8BitAesthetics
Offline
Clifton Park, NY

My input from experience: ALWAYS USE A BRAND NEW RAZOR BLADE

After working on countless gameboys I have come to the conclusion that if I always use a BRAND NEW razor blade with every gameboy I NEVER have an issue.

If I ever use one that has been laying around and has been used more than once the chance that I have to spend 25 minutes with rubbing alcohol, goo gone increased dramatically.

I'd rather fork out the $2 at Wal-Mart for 5 blades than spend hours removing the leftover adhesive from the glass. (I of course use the blades for other things rather than throw them out after one use! haha)

Try it out, I bet you'd be very surprised when it works.

Moriokun
Offline
Milwaukee Area, WI

nonfinite has a video tutorial but I've too lazy to go google it for ya

Grymmtymm
Offline
KC

1st thing I start with a lot of PATIENCE.

2nd I start with a razor peeling up all layer from the easiest corner that you can get to/handle.

3rd I use a cotton swab soaked in 91% rubbing alcohol to help with loosening the screen.

peel a little at a time, slowly keeping dabbing with alcohol until it's all peeled up.

I find that alcohol makes it a little easier to peel, but has more tendency to leave behind leftover adhesive.

if you can peel it without the aid of alcohol do it, there will prolly be less residue left behind.

crizzlycruz
Offline
Los Angeles, CA

I an effort to practice and get familiar with the process of backlight modding, I tried my first backlight mod on an extra MGB I had. I thought I had peeled the film successfully until I finished the mod and realized that there was a speck on the lcd. I thought it was dust at first but later realized it was something on the lcd glass. Although it started as just a speck, it keeps expanding. Here's a photo so you can see it.

Has anyone else experienced this issue before? I'd like to know what it is so I can prevent this on the MGBs I want to get modded right. I'm thinking cracked LCD glass? I also cleaned the entire LCD with rubbing alcohol after the film removal to get rid of leftover residue, could that have caused this?

I appreciate any insight on this.

Apeshit
Offline

It's the liquid crystal leaking inside. MGB LCDs are notorious for that. A good percentage of them have the "black death" already around the outside, and the pressure from removing the foil can usually cause this issue, or make it worse. There's not much that can be done about it.

crizzlycruz
Offline
Los Angeles, CA

That makes sense, thanks for the info; I'll keep it in mind for the next one. I'll be more careful to not to subject the LCD to unnecessary pressure while peeling the reflective foil.

Another Castle
Offline
Pittsburgh

Go slow, use a new blade, and other things that have already been said.

As a side note, that closeup of the broken LCD is pretty awesome looking!

bitjacker
Offline
Alive and well in fucksville

I got mine on the first try but a layer at a time and hours of scrubbing off adhesive. unfourtanately i will be doing it again. gonna frontlight a gbc soon too, as I wrecked my gba sp doing the gbaccelerator mod. it no longer recognizes the difference between a and b buttons!

Last edited by bitjacker (Mar 29, 2013 5:49 pm)

zaxxon
Offline
(219) Indiana, USA

Also never use goo gone to remove the gunk from the screen. I did this once and it removed some of the finish on the screen and wore down on the glass.

Apeshit
Offline

Glass is actually one of the surfaces they recommend using goo gone on, it shouldn't have any effect on it. Though it will damage the connection at the ribbon cable if it happens to touch it. Are you sure it wasn't the front that was damaged? Since the front is polarized film, not glass.

zaxxon
Offline
(219) Indiana, USA

Yah i think what happened was that the goo gone had dripped onto the other side and when I tried to wipe it away that's what happened. I personally don't like to use it on gameboys because of things that happen like this. I'd personally just recommend using alcohol.

crizzlycruz
Offline
Los Angeles, CA

I successfully peeled the LCD film on my pocket. I went really slow and was much more careful not to apply pressure to the LCD. A lot of adhesive was left behind and alcohol was not removing it. I ended up used goof off on a qtip and the adhesive came off the glass. I cleaned up with alcohol afterwards. It was tedious but turned out well. big_smile

joeteach
Offline

I've done quite a few of these and still find it to be the most stressful part of the modding process.  I think it depends on the age of the gameboy and how it's been stored over the years as to how easy it is to peel. Often newer models like the PiL and also ones that have been kept in a nice carry case all their life seem to peel easily with no residue. Older ones that have had less TLC tend to leave all that nasty residue that takes a good hour to clean off. Thanks for the tip about the new razor every time though; I'll try that.