HELP - Screen only dispalying Red/Green and off center

Seaniccus · Post by **Seaniccus** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:44 pm

After hours of set up, mistakes, and work I was ready to close up my screen for good, and attach it to the rest of my Frankenstein case. A test before closing the case worked fine, but after the case was closed (and after it was re-opened to investigate) I was left with the screen "off center" as if the tracking was off on an old VCR, and it only displaying VERY lightly in red and green.

What the hell happend here? Is there any way to fix it? I can't afford another screen, and i'm almost done! I just need to glue two things together and the portable is finished. This is what it looks like, i know the pictures are hard to see, but you should get the idea:

Update: I got a better picture after fussing around with the yellow/orange micro ribbon on the top of the board. I guess it's damaged? I don't know hwere to get another one of those, I think it was made specifically for the screen.

Bibin · Post by **Bibin** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:40 am

It is your ribbon cable, or a source that directly alters the data flowing through it. Check for bridged solder points near the ribbon cable or other sources of input, punctures, or rips, and try to re-seat the connector on both sides.

Seaniccus · Post by **Seaniccus** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:02 pm

Dang. I think you are right. It does seem to be the little orange ribbon cable. Trying to re-seat it on the board end gives me varying levels of clarity, but always with the split screen. There DOES appear to be a small nick on the side of the cable. It doesent look like it goes through the lead, but I can find no other damage on it, and it seems to be seated fine otherwise. I guess it got pinched by the plastic when I was trying to close it up - which is funny, because I was being VERY careful with that cable because I knew it was fragile. I'm not sure If it's something I can repair by hand because the cable is so small, and it looks made for the board, so i'm not sure where I could find another one. If I had a (much much) smaller soldering iron I may be able to re-wire it by hand, but that's pretty unlikely.

I don't know what to do now. All I had to do was close up the case and glue it in place, and I would have been done with the project. I'm pretty bummed - I guess i'll have to try to fix it somehow or keep my eye open for a new screen somewhere. I can't afford to drop any more cash into this project right now.

Any suggestions?

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:58 am

You won't be able to repair the cable, however you could check on e-bay to see if there is a dead one "parts" for sale, so you can use its cable.

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:26 am

I saw someone repair a ribbon LCD cable with scotch tape and just tapeing it together?

Seaniccus · Post by **Seaniccus** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:31 am

Dr. KillGood wrote:I saw someone repair a ribbon LCD cable with scotch tape and just tapeing it together?

If that worked, he was pretty lucky. the broken leads inside the little cable must have been touching and he just taped them in place. It's like if i were to simply wrap two regular size wires around each other and tape them together - it'll work, but it's fragile and not recommended. I already tried futzing around with the cable to see if I can get whatever damaged leads there are to connect, but it was a no go. The cable hardly looks damaged, and I swear the nick doesn't even reach the first internal wire, but whatever. If it's not working it's not working. What a bummer too - I just ordered Megaman 3 and 4 on Japanese Carts to use with it.