DMG powering on but nothing happening (Page 1 of 2)

i doubt anyone can diagnose this just by looking at it, especially if nothing looks out of the ordinary as you say...

i don't see any residue, but had batteries leaked inside of this unit?  (pretty common)

and, ANY sort of response from the screen when you power on?  have you adjusted the contrast knob?

does the LED stay lit, or does is just blink on then back off?

have you tried putting in a game?  is there any sound at all on the unit?  the 'plink' noise at the Nintendo logo, or menu music during the game?

(trying to rule out if its a LCD screen issue, or something more systemic, or whatever)

ok, more questions for ya then

is the ribbon cable that connects both sides together still in good shape?  its not too uncommon that these break after all this time.  check to make sure its not cracked in half or anything unusual

speaking of that cable...  just for your general knowledge, don't plug it in and unplug the cable when the console is powered on.  power it off before messing with that cable,

nothin immediately jumps out to suggest right now, i'll think of something in a bit,

but, it could also be the capacitors in the console.  if they've never been changed (doubtful), they are past their life expectancy already.  bad caps in the console being changed out have fixed all sorts of strange problems for me, including LCDs that behaved like this (seem to be OK, but no image on the screen at all).  i'd suggest you give exchanging the caps a try.  but, of course, that might not be the problem then you're out a cap kit...

i'm sure somebody else will have some things for you to try out as well.  its pre-coffee/etc part of the day for me atm...  my mind isn't quite up to speed yet

Have you tried putting in a pair of heaphones to the headphone jack? (Just exhausting possibilities.) Try disconnecting the LCD board and then turning the thing on with headphones connected.
WARNING: never connect or disconnect the LCD board while the Gameboy is powered on. This may damage the CPU in such a way that the left and B buttons stop working permanently!

The problem may be related to the power converter. The unregulated power from the batteries is connected through the power switch and then only to two places, the power converter, and the power LED. The fact that the LED lights up really only means that the power switch is working.

Do you have a multimeter?

Sounds like the voltage regulator board. Check the 4 wires and make sure all the solder joints are clean and that there are no bridges. Also look the at board itself and see if there is any corrosion. This board corrodes quicker for some reason. Also does this board get hot any where after it's powered on for at least 15 minutes? If not any of this you could try replacing the board to see if that will fix it.

The power regulator board is the little circuit board that hangs off to the side by itself right?.  Post some pictures of that.  Maybe someone can diagnose the problem when seeing that.

Only real 'corrosion' I can spot is the black marks on the 1st and 2nd picture, did the heat check Thursday and it didn't get hot at all, I think I'll have to wait till I have another one to swap the board and see.

Last edited by Gingerkiwi (Feb 8, 2014 12:40 pm)