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.

Wasn’t it red and black because red LEDs were the only LEDs in 1995 that were fast enough to switch between bright and dark very fast?
(To create that image, that is)
And actually red is the easiest color for the eyes.

Here are mine:

Animal Crossing Wild World:
Name: Link
Town: Hyrule
FC: 1505 3930 6567

Please someone register me, I have never met someone in WFC.

I just tried the VUE Snake game on my Flashboy and the displays were working perfect again!
No lines, glitchy stuff or other things, they worked perfectly!
It seems that the game was the last step for my displays to work…

Now I can say that my attempt to permanently fix them is a SUCCES!

Thanks alot!
I’m gonna try it immediately!

I hope I find the problem…

I don’t have a multimeter or anything like that (I don’t know anything about electricity either…)
And yes, it’s exactly like on the picture in my previous post, partial lines, no lines on the black surfaces.

And I think you could help a lot of people with such a test app!

[virtualboyke]

Thanks!
Yeah, it appaers on both displays, AND I have a FlashBoy, so maybe that test can be very helpful!
(If you would make it, thanks, Dogp!)

And with that trick I discovered it was the right display who has the lines.

Well, for that glue, it costed me 27,85 euros (see picture) and I only used 1% or something.
But it’s really good silver glue and it fixed my virtualboy, so I can’t complain!

• This reply was modified 15 years, 1 month ago by virtualboyke.

[virtualboyke]

OMG!
IT WORKS!
IT REALLY WORKS!

It’s true! I can play games again!
But I have to admit there is still a very small little problem…
There are lines in my screen…
They aren’t bad, but they are still there. (see the picture below, the picture is not from myself, it’s from Dogp’s site I think))
I’m sure if I was a little better then they wouldn’t be there.
So I think that others can try the silver glue as well.

I’m not gonna search for the problem because I’m so surprised and happy it works! Every time before, when I tried to fix something, I broke it. I thought I broke my VB too.
(when you could peel off the cable, it really looked messed up…)

I’m gonna search on the internet which pin is causing this problem and then I maybe gonna replace the silver…
Maybe one of you guys knows which pin is causing those lines?

OMG I’m really happy now…

That moment when “caution” popped up on the screens… that really was exciting… It seemed to take forever to appear when I turned it on.

• This reply was modified 15 years, 1 month ago by virtualboyke.
• This reply was modified 15 years, 1 month ago by virtualboyke.

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Here I have both displays finished.
to make it hold, I wrapped a tiny piece of tape around the silver connections.

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This is a finished display.
(I’m going to put a second layer on it after a while.)

Click on the black square to see it (It’s black for me)

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This is a picture while putting the silver glue on the connections.

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This is a picture of the glue I’m using.
(27 euros for 3 grams, but with pure silver…)

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[virtualboyke]

This is a picture with the displays and the plastic bend over.

• This reply was modified 15 years, 1 month ago by virtualboyke.

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I’m from Belgium (Europe) but apparently you can’t choose that country from the menu, It’s probably too small.

I went to many stores, but the only thing they had were every brand of drain cleaner but not some NaOH.
Then I read you could buy that in an apothekery (for medecines) but they were all closed yesterday.
then I found a drain cleaner at home with 20% NaOH.
I tried it with that but not much had happened.
When I was doing a little peeling with a knife I found that you could peel off the plastic.
I did that and now the copper pins are visible and the plastic is gone.
I only bend some pins but I didn’t break any of them.

Now I’m gonna put the silver glue on it.

I found the conductive glue (with silver) but I can’t find NaOH anywhere.
I went to supermarkets and other shops, but I just can’t find it.
Has anybody an idea where you could find it?

I’m going to do it anyway.
I’m gonna remove the plastic with a gilette or with NaOH (or something)
and trying to precisely apply the glue with a needle or something.
Hope it works.

Hey!
I’ve made a 3D model of the Virtual Boy!
I made it for scientific drawing in school. (It’s in autocad 2002)
It’s not that good (like the curving on the back didn’t work out that well…
But if you want a copy send a message to me by email.
(j.huysentruyt@gmail.com)