Artifacted Virtual Boy Screen

[mattimeo310]

I bought a virtual boy, its stand, and manual about 4 months ago and it worked perfectly. After playing with it for a few weeks, and a bad situation involving a shipment of 5 virtual boy games I grew tired of mario tennis and took the batteries out and put it on my shelf.

Today I bought a new game for it and put the batteries back in and it doesn't turn on. After fiddling with the battery pack for about a half hour and trying the clean the contacts it finally works but it appears the right screen of the VB is artifacted, this is true for both mario tennis and the new game Warioland. It is really glitchy and I dont understand how it could have just broken like that.

The only thing I can think of is since my room is so dusty, dust got in it. Is this possible or did my screen just break while it was sitting there? Can I fix it?

[weaponepsilon]

I bought a virtual boy, its stand, and manual about 4 months ago and it worked perfectly. After playing with it for a few weeks, and a bad situation involving a shipment of 5 virtual boy games I grew tired of mario tennis and took the batteries out and put it on my shelf.

Today I bought a new game for it and put the batteries back in and it doesn't turn on. After fiddling with the battery pack for about a half hour and trying the clean the contacts it finally works but it appears the right screen of the VB is artifacted, this is true for both mario tennis and the new game Warioland. It is really glitchy and I dont understand how it could have just broken like that.

The only thing I can think of is since my room is so dusty, dust got in it. Is this possible or did my screen just break while it was sitting there? Can I fix it?

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=virtual+boy+repair

[weaponepsilon]

I left a reply and it disappeared?! Anyways, there is a small ribbon cable that goes to each side of the VB. Over time, the glue that hold the contacts together breaks down and loses connection. You have to dismantle the VB and remove the ribbon cables and either replace or repair them. One method is heating up the connector end in an oven (my recommendation is a heatgun) or to solder the connections with te solder ball technique. Look on youtube for a bunch of DIY repairs that people are saying works.

[InsaneDavid]

I left a reply and it disappeared?! Anyways, there is a small ribbon cable that goes to each side of the VB. Over time, the glue that hold the contacts together breaks down and loses connection. You have to dismantle the VB and remove the ribbon cables and either replace or repair them. One method is heating up the connector end in an oven (my recommendation is a heatgun) or to solder the connections with te solder ball technique. Look on youtube for a bunch of DIY repairs that people are saying works.

I've had good success with the oven method. You may need to repair it again in a couple years but it does the job.

[weaponepsilon]

That seems to be the general consensus. All you're really doing is remelting degrading glue. That one video I saw on Youtube where the kid used a blob of solder to make teh connections permanent seems to be the only viable longterm solution.