Nintendo DS Fuse Fix

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khaag
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Nintendo DS Fuse Fix

Post by khaag » Thu May 07, 2009 12:25 pm

This fix is for a DS (Phat or Lite) that has a blown fuse and won’t power on. You can tell if your DS has a fuse problem if you turn it on, the light comes on for a second, and then turns off again. I don’t know if this will work on a DS that won’t power on at all, but if you want to try it go ahead. I assume no responsiblility for any further damage you may cause though Hey, it may be worth a shot though… after all you’re DS is already broken right?

Alright the first thing you are going to need to do is determine you have a DS with a blown fuse. Try to turn on your DS. If the light goes on for a second, and then turns itself off, there’s a good chance that this is your problem, and this method will provide a fix. If not, then you may want to try it anyways. It’s not like you have anything to lose…

Here’s a list of supplies needed for the fix:

Low wattage soldering iron (a 15W Radio Shack iron will be perfect. A 30W will work also, but I don’t reccommend using anything higher wattage than that, or the heat could damage the DS mobo)
Solder
Thin wire (I like to use a piece of a resistor or similar components lead. You only need a tiny piece and the lead will provide it)
Tri-wing Screwdriver (”Nintendo Screwdriver”. If you don’t have one, you can get one here for really cheap [and free shipping from Hong Kong ])
Phillips head screwdriver (Any small phillps screwdriver will do)

The “Nintendo Screwdriver”
Image

Alrighty, now onto the tutorial. Take your tri-wing screwdriver and unscrew all the screws circled in red. Then use a Phillips screwdriver to unscrew the screws circled in green.
Image

Once you have unscrewed those screws, put them all in a secure place so you don’t lose any of them. You’ll need them to reassemble the case later. Use your hands to pry the bottom of the case off. You’ll need to use a little bit of force to unclip the little clips holding it together. Here’s a great video detailing the dissassembly process. It wasn’t made by me, but it’s a great video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRzTgfo2PsM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

After you have the DS disassembled, you’ll have something that looks like this. The section in the red square is the section we’ll be dealing with:
Image

Take a look at the mobo to find the F1 and F2 Fuses. These are the ones that are causing the problem. We will take a look at F2 first, and then if needed F1:
Image

NOTE: It is a good idea to test if the fuse is blown before bridging it with a multimeter. Test both the F1 and F2 fuses. If one is blown and not the other, leave the good one alone, and bridge only the blown one

Take your soldering iron and heat it up. When heated, carefully desolder F2. Do this by putting the tip of your iron on one end of the fuse and heating it up. Gentelly pry upwards on the fuse until it comes loose. Then do the same on the other side. There’s such a miniscule amount of solder on the board that you will only need to hold the iron to the board for a couple of seconds to get it loose. This is good; the less heat applied to the DS’s mobo, the better.

Once you’ve gotten rid of the F2 Fuse, clip a little piece of wire just big enough to bridge the two contacts left behind from where the fuse was. It might take a bit of meneuvering to get it there because it’s so small. Once you get it in place, apply some heat with your iron and solder it to the two contacts. Before you start messing with F1, put your battery in and test it. If it turns on, great! You’re done. Close it back up and you’re good to go! If it still doesn’t work, move on to the F1 Fuse and repeat the process again for that one. Close your DS back up and you’re good to go!

If you have a DS Phat, this process should work also. The F1 and F2 fuses will be on different places on the mobo however, so you will have to do a little bit of searching to find them. Just do the same process as above once you’ve found the fuses.

So hopefully this worked for you and you are now able to play your DS again! Thanks for reading, happy modding!

(Originally appears @ http://kevinhaag.ca/2008/02/19/fix-a-ni ... -tutorial/)
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limpport
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Re: Nintendo DS Fuse Fix

Post by limpport » Sun Nov 22, 2009 4:06 pm

I can add a conformation to the success of this! Hooray!

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khaag
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Re: Nintendo DS Fuse Fix

Post by khaag » Sat Jan 23, 2010 2:56 pm

For those wanting to replace the fuses instead of bypassing them:

http://cgi.ebay.com/DS-LITE-FUSES-F1-F2 ... _500wt_956" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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