I fixed the issue doing a couple of things, one I removed off corrosion in the battery department, to be safe, to make sure there's a good connection to begin with. Two, I carefully bent the battery contacts just a little  up. And I cleaned the DMG, to the absolute best of my ability, took everything apart, wiped clean with electronic cleaner and alcohol. I removed so much years of grit and dust. Just powered the old girl up, and boy her screen is beautiful, thanks alt and nitro!

Some of my DMGs experienced the exact same issue. The problem was the rechargeables (green radio shack models) not reaching the contacts like Nitro mentioned. Some bending and/or creative shim work will set you straight. I like to use cut up cards as shims (credit, library, your call).

hmm so I guess I will have to bite the bullet and just use disposables? or could I fix the Gameboys contacts? Like maybe lower them somehow, what you're saying makes sense, Ill look at it, and yes the damn thang won't even crackle with life haha

Check if the rechargeables are actually reaching the contacts. This might sound silly, but some batteries are slightly out of tolerance, so that the peg sometimes doesn't reach the battery contact.

By "not even a glimpse", I'm assuming you mean not even a little crackle in the speaker, not even a little dirt on the screen, and not even a faint flash from the power LED.

lol whoops, I must have clicked the nintendo consoles D:

First let's move this to handhelds, mmkay?

Okay I hate to be that guy who posted two threads in one day but I have an strange issue (I think it is) I have 2 dmg's that are the same everything blah. one works with both rechargeable and normal disposable. The other (perfectly fine and stock condition, will not even show a glimpse of power up on rechargeables, it works with disposables though. I asked a buddy about it, he said something on cleaning the contacts but it's not that. it has no erosion anyways. I am just puzzled on why it's selective, weird.

*I thought I might add they are energizer rechargeables, and for disposables I always either buy Duracell or energizer