So my Virtual Boy won’t turn on. I’ve tried two power supplies and it’s definitely the system itself.

Worked last time I used it (~5 years ago). Now when I power it on, it makes one little crackly fart in the speaker and I can feel the mirrors vibrating, but there’s no actual audio or video.
I have the bits to open the shell and a multimeter. Can anybody please give me any troubleshooting tips to maybe get this working?

Thanks!

Stupid question maybe, but did you have a game in it? If so, did you make sure it was inserted the right way and firmly? The VB won’t show anything unless you have a game in it. Your VB DOES go on, it is either the first, or maybe the displays got a REALLY bad case of glitchy problems.

Try adjusting the IPD knob to the two extremes and test with a game in to see if you can get anything to display. It’s almost certainly a bad case of the glitchy displays.

Yeah, definitely make sure you have the cart inserted correctly (dust cap off, pressed in firmly). Make sure the volume is up, then turn it on and keep pressing start for about 30 seconds. Not all games have music before the title screen, so pressing start for a while should get you to the title screen if it’s going to get there.

The display is the most common problem, and really, the only other problem I can think of ever happening would be related to the voltage regulator… but if your mirrors are vibrating, that’s probably fine.

DogP

If you have your volume up, both Mario’s Tennis and Teleroboxer (very common games) have music at the warning screen, so you could use those to make sure it’s not a more serious problem.

Yeah, there’s no music, just the lone little electric crackle when I flip the power switch. Nothing displays at all, no matter what.

where did you store your Virtual Boy? maybe it got moist and broke some parts of it yet dried enough for it to still sorta work? (one time there was this cable box that got water on it, it went extremely buggy, had no audio, but still managed to show a messed up version of the TV station it was on)

In case of oxidation build up, please try firmly inserting and removing your cartridge 5 to 20 times to clean the pins and connections.

Obviously as stated above, the VB isn’t responsive at all when it doesn’t properly detect a game.

Also, you’re certain you used Power Supplies with the correct voltage?

If your mirrors are vibrating, I’m not sure how much troubleshooting you can do with a multimeter. Everything is pretty much logic after verifying that you have +5V, and if your mirrors are vibrating, your +5V should be fine.

One thing you could verify is that the vibration of both of your mirrors is stable. The games wait for the mirrors to be stable at the correct frequency before starting, so if you’ve got one that’s stuck, rubbing, defective, etc, the game won’t start.

DogP

Nice! It works. Turns out it likely was oxidation. Jammed Mario Tennis in there about fifty times and it works now.

Thanks everybody!

[VirtualJockey]

Rex Dart wrote:
Nice! It works. Turns out it likely was oxidation. Jammed Mario Tennis in there about fifty times and it works now.

Thanks everybody!

Fantastic, glad I could help. :thumpup:

Edit: Lots of fantastic advice for you in this thread, just pleased my advice wasn’t worthless! 😀
There comes a point in time when oxidation attacks all non-optical gaming consoles.

• This reply was modified 13 years ago by VirtualJockey.
• This reply was modified 13 years ago by VirtualJockey.

I’m so glad your Virtual Boy didn’t have some major problem that might have been unfixable 😉

Hey, that is great news, Rex! Way to go, VJ! :thumpup:

VirtualJockey wrote:
There comes a point in time when oxidation attacks all non-optical gaming consoles.

Actually, I’ve experienced the deterioration of the aluminized surface of CDs, too, so oxidation is really a problem for all systems (and pretty much any physical thing, including biological).

Now I wonder if there are any hard-core collectors that keep their stuff in a nitrogen-filled vault 😛

Salient quote: Matthew 6:19-20