- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I wanted to make a thread to share stories, tips, resources, and advice for repairing games and consoles. My own recent experience below is pretty basic, which I hope will encourage everyone to share even the most basic of experiences! If this thread gets some traction, I'll try to convert this OP into a resource hub.
I decided in the last week to take the plunge and replace the batteries in my old Pokemon cartridges. Perhaps surprisingly, my gold and crystal carts have been dead for several years, but my original blue cart is still going strong. I'm sure it can't be far behind.
I didn't have the first clue about how to do any of this, other than that I needed special screwdrivers. Turns out it is (relatively) inexpensive. The most popular battery package on amazon actually comes with the screwdrivers. Other than that I just needed a soldering iron and some solder. I also bought a solder pump to try to clean things up, but I'm not sure how helpful it actually was. I've never soldered before, but it was generally pretty easy. I just threw down some parchment paper over an old book as a base and did it all on my kitchen table.
I did have one problem though, I initially put the battery in backward (positive to positive). I was so disappointed when it didn't work, but figured it out looking up a how to video. Now I've got Pokemon Gold and Crystal back in action.
I also took my old GBA apart because my start and select weren't working. That also took a special screwdriver. Really just gave that a good cleaning, but taking it apart was probably the scariest part, because I don't know how I would replace it for the special features in my gamecube games. Got it looking pretty good though! Some of the button pads are starting to get tears in them, but cleaning everything got start and select working again. The only trouble spot was the speaker "grill" which I couldn't get to come clean even with a good scrubbing. The dirt of an entire childhood's worth of pockets crammed in there.
The tools and a pretty large pack of Gameboy batteries so far were all about 30 bucks, and that's with buying two of most of the screwdrivers by accident. My next goals are to try to replace the battery in my GBA Pokemon games, and try to figure out how to replace the battery in my Gamecube that recently died. I hear that the latter is a pretty complicated, but if all else fails I have my wii to fall back on. These experiences have actually been pretty empowering, so now I have the confidence to really screw something up ;D.
What stories do you all have? Any advice for upcoming projects?
I decided in the last week to take the plunge and replace the batteries in my old Pokemon cartridges. Perhaps surprisingly, my gold and crystal carts have been dead for several years, but my original blue cart is still going strong. I'm sure it can't be far behind.
I didn't have the first clue about how to do any of this, other than that I needed special screwdrivers. Turns out it is (relatively) inexpensive. The most popular battery package on amazon actually comes with the screwdrivers. Other than that I just needed a soldering iron and some solder. I also bought a solder pump to try to clean things up, but I'm not sure how helpful it actually was. I've never soldered before, but it was generally pretty easy. I just threw down some parchment paper over an old book as a base and did it all on my kitchen table.
I did have one problem though, I initially put the battery in backward (positive to positive). I was so disappointed when it didn't work, but figured it out looking up a how to video. Now I've got Pokemon Gold and Crystal back in action.
I also took my old GBA apart because my start and select weren't working. That also took a special screwdriver. Really just gave that a good cleaning, but taking it apart was probably the scariest part, because I don't know how I would replace it for the special features in my gamecube games. Got it looking pretty good though! Some of the button pads are starting to get tears in them, but cleaning everything got start and select working again. The only trouble spot was the speaker "grill" which I couldn't get to come clean even with a good scrubbing. The dirt of an entire childhood's worth of pockets crammed in there.
The tools and a pretty large pack of Gameboy batteries so far were all about 30 bucks, and that's with buying two of most of the screwdrivers by accident. My next goals are to try to replace the battery in my GBA Pokemon games, and try to figure out how to replace the battery in my Gamecube that recently died. I hear that the latter is a pretty complicated, but if all else fails I have my wii to fall back on. These experiences have actually been pretty empowering, so now I have the confidence to really screw something up ;D.
What stories do you all have? Any advice for upcoming projects?
