ChipMusic.org - DMG-01 LCD Missing Lines Repair - Soldering Iron or Hot Air

Re: DMG-01 LCD Missing Lines Repair - Soldering Iron or Hot Air

2012-09-29T14:25:41Z

using soldering irons for this mod, i've found that different shaped tips play a big roll in the succes of the mod. pointed types don't work well at all, the heat is only applied to a small point and the reflow underneath the acetate ribbon isn't satisfactory.

chisel tips have worked really great for me however

Re: DMG-01 LCD Missing Lines Repair - Soldering Iron or Hot Air

2012-09-29T14:06:58Z

I've tried a hair dryer before and didn't get very effective results, but a hot air rework station is definitely the way to go if you happen to have one.

I was given a busted DMG which I've managed to repair, but the LCD has one dead horizontal line… I don't think there's been a successful repair of one to date, but I'm keen to experiment with hot air and see if I can work that out.

Re: DMG-01 LCD Missing Lines Repair - Soldering Iron or Hot Air

2012-09-29T13:34:46Z

Yep. I got the lines on my DMG back with a hair dryer. I stopped applying air when I saw the LCD beginning turning black, wait a few seconds until it gets its normal color and apply hot air again, testing every time I stopped that I didn't f*ck up the screen. It's kinda easy, indeed.

DMG-01 LCD Missing Lines Repair - Soldering Iron or Hot Air

2012-09-25T06:17:02Z

OK, I just wanted to throw a bit of info out there. This concerns the method of repairing the missing lines on the Gameboy screen, which I'm sure most of you know very well. In my experience, I have found that the soldering iron trick does NOT work all the time. After doing that on a few DMG-01s, only 1 got fixed & stayed fixed. The others would not stay fixed at all.

However, I recently came back to one & tried my hot air rework station with a small nozzle & low pressure. Hot air fixed the lines very easily, & they stayed fixed, even when I press on the cable. What the soldering iron couldn't do, hot air did much better, & much easier too. It seems that hot air works much better than a soldering iron. I used around 300degC. Of course, not everyone has a hot air rework station... you could use a heat gun, or even a hair dryer to heat the ribbon where the lines need to be fixed. If anything, maybe block the air from blowing on the LCD itself too much.

Anyway, I recommend using hot air instead of a soldering iron to fix the lines.