{GUIDE} Fix a DS that won't power on (blown fuse)

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4...gnaturezd4.jpg

Find this and other great tutorials at my site: http://www.kevinhaag.ca!

So I couldn’t find a good tutorial on the internet on how to do this (only text ones, no pictures), so I decided to write one myself. This fix is for a DS (Phat or Lite) that has a blown fuse and won’t power on. You can tell if your DS has a fuse problem if you turn it on, the light comes on for a second, and then turns off again. I don’t know if this will work on a DS that won’t power on at all, but if you want to try it go ahead. I assume no responsiblility for any further damage you may cause though ;) Hey, it may be worth a shot though… after all you’re DS is already broken right?

Alright the first thing you are going to need to do is determine you have a DS with a blown fuse. Try to turn on your DS. If the light goes on for a second, and then turns itself off, there’s a good chance that this is your problem, and this method will provide a fix. If not, then you may want to try it anyways. It’s not like you have anything to lose…

Here’s a list of supplies needed for the fix:

-Low wattage soldering iron (a 15W Radio Shack iron will be perfect. A 30W will work also, but I don’t reccommend using anything higher wattage than that, or the heat could damage the DS mobo)
-Solder
-Thin wire (I like to use a piece of a resistor or similar components lead. You only need a tiny piece and the lead will provide it)
-Tri-wing Screwdriver (”Nintendo Screwdriver”. If you don’t have one, you can get one at http://www.dealextreme.com for really cheap [and free shipping from Hong Kong ;)])
-Phillips head screwdriver (Any small phillps screwdriver will do)

The “Nintendo Screwdriver”

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/1...wdriverpk3.jpg

Alrighty, now onto the tutorial. Take your tri-wing screwdriver and unscrew all the screws circled in red. Then use a Phillips screwdriver to unscrew the screws circled in green.

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Once you have unscrewed those screws, put them all in a secure place so you don’t lose any of them. You’ll need them to reassemble the case later. Use your hands to pry the bottom of the case off. You’ll need to use a little bit of force to unclip the little clips holding it together. Here’s a great video detailing the dissassembly process. It wasn’t made by me, but it’s a great video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRzTgfo2PsM&e

After you have the DS disassembled, you’ll have something that looks like this. The section in the red square is the section we’ll be dealing with:

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2553/dscn0332wg4.jpg

Take a look at the mobo to find the F1 and F2 Fuses. These are the ones that are causing the problem. We will take a look at F2 first, and then if needed F1:

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NOTE: It is a good idea to test if the fuse is blown before bridging it with a multimeter. Test both the F1 and F2 fuses. If one is blown and not the other, leave the good one alone, and bridge only the blown one.

Take your soldering iron and heat it up. When heated, carefully desolder F2. Do this by putting the tip of your iron on one end of the fuse and heating it up. Gentelly pry upwards on the fuse until it comes loose. Then do the same on the other side. There’s such a miniscule amount of solder on the board that you will only need to hold the iron to the board for a couple of seconds to get it loose. This is good; the less heat applied to the DS’s mobo, the better.

Once you’ve gotten rid of the F2 Fuse, clip a little piece of wire just big enough to bridge the two contacts left behind from where the fuse was. It might take a bit of meneuvering to get it there because it’s so small. Once you get it in place, apply some heat with your iron and solder it to the two contacts. Before you start messing with F1, put your battery in and test it. If it turns on, great! You’re done. Close it back up and you’re good to go! If it still doesn’t work, move on to the F1 Fuse and repeat the process again for that one. Close your DS back up and you’re good to go!

If you have a DS Phat, this process should work also. The F1 and F2 fuses will be on different places on the mobo however, so you will have to do a little bit of searching to find them. Just do the same process as above once you’ve found the fuses.

So hopefully this worked for you and you are now able to play your DS again! Thanks for reading, happy modding!

You can find this at my site also. See signature.

Does what it says on the tin, but bridging to bypass fuses is naughty. Top it off with the fact that the fuse probably went for a reason :/

On the other hand, I suppose it's the only way of getting that DS working short of grabbing another of those fuses, but I'd still feel better if the risk of this was better explained, especially with the news about the boy whose PSP battery went boom being spammed about a bit on the PSP pages.

I've done this to 3 DS's and its worked each time. I'm pretty sure its safe, and the fuses have nothing to do with the battery. You can be sure if you follow the instructions carefully that your battery won't explode ;)

hi ive been looking on the internet to get a resonable explanation 2 what happened to my ds lite ive got an n5 cart and put all the files on and games put it in2 my ds and it just said loading but nothing happened so i then tried it again then it turned itself off and now im unable to charge it up at all and will not power on at all the lights just flash on then off straight away when i try switch on and charge it up do u think it is the fuse and how could this be if all i did was put in an n5 cart ???? pls help as its 2 ds that ive done this 2 :confused:

Fixed my bronen DS,,excellent!

this might be a silly question....but, how do i test the fuse?? I can borrow a multimeter i just need to know how.

Cheers!!!

When i tested my fuses I used the resistance check, as if the fuse is blown it'll show an open circuit rather than a resistance value.

Guys,

For those that want to fix their ds properly here are the fuses -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Nintendo-NDS-F...d=p3286.c0.m14

Dont bridge the fuses or next time the DS sees an error condition it will blow the motherboard :-(

Get fuses here along with all manner of DS repair parts FAST POST

CLICK ME !

Awesome tutorial. It's people like you who take the time that make these things so much easier/even possible for the rest of us. Thank you.

However, there's something I wanted to add to this that could be useful to some people.

I recently replaced the touchscreen in my black DS Lite.

When I put it back together and I powered it on, it exhibited the same symptoms you described (turns on for a second, then powers down).

But in my case, it was doing this for another reason.

The ribbon cable going from the bottom lcd screen was not in the connector firmly enough. Once I took my DS back apart and re-seated it, it booted up just fine.

So people who experience this problem after taking apart their DS lite might want to check that connection before bridging their fuses.



Ohhh....Lol, I'm gonna post this anyhow, but I realize that I made a mistake.

In my case, the top screen would flash for a second before the unit powered back down...You wrote that light (which I assume means power light) would come on for a second before the unit powered down.

So I just read what you wrote incorrectly.

But perhaps this info could still be useful for someone else, so I'll leave it.