Terrible solder after taste. 
So, recently acquired a Multimeter (TRUPER MUT-33) and been trying to find excuses to teach me how to use it. I remembered that I have couple GameBoy(s) that needed a good cleaning for being stored. So I took my GameBoy(s) and began to test one by one if they were still working properly. I also found a "broken" Super Mario Bros Deluxe cartridge that no matter what wouldn't boot in any of my GameBoy Color consoles.
So I was like:
"Cool! Time to test continuity on this cartridge"
And so I took it apart, tested each "pin" by holding the negative probe in a pin and running the positive probe in every chip pin until I heard that beeping. Turns out, there were no continuity problems. That totally surprised me as I've seen videos where people fixes old cartridges by soldering tiny wires to fix continuity.
I googled why "Super Mario Bros DELUXE won't start" and came across a Reddit thread of someone with my same problem. The reply was that one must've replace the battery because probably the save file was corrupted in such fashion that crashed the game on boot. Hmmm...
I desoldered the battery, and ran the game again. To my surprise, it booted!
I got curious and... the game has an option to see the "records" so I was wondering what would've happen if I made a new record, saved it and checked it with no battery in game.
Game crashed. I then, went and soldered back the battery (surprisingly still holding a 3v charge according to my multimeter) and the game booted just fine... so I did a new record, entered my "name" (LINK... because I always use LINK in whenever I have to name something in games) and then... the game crashed!
I was like... wtf?
Googled once again and came across this GBATEMP thread, and just did what others suggested, that is, to reflow each chip... so I did, and the game worked just fine!
Then... I don't know why (maybe OCD?) but I just took apart my GameBoy(s) (1 GBC, 1 GBC, 1 GBC, 2 White DMGs) and began cleaning the buttons and membranes.
My Purple one was nasty, but works fine.
The Blue one has the battery cover, and was nasty, works fine too.
1 DMG was nasty and works fine also.
But the other two (1 DMG and 1 GBC) wouldn't turn on.
I decided to check the GBC first with my multimeter to check wheter or not there was voltage running through the board, and found no continuity problems. So I thought maybe the ON/OFF switch was dirty, so I cleaned it... still wouldn't turn on.
I took the most caveman approach and decided to reflow the ON/OFF switch... and voila, that was the fault.
Now, the DMG was totally clear why it wouldn't turn on... there was corrosion in the battery terminals:
As you can see... the ones in the left and right, used to be soldered to the board of the GameBoy... when I desoldered'em, I didn't thought they would be a huge pain in the ass to reassemble and resolder. So much that this was nearly a "Shit that Happens" entry.
Anyway, went for vinegar, couldn't find white vinegar, but... vinegar is vinegar, so used Apple Flavored Vinegar... indeed removed corrosion.
So well, in fact, that the battery terminals were as bright as new!
Anyway, the board has this little tiny gap in which each terminal hooks into. But remaining solder made those gaps way smaller, so couldn't fit the terminals back in place. Literally spent two hours trying to clean the gaps with copper wire and "flux" (more like old school soldering paste)
And trust me, it was truly hard to get those clean off solder.
Somehow, managed to clean them enough so the terminas would fit back in place... but now my solder wouldn't stick to them. Despite having my soldering iron to 400°C ... did what I could, and managed to get everything back together... but I'm not satisfied with the solder not covering the terminals in it's entirety.
Oh well... now my DMG GameBoy works again!
A question remains: Will I ever stop taking such primitive... "Caveman Approach" when fixing my stuff? Who knows? I've been brute forcing things whenever I try to fix something, I don't think that'll be an easy to get rid off habit.
Unga bunga, me fix your GameBoy, unga bunga.
So, recently acquired a Multimeter (TRUPER MUT-33) and been trying to find excuses to teach me how to use it. I remembered that I have couple GameBoy(s) that needed a good cleaning for being stored. So I took my GameBoy(s) and began to test one by one if they were still working properly. I also found a "broken" Super Mario Bros Deluxe cartridge that no matter what wouldn't boot in any of my GameBoy Color consoles.
So I was like:
"Cool! Time to test continuity on this cartridge"
And so I took it apart, tested each "pin" by holding the negative probe in a pin and running the positive probe in every chip pin until I heard that beeping. Turns out, there were no continuity problems. That totally surprised me as I've seen videos where people fixes old cartridges by soldering tiny wires to fix continuity.
I googled why "Super Mario Bros DELUXE won't start" and came across a Reddit thread of someone with my same problem. The reply was that one must've replace the battery because probably the save file was corrupted in such fashion that crashed the game on boot. Hmmm...
I desoldered the battery, and ran the game again. To my surprise, it booted!
I got curious and... the game has an option to see the "records" so I was wondering what would've happen if I made a new record, saved it and checked it with no battery in game.
Game crashed. I then, went and soldered back the battery (surprisingly still holding a 3v charge according to my multimeter
) and the game booted just fine... so I did a new record, entered my "name" (LINK... because I always use LINK in whenever I have to name something in games) and then... the game crashed!I was like... wtf?
Googled once again and came across this GBATEMP thread, and just did what others suggested, that is, to reflow each chip... so I did, and the game worked just fine!
Then... I don't know why (maybe OCD?) but I just took apart my GameBoy(s) (1 GBC, 1 GBC, 1 GBC, 2 White DMGs) and began cleaning the buttons and membranes.
My Purple one was nasty, but works fine.
The Blue one has the battery cover, and was nasty, works fine too.
1 DMG was nasty and works fine also.
But the other two (1 DMG and 1 GBC) wouldn't turn on.
I decided to check the GBC first with my multimeter to check wheter or not there was voltage running through the board, and found no continuity problems. So I thought maybe the ON/OFF switch was dirty, so I cleaned it... still wouldn't turn on.
I took the most caveman approach and decided to reflow the ON/OFF switch... and voila, that was the fault.
Now, the DMG was totally clear why it wouldn't turn on... there was corrosion in the battery terminals:
As you can see... the ones in the left and right, used to be soldered to the board of the GameBoy... when I desoldered'em, I didn't thought they would be a huge pain in the ass to reassemble and resolder. So much that this was nearly a "Shit that Happens" entry.
Anyway, went for vinegar, couldn't find white vinegar, but... vinegar is vinegar, so used Apple Flavored Vinegar... indeed removed corrosion.
So well, in fact, that the battery terminals were as bright as new!
Anyway, the board has this little tiny gap in which each terminal hooks into. But remaining solder made those gaps way smaller, so couldn't fit the terminals back in place. Literally spent two hours trying to clean the gaps with copper wire and "flux" (more like old school soldering paste)
And trust me, it was truly hard to get those clean off solder.
Somehow, managed to clean them enough so the terminas would fit back in place... but now my solder wouldn't stick to them. Despite having my soldering iron to 400°C ... did what I could, and managed to get everything back together... but I'm not satisfied with the solder not covering the terminals in it's entirety.
Oh well... now my DMG GameBoy works again!
A question remains: Will I ever stop taking such primitive... "Caveman Approach" when fixing my stuff? Who knows? I've been brute forcing things whenever I try to fix something, I don't think that'll be an easy to get rid off habit.
Unga bunga, me fix your GameBoy, unga bunga.
