GameBoy Pocket horizontal lines repair

In this video I'm repairing a GameBoy Pocket that has missing horizontal lines.
This is an easy fix but you'll need a good soldering iron, steady hand and a lot of patience.
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/ retrotechcorner
/ retrotechcorner

[@dwightdixon8508]

Very common problem with Nintendo products of that period. Often it’s a separation of the ribbon cable to the displays. This also happens to the Virtual Boy but for that it’s like Nintendo used some kind of an adhesive to fix the ribbon cable to the LED panel so it’s preferable to solder the ribbon to the LED panel due to the ribbon being stressed from adjustments to fine tune the display with user’s vision. Ultimately I sent out my OG GameBoy for an IPS screen mod to correct the problem indefinitely. The IPS screens have ability to replicate the originals look pretty well. Excellent video

[@RetroTechCorner]

Yes - IPS is the way to go. There's two issues with them though - they are not cheap and (specifically for GBP) they tend to drain the battery (and in GBP case it's just two AAA batteries and they will go out pretty quickly).

[@drmirk]

Extremely good video, thank you very much! My Gameboy Pocket is working again thanks to you :).

[@Murky103]

Very helpful video. at 3:00 In my case however the problem was indeed at the top, screen facing connection so don't count it out if you're having trouble

[@nunomauricio2834]

Fantastic work, thanks for sharing. I have an ideia that maybe works, if we use a hair dryer? Probably don't melt the ribbon cable and maybe is enough heat? Best regards

[@RetroTechCorner]

Hair dryer may not generate enough heat... I generally advise using good soldering iron (regulated and preferably calibrated) and starting from very low temperature and adding 10 or so degrees every time. Then gently touching the ribbon (where the solder is) for a second or so and see what happens. First try is usually risky but once you do it a few times its not that hard...

[@nunomauricio2834]

@RetroTechCorner Makes sense. Thank you very much for all you attention. Continuation of good works.

[@AnotherUser1000]

Maybe if you have put it on a glass table upside down and a mirror at the bottom, you could watch live the lines being corrected. You could also use a marker in order to mark the problematic area and therefore not risking damaging any good one.

[@BuenoZaire]

Ty for the video, is there any solution for the vertical ones?

[@richiegore1]

Would it make sense to apply laptop tape before apply heat to the ribbon cable?

[@rrafal]

Nice, great job

[@flieen]

Thank you for this tutorial! I'm a bit hesitant to try it, if the ribbon cable melts then the whole screen is to be replaced?

[@RetroTechCorner]

Most likely - yes. You need to start at low temperature and take it easy. Also - don't hold the soldering iron in one place. Try to do exactly what I did in the video.

[@flieen]

@@RetroTechCorner Thank you for your answer! I tried it with my soldering iron at the lowest temperature but unfortunately the cable instantly melted on the first contact... I guess I shouldn't have trusted my cheap tools 😓

[@RetroTechCorner]

Sorry to hear that... As I said in the video - the temperature is the key and I recommended a calibrated soldering iron. You could still try and save the cable if the traces are not mangled (but they probably are if you melted the "lower" part of the cable). Have a look at the beginning of the video where I'm talking about temperature and where to heat the cable). Again - sorry to hear the bad news...

[@flieen]

@@RetroTechCorner Don't be sorry!! Your tutorial is extremely helpful! I'm the one who should be sorry for having broken a Game Boy screen 😅At least I've learned my lesson, and I guess it gives me a reason to upgrade to an IPS screen 😅

[@NOOBEPICASSO]

@@flieen literally just burnt my ribbon

[@richardbriansmith8562]

Awesome Video

[@FixnGeeks-jr6je]

Good video, , i'll try.

[@NOOBEPICASSO]

this is tricky, all I did was turn my head for a split second and I burnt a hole in the ribbon

[@RetroTechCorner]

yeah... there's a reason I repeated "be careful" several times :)

[@pajda666chleba]

Pieknie! ;)

[@kmjcollects]

190 Celsius?

[@RetroTechCorner]

yes - start from there and go up. But once you reach 230-240 you'll most likely start melting the ribbon cable

[@kmjcollects]

@@RetroTechCorner appreciate it!