffiensis, I recommend vaccination and report to ISP 😀

cYa,

Tauwasser

wtf is this guys problem?

Nice guy, posted ~20 threads saying the same thing.

Idiot’s account deleted and IP banned. Here’s his data in case you want to send some thank yous. 😀
E-Mail: bagel411@hotmail.com
IP: 74.65.135.228

I have put it off long enough and I am finally going to attemp soldering.

I will make my first attempt on a VB with absolutely no video from either side. After examining both left and right ribbons, I can see no visual damage or lifting of the adhesive. My question/concerns: Is there always a visable indication that the adhesive has failed? Should I trust in the pictures and solder in the exact locations everyone is recommending?

pocket wrote:
I have put it off long enough and I am finally going to attemp soldering.

I will make my first attempt on a VB with absolutely no video from either side. After examining both left and right ribbons, I can see no visual damage or lifting of the adhesive. My question/concerns: Is there always a visable indication that the adhesive has failed? Should I trust in the pictures and solder in the exact locations everyone is recommending?

You almost never have visable indication of it, I am sure (providing you are skilled and get it done right 😛 ) it will solve your problem!
I have already done it with two VB’s and will do the next one later this week. Got another one in! Too bad every single VB I have seen is prone to this problem at some degree. One I had suffered badly from it while the other two only have it with Wario Land in some rare instances. I repaired the bad one and one of the latter cases.

This is the most advanced soldering I’ve ever had to do. I’m a bit discouraged, solder seems to sit on top of the brown goo. My first attempt knocked some of the connections around a bit, so to say Im having trouble is an understatement. I would say that the trick is to touch nothing except solder, and move the ball around… but it doesn’t seem to penetrate the adhesive very well. Sodium Hyrdoxide seems to have little effect on the adhesive. I am using oven cleaner, as weapons-grade lye is pretty hard to come by. Advice is greatly appreciated from anyone who has gone through this- I have read every post thus far on the topic and I am still overwhelmed. Its so small! Failure is not an option, I have a bunch that need this procedure.

I’ve personally had really good luck w/ NaOH, but the trick is that you need to use a very strong concentration of it, plus heat (it should be solid at room temp, but melt when heated). Leave it on there for a little bit, and the coating will start to dissolve. I’m not familiar with oven cleaner, but the cheap drain cleaner that I picked up at the hardware store is 100% NaOH (no weapons grade necessary 😛 ). There’s also some adhesive below the coating, which I usually remove with goof off.

The last display I did, I tried the “no-chemical” method, but I wasn’t satisfied with how it was working, so I used NaOH to dissolve the cable, then soldered it, and it turned out really nice. But, as the video shows, it’s certainly possible to do.

DogP

I Repaired my faulty Virtual Boy and now it is working perfect.
I did not use solder nor NaOH, I used some less professional tools :p
When i took out the displays, i just ripped of the plastic covering the connections, and i must admit it didnt look too good. some copper ribbons were loose, and some even broke off. I was freaking out and I thought I completely broke it, but I decided I could try it anyway. I used glue with silver particles in it, I was told thid is the glue they use to repair the heating strips on a car’s back window. I put it on with a needle, and man those connections are small.
But to my surprise, after these mutulations to my Virtual Boy, it worked perfectly!
This is 1.5 years ago and it has changed since.
I am very amatueristic, and this was my first attempt at repairing something, and it worked out good. :p
I hope anybody who wants to repair his VB, succeeds.

pocket wrote:
This is the most advanced soldering I’ve ever had to do. I’m a bit discouraged, solder seems to sit on top of the brown goo. My first attempt knocked some of the connections around a bit, so to say Im having trouble is an understatement. I would say that the trick is to touch nothing except solder, and move the ball around… but it doesn’t seem to penetrate the adhesive very well. Sodium Hyrdoxide seems to have little effect on the adhesive. I am using oven cleaner, as weapons-grade lye is pretty hard to come by. Advice is greatly appreciated from anyone who has gone through this- I have read every post thus far on the topic and I am still overwhelmed. Its so small! Failure is not an option, I have a bunch that need this procedure.

Yeah, you shouldn’t touch the copper wires embedded in the plastic if you can avoid it! The trick is to set the iron to a nice hot temperature, though be careful not setting it too hot. If so, you could burn up the copper wires. Just set it higher each time you can’t get the plastic to melt, when it melts you are good. That is the way I did it.

Hi,

who can send me two solderfixed displays for my VB?
I am not patient enough right now to solder that my self.

Thanks

Fire

Where are you from?

Germany 🙂

I don’t want to seem as though I’m just trying to make a sale, but while following DogP’s instructions (thanks DogP!!!), I made a screwdriver capable of removing the Virtual Boy screws. I replaced them with philips head screws, and so I don’t need the screwdriver anymore. I noticed that there weren’t any on eBay, so I posted mine there as an auction.

The auction can be found here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120595308705&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_500wt_1154

If I can make back the dollar or so that I spent on the screwdriver, plus the cost of the auction, while at the same time helping someone else enjoy their Virtual Boy, then I’ll be happy.

Thanks again to all of you for posting in this forum and thanks DogP for your detailed instructions that left me with a perfectly good Virtual Boy again!

I tried fixing my glitchy display last night using the solder-only method and I think I only made it worse! My solder skills are very high, and I can solder 0603 surface mount parts by hand. But this solder job is even harder than that, and you basically WILL need a microscope/magnifier or at the very least a very bright and clean workspace.

The solder is extremely hard to get off once you get it on and melt the adhesive. The iron has to be very hot to heat up the solder and wick, but also not too hot so that the traces get moved. I’m extremely frustrated with this stupid flat cable, and I’m very close to just taking it off and soldering hard wires to the connections. I’m going to give it another shot today at my work’s solder station, which has much better equipment and a magnifier, but I’m not optimistic. I feel like I may have ruined my VB!

You are using 60/40 solder, right? And you tinned your iron before using the wick, right? Did you try to use extra flux (as in beyond that in the solder and wick)? You represent yourself as someone who would already have done all this, but never hurts to ask.

When I did it, I did not find it to be tough at all. Maybe you are being too clean and not using enough solder?

And soldering 0603 components is not necessarily similar to soldering fine pitch components 😛

mbuchman wrote:
You are using 60/40 solder, right? And you tinned your iron before using the wick, right? Did you try to use extra flux (as in beyond that in the solder and wick)? You represent yourself as someone who would already have done all this, but never hurts to ask.

When I did it, I did not find it to be tough at all. Maybe you are being too clean and not using enough solder?

And soldering 0603 components is not necessarily similar to soldering fine pitch components 😛

Ok, maybe a better comparison would be that I regularly solder TSSOP and TQFP packages? Of course I tinned my iron, although that wouldn’t make a whole lot of difference since the iron is going to get tinned anyway when you start making a solder ball. I have a flux pen and a liquid flux syringe that I use and I made sure there was no shortage.

The solder is not the hard part, it’s the melted adhesive. It obstructs your view of the traces and it is nearly impossible to see if there are shorts or cold joints, even under a microscope. Also, I can’t test for shorts with a continuity tester because the traces are too small and it won’t conduct through the coating on the flat cable. So I got to a point yesterday where every line looked soldered ok and no traces were crossing each other. I came home and screwed it back into the VB. I booted up with my fingers crossed and it turns out BOTH displays have the exact same problem – solid/thin horizontal lines evenly spaced out on the screen. I have no clue what the problem is on the display board because I don’t know which line(s) would cause this problem. And it seems weird that both boards would have the identical problem.

It looks like I might have to take off the flat cable and solder wires to each of the traces, which is NOT going to be fun. I cannot recommend the solder method to anyone who is not an expert solderer, and even then it is very hard and prone to mistakes.