GAME BOY COLOR with WEIRD SCREEN & Not Playing GAMES
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2023
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Hi, in this video I attempt to fix a viewers Game Boy Color. It has a weird screen issue and also it doesn't play games.
If you would like to support these videos, please click here / mymatevince
Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series. Many thanks, Vince. - Навчання та стиль
I have a fun fixing story with gameboys. I was putting together a modded gameboy pocket, with a backlight kit and a bivert chip. Everything was looking great but after I did the final assembly I could not get it to read games, I cleaned everything and visually inspected everything and nothing. I tried everything I knew to try on a gameboy, checking voltages at various places, trying different batteries or a power adapter, etc. that went on for months (on and off) until one night I had a dream where I took it apart and just reflowed all of the solder joints on the cartridge slot. I knew I had visually inspected those joints and they looked solid (I have plenty of experience with bad solder joints) but when I woke up I had to give it a try. A fix from the land of the asleep if it would work. And sure enough it worked perfectly and continues to work to this day, I still can’t believe that happened.
Ha I just left a similar comment! Yea my own modded GBC would only read games when not in the shell, fixed it by reflowing the cartridge connector as well. I'm guessing shoving games in and out stresses those solder joints over time.
Tip- if you need to find where other end of a trace is connected, I would take a multi strand wire, take off the insulation about an inch and seperate the strands for a bigger area (like painters brush) and drag the strands on the pcb with one end of multi meter connected to trace and other to wire. The idea is, when the multimeter beeps, you have smaller area where to look for that trace. I think you can buy brush like that, but dont know how its called and a wire with really thin strands works good.
for hardening the solder mask, maybe a uv nail light would be a nice alternative for larger areas or when you can't easily position the light
Excellent work Vince! That's something I would never thought that can be done, and knowing this will be really useful in the future. My GBA SP has the same very same issue with the screen, and it's just the capacitors? Thanks for giving me an idea of what to do with my system!
This was a really interesting and nice fix, great job Vince and thanks for the entertainment!
Hi my mate vince I came across your UA-cam page and ever since I watched the first one I’m addictive to your fixing it is very interesting,good to watch ,you speak calmly and clear on the items you fix ,I hope you make more and more so I can watch ok for now Terry ,Downpatrick ,Northern Ireland
Thank you Terry 👍
You can see the trace coming from the side of the positive pad. Love these videos! So much nostalgia!
Capacitor is not connected to ground because it's likely part of the charge pump for the lcd display. By the way LOVE your videos! Was just saying that I hope Vince drops a video soon 4 minutes before my notice went off.
Thank you Rob👍
Hi Vince, bought an old Holden Camira years ago and the carpet and fabric seats were in good order but very gruby, took the carpet and seats out and used our trusty pressure cleaner and they came up like brand new, left them to dry in our glorious Queensland sun for 2 days to dry and refitted, Happy days, Cheers Nick
Ouh this hurts my heart when knowing there are schematics and board scans online. There are definitely better ways of fault finding a gameboy than scraping the poor board! :)
Nice repairs! Tiny pin fitting slightly wrong takes sharp eyes and careful inspecting to get noticed, good one.
hey! just wanted to say i LOVE your videos! Yourself and tronicsfix both got me into tech repairs! I was wondering what sort of flux do you use? I need to buy some and theres so many different stuff i have no idea what to buy!
Well done, patience gives triumph. Great work.
Great video as always Vince, now get those Rolls Royce videos up 😏
Another great fix. Love all your videos. Best wishes from the USA!
I used to design test equipment about 30 years ago. Typically, a board is tested with something that is referred to as a bed of nails - multiple sprung pins connecting to multiple test points. Depending on the jig, it could be relatively passive or inject voltage or even signal.
As an test operator many years ago, familiar with the "bed of nails" machine , the circuit board under test was placed in a jig sealing the edges, then pulled down by vacuum to contact the gold plated spring "nails" protruding, corresponding to the test pads. The programing of the machine would test pass/fail all the parameters/components of the board and provide the results on a screen by listing the passed components . Multiple faulty rejected boards usually meant that one of the "nails" needed replacement, hence we had to repair the machine as well. It was well remembered ,as the large bed of the machine didn't have a kick panel cutout at the base like kitchen counters do. After a while placing and removing circuit boards during a shift made the job intolerable in very short order. Various plug in jigs were made to test all the different boards manufactured at the facility. Probably, this testing is automated by robotics now, all those test pads on circuit boards are there for that reason.
Still used by prototype and small production run organisations (built using pogo pins). The automated types are mostly flying probe, the principle is the same.
Thanks Mark 👍
Re: Isopropanol for cleaning the carpet - definitely worth trying but like water (that you tried) and alcohol it's a polar solvent. Don't remember what you've tried already but it's worth trying a non-polar solvent if iso doesn't help! It's common that things disolve much better in one group of solvents rather than the other. Someone mentioned PERC aka drycleaning "P" (and some brake cleaners!) in the comments for the RR video, that's a classic hydrocarbo nonpolar solvent (other in that category is heptane, benzene and so on), it can be wicked effective on some stains. Check Wikipedia's Solvent page for more examples for the (at least) 5 different groups of solvents and try at least one from each?
I agree and do suggest to make an guess what the stain origin could be what age it could be and then see what chemical solution would work against it.
Now here is my experience and bit of a rant too so read on your own risk XD
I dont know what that stain origin is didn't watch the video too so can't talk about it too much.
BUT
Overall as an extra point I always suggest to stay away from mysterious things you have zero knowledge what it origin could be. Sometimes stains can be harmful chemicals that when you mess with and inhale it you can get serious desease for you or those around you. When I seen him mess around that stain with no gloves and no mask or protective clothing of any kind that is a recipe for disaster.
On top of me being careful I also know a lot of people who got 1st lung cancer because they never did any protection when they did things, hoarded things thinking they can fix inhale all that junk and yeah the end result was years of suffering death and their things ended up being landfil that someone needed to pay for to take away ...
ANYWAYS:
Often what I do with messed up carpets or clothing (when I decide it's worth preservation) is
I wash it regularly and if some mess still remains then rinse it through water, see where the stains are, isolate those areas put vinegar on it and sodium bicarbonate aka baking soda, let it sit for an hour or two then wash it off with none destructive rub if needed be, but sometimes it is washed off with zero effort.
I often use garden hose on a outside tap and it's enough (again with safety in mind), the tip have 10 options of spray and it's the cheapest one around so don't need pressure washers since this creates enough force plus the chemical solution disolve it beforehand.
If it's some heavy duty paint or some heavy oil then you need to wash it off with paint removers but then chances are you are burning through fabric too.
That why it's pointless sometimes to clean something because it will fall apart fast either right there and then or soon after, you are making a new mess with it and then there is also that risk of inhaling all those particles inside a car.
If it's too much effort and cost I simply rather make a new item replicating the original. Carpets or clothing are never meant to live forever especially if not taken care of at all you are better off getting another one.
There are always great tailors and craftsfolks who work cheap and you just have to ask around or post a local ad that you need help etc, make friends, and if it's something you want to tackle yourself as a hobby, in this case being a car carpet buy a sewing machine and go at it, it's not rocket science. I learned to use this as a kid you can too as an adult. Every day we live and learn.
Sometimes things are outside of our control and sadly we can't fix everything and sometimes we should not since it creates problems and waste of time and time is the most valuable thing we get, we have to use common sense and logic to asses if something is worth our time or not before we jump into it.
And for love of God please use protection!
Xylene
@@MandrakeFernflower Xylene might dissolve whatever fibres the carpet is made of; I 'd be tempted to try using lye to convert the oil to actual soap.
one bit of advice Vince. if i was you... i wouldn't solder mask anything until you know its a defo fix. cool videos as always matey.
I love this video. Vintage Vince episode!
That pin that seemed a little off was either the 3.3v VCC pin or the ground pin. Either case: without the VCC pin, the cartridge is dormant; withoutthe one ground pin, voltage has no return point, meaning no current flows and (once again) the cartridge is dormant. Different pins, same outcome.
That also explains why when the cartridge *did* work, it worked flawlessly (except for when current abruptly stopped flowing if the pin suddenly lost connection, effectively like pulling the cartridge out mid-gameplay).
Thanks Operational117 👍
I love your videos, sincerely. I watch this channel because, mostly, this is shit I like doing. I've found myself kinda stuck in automotive, and it sucks, and I hate it.
Love these retro videos, something i'm really into and enjoy.
The hot glue enveloping that capacitor reminded me of that old movie 'The Blob' :). seriously though, a great idea and another excellent video. Definitely helps to have a working version to compare..
pretty sure you have fixed a carpet spot cleaner. We have the same cleaner and that did sterling work on a worn out muddy door mat. Loved the game boy fix. Very inspiring.
Your cars mat probably has some dish soap or something quite similar on it, that’s why it’s foaming.
Use your garden hose for this one 👍🏻
Yess my all time fav UA-cam uploaded!!!!
I thought you had positioned the lead from the cap across both pads and shorted it out, thereby removing the cap from the circuit. I didn't really follow your explanation of what you had really done but as long as you got it working. Love the videos. Carry on.
So in a GBC that's been modified with an IPS screen replacement, half the time that capacitor isn't even present, making the board a good candidate for such a mod. In your case, if you were to install one of those IPS kits, you can go back in and remove that capacitor as it's no longer necessary for the function of the LCD in any way shape or form as it pulls voltage from elsewhere to run.
You are right Vince, having the two gameboys made it helpful. Wonder how this video would of gone if you didn’t have it. Great video.
The green on your Rolls Royce carpet isn't a stain. It's a portal to another dimensions, a universe full of suds, it's the only explanation.
Vince great fix, maybe it’s a boost circuit for the display ? First pin on the left around 29:28 looks iffy
Love it thanks Vince 😊
Loved my turquoise Gameboy color growing up, playing pokemon red and gold. Great video mymatevince
The spider (Araneus Diadematus) is a female btw - hence the size. Obviously totally harmless and doing a good job catching flies etc :)
👍👍
Nice one Vince. I recently did something very similar on GBC too. Went all the way around the block instead of looking at the schematic and working methodically. Got there in the end tho. As for the suds on the green stain, try rubbing a bar of soap on it. Regular soap reduces the amount of foaming.
One more thing. If you have two systems like this, you can join the grounds together, clip the negative probe on the multimeter to both (joined) grounds, then use the positive probe to compare resistance readings on both boards. No need to unclip and reattach the negative probe. Saves a lot of time.
Now that is a tip I didn't think of doing!!!! So obvious, but so good. Nice one, cheers Philip👍👍👍👍
Now you have 2 game boy colours Vince it is time for an IPS screen mod. I did one on a gameboy advance and it is amazing. Also did the USB-C rechargeable battery mod.
Vince not sure if they sell Spot Shot in the UK but I swear by that it removes all stains from carpets. One year a container of chicken wings with the orange sauce spilled on my wifes tan cloth seats in her honda and I panicked. I sprayed spot shot on it and it removed all of it from the seats. Does a great job on old stains as well.
Unbelievable work Vince, I didn't think I would ever see that gameboy working :D
Thank you Tommy 👍👍👍👍
Hi. Love your videos. I can solder and fix things (basic), built my 1st Amplifier at 11 years old.
However my knowledge is very limited. I currently have a newish audio mixer that one whole side of it has gone dead when I turned it on. It's beyond me, so I'm looking for a company I can send the board to so they can see if they can repair it. Do you know of any such companies in the UK?
Thanks,
Ah yes the test point trap. I fell for that on an original Xbox seemed to work at 1st tho but then it would just kick on when ever it wanted.
Long time viewer 1st time commitmenting I just started my UA-cam so it's time to be social! Lol but honestly I remember when you could hardly solder you have come a long way man good work looks like I'm playing catch up now 😅
IPA has to be worth a try on that weird stain in the Rolls-Royce (it's magical stuff), but you may also want to try something acidic, like white vinegar, to break down the residue first. Something with phosphoric acid would be better (phosphoric acid is used in many places and processes as a degreaser), but the easiest source is Coca-Cola, and you may be reluctant to use something coloured on your grey carpet. (Sprite, for example, doesn't use phosphoric acid, but I don't know about other non-coloured soft drinks.)
18:17 if you used pliers to twist the capacitor it will prevent the pads from ripping than using soldering because it brakes the cap instead of ripping up the pads! Look it up on how to remove smd capaciters without ripping the pads!
yeah but the cap is prolly being reused
@@mandragor85 it’s really ment if the capacitor is blown
Sometimes LCD screens need negative voltages. In this case the negative of the capacitor is independent from the other gnd pins
Thank you👍👍👍👍
I have the same colour model (purple plastic shell) of Gameboy Colour, I bought it new, back in the day, many hours of play later. It still works. I am currently playing (again) Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening, the Gameboy Colour edition via the Switch. I'm sure like always this'll be another great video and hopefully another one of these fantastic gaming machines will be able to entertain again?
Btw, that's a big spider, does it have a name, maybe Boris, after 'The Who' song.
My friend have the same one. Still works today due to a simple fact that he was the only owner and main user and this person took care of it XD
I mean sure, caps can go bad due to age but still, more often things break due to user neglect and bad usage and not really because the thing is badly made.
I have one of the older black and whites also in mint condition, however I don't play much anymore. I used to play tetris on it up until the battery died in the cart and I kinda lost interest in grinding my old records back... Plus now I don't need time burning devices anymore, now I am lucky to have time for myself ...
However what I said at the start that things are made well this doesn't apply to todays market, today most things are made to break and not be servisable at all ...
Some people or lets say corporations seem to fail to realize in their parasitic self and others destructive practices that the regular folks are the ones who keep humanity alive and not their greed and incompetence and that is past due to simply stop with this nonsense before it fry this planet barren ...
*My Mate Vince*
Find your self an Transistor radio or Amplifier circuit diagram, and locate the volume
control Potentiometer.
Most of the times you should find a capacitor going to the middle tag of the
potentiometer, and usually the capacitor connected is a polarised one, which links a
signal "Which normally is AC" from an output of a pre-circuit feeding the next stages
input, These capacitors link the two circuits by usually filtering out any DC plus any
unwanted and or undesirable signals, especially at low volume, contrast or
brightness.
This means the negative leg or tag of a polarised Capacitor is connected to the
output of an earlier stage and the positive leg or tag is connected to the input to any
later stage for more signal processing.
Now if their is a potentiometer involved the negative lead or tag may need to be
grounded if all the signal is to be muted "Volume control turned down", which is
when zero volts need to be on the Nagative lead of the capacitor and on the positive
side of the capacitor whatever bias voltage the following stage may require.
Thank you Koala👍
Another good video. You could have just removed the cap from the working one and turned it on to see if it causes that issue. Good fix 👍
I wish I had thought of that at the time. Cheers for the tip Dean👍👍👍👍
I can't remember seeing such a fault before. Definetly very intersting.
I have had IPA in my house for years and during the pandemic I used some in a very few small pump action bottles with some lemon grass oil and it was cheaper than the stuff in the shops and better availability too!
What's a capasitor pad? I want to khow becase i love your videos
Cap blocking DC when connected in series on any signal, refer to a poweramp schematic where signal path is going, and you'll see on all of them those caps.
Thank you technixbul
Hello Vince. This is Marcus from America. Just out of curiosity. Have you thought about putting a backlit kit in your game boy color? Because. Well to me. I don't know about anybody else. I really can't see the screen. And I'm watching this video on my Smart TV and it is a 43 inch screen. If putting one of those backlit kits is beyond your skills. Maybe you might want to get a better light source for the screen. Or hold the game boy color at a different angle where's the light source can illuminate the screen. Other than that great video dude. Keep up the good work😊
Love isopropyl alcohol but learnt recently that on some electronic items, it removes text In seconds. Was fixing a cd/radio, before I started it said “vol” by the volume knob, “cd/radio” by the switch etc.
A tiny bit of isopropyl alcohol later and there was zero writing left anywhere lol
g`day vince i been thinking about the green stain i was thinking "brake clean" its a degreaser and might breakdown the oil in the hydraulic fluid as brake fluid is similar just a idea mate i don't know for sure i would try it on a spot you never know
that is amazing, great video
Great video Sir my son watches every video you do with great enthusiasm. Its his birthday the 4th October he will be 10 and he has asked for circuit board science toys he loves making things working I know your busy but would be great if you could give him a shout out I understand if you can not his name is Charlie and many thanks
PCBWAY is the way!
I fix a lot of Nintendo handhelds (in the 100-200 range), and I only buy the worst junk on eBay. For all handhelds before the 3DS, test points and thin wire are the keys to fixing motherboards with corrosion. Perhaps also true for the 3DS and beyond but I don't see corrosion problems as much with those for whatever reason.
I have the exact same green Gameboy Color, ,ine had a quiet speaker so replaced it and now all is good.
Heya! If you no longer have any traces at the site of this capacitor is there a way to connect it somewhere else to get the same affect?
Haven't seen your discovery yet, but I assume the issue was the other 2 traces leading to the positive pad on the capacitor that aren't connected to anything.
I have two mother board like that. Now i can repair both. Thnks lot
Vince is a menace, using Pokémon Silver and Blue as test cartridges 😅
What do you think about 3d print a 1:16 rolls royce with a pcb for lights and a speaker making duck noise or clown themed song.
Hahahaha, my new merch😂😂😂
Re: Isopropanol coming into your life- it came into my life when I had ball point ink on my car seat used some of that and it pulled out all the ink like magic since then I have found a use for it for almost everything not just electrical its amazing! 🤣🤣
Vince I do wonder if the cartridge connector as well as the ribbon cable connector were damaged in some way both of them were bowed outward which I don't think I've ever seen before perhaps heat was involved or maybe just a child smashing the carts in too hard haha
I really wish you hadn't scratched them up so much, especially the working one, you could've just googled a sanded view of the pcb. Still, got there in the end and that's one gameboy saved from landfill, so that's nice.
Is that hot glue covering the vent on the end of the capacitor? Is that not a concern since it's not smoothing out power?
That cap might be a capacitor to couple AC to the screen (A DC blocker/remover). LCD screens work on AC (polarity should continuously switch to disturb the liquid crystals).
Thanks Kris 👍👍👍
There are schematics online for all of the gameboys.. just an fyi
There are 2 ground circuits on gameboys.. one of which is analog ground.
I give the cart slot a good cleaning with isopropyl and a tooth brush.
It's filtering DC, allowing AC to pass. If the neg leg was going to ground, that would be filtering AC, supplying steady DC.
Ohhhh, thank you daikiryoku 👍👍
All these PCB places like PCBWay have a minimum of 5 boards. Is there anywhere that will do a single board?
if you put a sharp lightsource level with the board you will see the traces more easily.
you should be able to Put in a higher capacitance capacitor in fine as long as the voltage matches,
Capacitors are sometimes used to block dc.
I’m so sorry about all the problems that occurred on this GameBoy Colour because that handheld gaming console is great for nostalgia. Anyway, great video!
That spider started me.
Now you should perform a full mod on this bad boy and bring it up to the standards it should have had back in the day. Crazy how long it took Nintendo to put even a backlight in their handhelds!! Get an IPS screen in that thing, bypass the audio for some great volume! The difference is mind-blowing 🤯👌🏻👏🏻
I installed an IPS screen on my GBC. It's amazing. Games have proper colour!
Can you explain the audio bypass?
@@noggin73 isn't it?! Really gives a new lease of life for this incredible handheld 👍🏻 The GBC was notorious for really low sound. There's a ribbon cable on the market; couple of solder points and it allows the GBC to be cranked up to 11 👌🏻 far too loud at max volume though 😅
@@Venison_0904 Do you have a link?
@@noggin73 Don't think you can post links on UA-cam. Not sure where you're based. If in the UK, Google Retro Six and look for their "Game Boy Color CleanAmp Pro" 👍🏻 I also have a rechargeable battery mod in mine too. Absolute game changer!
I was playing my Game boy color while watching UA-cam so it's funny that they showed up.
Sadly my batteries died while i was watching the video so now im going to have to see if nintedo sells new ones on their website. Theu did sell a 3ds xl battery so finger crossed.
Is that a Steve Staunton sticker on the back of the green GBC? 😅
lol i didint even look at who uploaded this and just assumed it was elliot
Hi Vince. Have you filmed the video for the stuff I sent you yet
No, not yet Toby👍
Joy to work on and in my experience easy to fix if you pray and cross fingers lol
Hi I have an old pocket size pack man game and it works if you hold the battery pack down but then goes off if you let go could you have a look for me pls 🙏
you are good
Maybe a bright light behind the board may allow you to see traces without scraping
The screens are best replaced with modern backlit versions. That's a popular mod.
AC passes through a series capacitor where as DC won't so a capacitor will not filter out AC
Hey Vince - where are you hidding the Merch? is this still availble? 😀
I wonder if you shone some light behind the board you could see the traces...
What a twist its not the screen i was suprised
I spotted bad placement of capacitor strate away.😮
Someone probably already told you that but maybe do a little warning for people with arachnophobia because some might find it unsettling
I note the Gameboy cartridge has a person's name written in permanent marker, I know from watching the Rolls Royce videos, quick and easy cleaning tips can be useful to you. Especially since the marker is on the plastic, try gently rubbing toothpaste onto the area with the permanent marker, it will rub off, after few seconds of gentle rubbing, assuming you might want to remove the marker pen, permanently?
Or just ipa lol
Blue magic stain remover, use raw or dilute it.
Vince have you tried WD40 on the carpet stain?
Not yet, just standard carpet cleaner and also fancy car carpet cleaner. I will revisit the carpet though and try again, maybe WD40 on one patch and IPA on another 👍👍👍
She is big, The Garden cross spider (Araneus diadematus). The adult females grow to 15mm (body length),
Really bizzare indeed
Hello, I believe in quite local. I’m the recent thunderstorm my PC was wiped out along with my steering wheel. I have just started out streaming on twitch with minimal budget and would love to see if the steering wheel can be rescued! Without this I can’t continue and can’t really afford to replace the steering wheel at this time. Let me know if you could help? I have been enjoying your videos for a short while as I’ve just discovered them but I believe if anyone could fix it it would be you!
Hang on VINCE didn't you already upload this video but I'm really confused I don't remember you having the Rolls-Royce at the time and no no no I'm... I can't handle it I'm getting so annoyed with myself just nothing seems right at all I can't continue the video I'm loosing it I need to go to bed right now it's not dark but I need sleep good night
can i buy it off you?
Can you stop uploading HD in p50? Neither of my devices are able to follow that.