Word, most likely we can just chalk it up to the wisdom of "these things are old..."

Disassembling it and looking on the underside of the lcd there is a bit of darkness where the cable connected that may or may not be related. :-/

I was having some pretty serious trouble trying to get the vertical lines out of a screen and noticed some marking on the ribbon cable. I suspect the damage is more or less irreparable. Maybe take a closer look at your ribbon cable and see if you can spot any imperfections? (How the hell does an interior component get damaged like that anyway?)

I just look out for listings that say they have no dead pixels or have pictures of the screen on with a game running. You might even be able to pick up a spares and repairs one even cheaper that won't switch on (usually corroded terminals) or one with a battered case, as you already have a case or two. You can't guarantee that they have good screens but at least they'll be cheap and you'd have a few spare components to cover you for any modding mishaps .

I certainly wouldn't want to deter you from buying one from nonelectronics or any other site (I've used many of them myself) but I just thought I'd share my eBay experiences.

Nice! Yeah would probably be expensive to get shipped to the states. Thanks though. Do you have anything in particular you're watching out for to avoid the crap ones? Two of the three I've gotten developed horizontal lines after I've gotten them. The one i'm using now is pink and only has one line so it's more annoying but still.

I have a load of boards with working screens that I've got waiting to be back-lit and modded. I was thinking it wouldn't cost much to get over over to you with UK local postage.

It sounds like you've been unlucky, I've bought tens of good gameboys on eBay cheap.

Nope. The US. Why?

Hi baudtack. Are you in the UK?

Ghffh I'll probably give up on eBay for now and buy one from nonelectronics or someone :-(

Unlike what bitjacker said, there can be unfixable lines. I had one screen where the glass cracked across the bottom corner, removing two connections.
The damage could be invisible. Lets say for example, the contact on the glass itself has broken free. Too much wear, too much prolonged heat, etc. These things are old...

Okay. I've tried to fix this twice now for about 30 minutes each time with my iron on 300C with a bevel tip so that it makes as much contact as possible. Many lines flicker but the one in question just stays dead. Do I just keep trying? Every tutorial I've seen this gets fixed in about a minute.

Oookay. I'll give it another go but I worked on it for quite a while before. I'm kind of wondering if the problem is somewhere else.

there exists no unfixable vertical line. may the force be with you, though.

The first time I tried it, it happened to me too.
The key is to be patient, try with gentle vertical strokes along the pin, it can take quite a long time.

Ok. So far I'm 0 for 2 on modding dmgs. I keep getting ones with dead horizontal lines. Such tears. So fail.

So I get one with a near perfect screen. Just one dead... vertical line. I'm pretty excited as EVERYONE says these are totally fixable right! And SUPER easy to fix!

I fire up my trusty soldering iron and get to work!

Only it doesn't work. Lines around the dead one start to flicker so I can tell the solder is melting and yet... the dead one refuses to come back. Am I really now 0 for 3? Three strikes and I'm out? :-(