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Thread: GBA SP light flickering from red to green?

  1. #21
    Red (Level 21) Jorpho's Avatar
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    I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they don't repair these anymore.
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    Cherry (Level 1) Casati's Avatar
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    My GBA does this.

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    ServeBot (Lɘvel 11) RP2A03's Avatar
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    I wouldn't rule out a bad battery just yet. That replacement you popped in has been sitting around for three years. Li ion batteries will lose charge just sitting on the self and once a cell's voltage drops below a certain threshold it will become irrecoverably dead. If a recently manufactured replacement cannot be found, you may be able to rebuild the battery pack if it doesn't use custom made cells.
    Mario says "... if you do drugs, you go to hell before you die."

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    Except the same thing happens when I'm running it off an outlet.

    Admittedly, one thing I haven't tested is whether the unit will still reset on its own, flickering light and all, if I just leave it sitting on a table without touching it.
    Last edited by Jorpho; 09-03-2014 at 08:03 AM.
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    ServeBot (Lɘvel 11) RP2A03's Avatar
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    Except that the battery is integral to the power circuit and if not functioning properly may cause problems; even if connected to the mains. Of course you could also have a suboptimal connection at the battery contacts or within the battery. The power switch could still be faulty, although this is unlikely at this point. This can be eliminated with all certainty by jumping the switch.
    Mario says "... if you do drugs, you go to hell before you die."

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    Red (Level 21) Jorpho's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RP2A03 View Post
    Except that the battery is integral to the power circuit and if not functioning properly may cause problems; even if connected to the mains. Of course you could also have a suboptimal connection at the battery contacts or within the battery. The power switch could still be faulty, although this is unlikely at this point. This can be eliminated with all certainty by jumping the switch.
    To be clear, I have observed the problem with two completely different batteries at this point.

    Also, I have just verified that the unit did not reset on its own or otherwise stop working after being left alone on battery power for two hours.
    "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)

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    ServeBot (Lɘvel 11) RP2A03's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jorpho View Post
    I definitely get the impression that the flickering has something to do with the way I hold and squeeze the unit, but it could just be my imagination or some other sort of spurious correlation.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jorpho View Post
    It seems to be a little more prone to failure if I take the battery cover off and start pressing on the battery, but there's nothing definitive that suggests it will reset only if I press it in a particular spot. The battery contacts themselves look perfectly fine.
    Then I would say this is your best lead. It could be that the battery is unable to maintain good contact when the unit is flexed and bending the pins upward slightly might fix the problem. Failing that I would resolder the power pins.
    Mario says "... if you do drugs, you go to hell before you die."

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    Kirby (Level 13) Leo_A's Avatar
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    Just to add something potentially useful for someone trying to diagnose an issue, I believe my backlit SP used the same battery as the original DS model did. If my recollections are accurate, it would be a useful way to test the condition of a battery if you also have an original DS around the house that you know is operable.

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    Hi, I registered an account just for this thread. I've had a gameboy SP do the same thing you are describing and it was the battery terminal connector was loose from the pcb. I had to open it up and reflow the solder and no more resets. Maybe that's what happened to your's too Jorpho.

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    Red (Level 21) Jorpho's Avatar
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    Well, thank you for checking in, sir. May I ask if you read anything in particular to guide you down this path, or did you just crack it open and take a good look at it? And did you use a soldering iron, or stick it in a toaster oven?

    That certainly would be a point that would be subject to some mechanical stress. But strangely, Google does not suggest this is a popular fix.
    Last edited by Jorpho; 10-21-2014 at 10:55 PM.
    "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)

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    Welp, I didn't want to be a DenverCoder9, so I thought I should report back here with my findings.

    I finally got around to attacking my GBA SP with a soldering iron. These really do come apart quite easily as long as you've got a tri-wing screwdriver and I should have tried that ages ago. It's worth noting that the power switch is a giant, solid piece of plastic; trying to inject isopropyl alcohol or anything else in there without opening up the unit isn't likely to do anything.

    I wish I'd come back here first and noted that Mr. darknezz19 referred only to "reflowing", as I wound up accidentally putting a big ol' round (but isolated) blob of solder on one of the battery terminals. It looked quite promising as a source of the problem: the solder pads looked slightly discolored, and the battery terminals looked like they were floating daintily on top of them. But alas, my efforts came to naught: the battery light still flickers when the unit is in use, and occasionally it resets completely; the problems seem to be correlated with putting pressure on the bottom half of the system, but there's no particular sequence of motions that can reliably trigger the problem. (It's worth noting that this behavior appears even when there's no cartridge in the slot.)

    I guess the only thing left to do is to slowly check all of the solder joints and see if I can find one that's problematic. (And I'll probably have to wick off that big solder blob.) There's one video which suggests a problematic charge port can be fixed by reflowing (see also https://gbatemp.net/threads/best-way...gs-001.393428/ ). Maybe it's time to buy one of those neato USB microscopes I've heard about.
    Last edited by Jorpho; 01-11-2016 at 11:53 PM.
    "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)

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    The problem is the power switch. This is a common problem on units that have been stored in humid conditions or were used by people with sweaty or dirty hands. Rapidly fliping the switch a few dozen times usually fixes it rubbing the switch will often cause the light to blink. This is very common with the old gba units because the switch is less protected. It us less common on gba sp units but still is a routine problem.

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    I've never heard that before but it does make a lot of sense, good call. I'm trying to nail down another GBA at the moment, not a fan of being stuck using just the micro I have for general use and having to use non-lit GBC for older stuff.

  14. #34
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    Look for a Gameboy Player for the Gamecube. This will be the best way to play these games after the rechargeable batteries all die in the handhelds.

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    Or do as I had done, throw a 101 screen into a GBA, it uses 2 AAs. It was the perfect melding of form and screen along with no crappy OEM batteries to worry about.

  16. #36
    Kirby (Level 13) Leo_A's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gameguy View Post
    Look for a Gameboy Player for the Gamecube. This will be the best way to play these games after the rechargeable batteries all die in the handhelds.
    While an amazing accessory, the problem is even with three Game Boy Players, I still like to enjoy them on a handheld while laying back in bed sometimes.

    So I'm sad that my power button is a problem with my backlit SP, which was bought new during the system's last Christmas as a mainstream product before the hardware supply dried up. Darn thing only ever saw perhaps 100 hours of use in total and is no doubt one of the youngest GBA's in the world.

    Besides the fact that they don't even play GB/GBC titles, my DS and DS Lite aren't even very satisfactory for GBA games. Poor button mapping kills the enjoyment on a number of games like platformers while the screen of the DS is dimmer than a backlit SP and cartridges annoyingly stick out of a DS Lite.

    It's one nice thing with the Wii U's touch screen. I've actually rebought much of my GBA collection off the Virtual Console and can lay back once again thanks to off-screen play and enjoy quite a few of those games and many more from the NES/SNES/N64 days whenever I feel lazy.
    Last edited by Leo_A; 01-17-2016 at 04:28 PM.

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    Problem with the game boy players is those damn discs and resellers

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    Quote Originally Posted by Niku-Sama View Post
    Problem with the game boy players is those damn discs and resellers
    The problem is people are paying the resellers when there is a superior alternative that only costs the price of a modchip installation: http://www.gc-forever.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2782

    This is a more recent development but why anyone would choose the GBP over this at this time is likely down to lack of information. GameCube mod chips are also very easy to install and at $12 per chip a significantly lower priced investment than a pressed GBP disc.
    Whaddya mean invalid parameters?!

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    I mentioned in another thread that the GBA Player disc can be launched from the SD Media Launcher, so it seems that chipping isn't necessary (though I didn't try it with a copy of the GBA Player disc).

    I hadn't heard of Home Bros., but considering that requires being able to write to a Gamecube memory card, maybe it's not that useful.

    My big beef with the GBA Player is that the D-pad on the Gamecube controller is just so crummy, and the analog stick isn't so good either. Is there a reliable third-party accessory whose D-pad is recommended?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tokimemofan View Post
    The problem is the power switch. This is a common problem on units that have been stored in humid conditions or were used by people with sweaty or dirty hands. Rapidly fliping the switch a few dozen times usually fixes it rubbing the switch will often cause the light to blink.
    That was mentioned on the previous page, yes. It seems to me the switch is pretty well sealed, but then testing just now does suggest that rubbing the switch does indeed serve as a semi-reliable means of triggering a freeze/reset/flickering.

    A bit more Googling turns up this switch replacement guide which links to a thread that explicitly discusses exactly how to deep-clean a power switch – though it still requires a teensy bit of soldering. This looks really promising! (Of course, it's all technically GBC, but as discussed in the switch replacement guide, it's pretty much the same thing.)
    Last edited by Jorpho; 02-23-2016 at 11:32 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jorpho View Post
    I mentioned in another thread that the GBA Player disc can be launched from the SD Media Launcher, so it seems that chipping isn't necessary (though I didn't try it with a copy of the GBA Player disc).

    I hadn't heard of Home Bros., but considering that requires being able to write to a Gamecube memory card, maybe it's not that useful.

    My big beef with the GBA Player is that the D-pad on the Gamecube controller is just so crummy, and the analog stick isn't so good either. Is there a reliable third-party accessory whose D-pad is recommended?

    That was mentioned on the previous page, yes. It seems to me the switch is pretty well sealed, but then testing just now does suggest that rubbing the switch does indeed serve as a semi-reliable means of triggering a freeze/reset/flickering.

    A bit more Googling turns up this switch replacement guide which links to a thread that explicitly discusses exactly how to deep-clean a power switch – though it still requires a teensy bit of soldering. This looks really promising! (Of course, it's all technically GBC, but as discussed in the switch replacement guide, it's pretty much the same thing.)
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Yep.

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