If this belongs in "Restoration", so be it.

OK. I went and put my foot in it. I got the afterburner kit and the stealth dimmer chip. I thought about doing the right thing:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php...02-05-20&res=l

But I went ahead and opened up my GBA anyway. Who knows. Maybe I could have gotten things right the first time if I'd done a super-basic install (light stays on all the time). Maybe I could have even pulled off the potentiometer dimmer. But no. I wanted the deluxe install. So I went ahead and made a gazillion solder connections, using the basic instructions and the dimmer chip diagram:

http://www.tritonlabs.com/graphics/stealth_dimmer.jpg

I actually got everything connected, and closed it up. Unfortunately, the wire that goes to the left-most solder point on the diagram got underneath the D-pad, so I had to open the patient back up again. When I took it apart, the solder connection at that point came loose. I had a bitch of a time getting the solder to attach the second time, and there appeared to be some brown gunk on the board at that spot.

OK--flux digression. When I went into Radio Shack and said "I need to do some soldering, and I'd like some flux," the three employees stared at me momentarily, jaws slack. They then walked me to the back, and eventually found a roll of solder combined with rosin-core flux (the flux appears to run through the middle, like in a creme-filled donut). Was this what I wanted? Or does flux normally come separately from the solder, in bales or hogsheads or something?

Now--this brown gunk on the board. Was this flux? Should I use hot water to get this stuff off the board? I would like to know, because the second time I reassembled the GBA the damn wire got in the way of the start button (I assume--the start button does not work now), so I'm going to have to disassmble the thing again and try to get it right, and that solder connection will probably be loose again. I could punt and go with the potentiometer dimmer, but now I'm feeling stubborn.

Also, those wires supplied with the chip are pretty long, and it's a pain to coil the spaghetti in the case. Should I desolder and shorten them? And could I have just screwed up the start button part of the board by my repeated attempts to solder a wire adjacent to the spot?

That SP is starting to look good...