Welcome to The Broken Past! Here, we try our best to fix things that are broken, as well as provide detailed tutorials on some of the commonly repaired devices and accessories. By no means am I an expert, but I enjoy problem-solving, and enjoy working on the puzzles surrounding old, broken stuff. I specialize in fixing electronic devices, so this channel will focus mainly on electronics-based repairs. But I am certainly interested in attempting to repair something non-electronic, should the situation arise!
A bit about myself - I am a Software Engineer by trade, and a developer / sysadmin by hobby. I've spent my entire life around video games, computers and electronics, and enjoy working in all aspects of technology. As such, I've gotten into the habit of repairing old, broken devices. After repairing enough stuff, I thought that it might be fun to start a RU-vid channel, and share my experiences with others who may be interested in watching!
That depends heavily on the TV that you're doing. ShopJimmy is a great source for backlights, if you want to make sure you order exactly the right parts. If you're comfortable with tearing down the set first and getting to the LED strips, you can find the part numbers yourself and buy them online at various retailers like Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, etc for a bit cheaper.
Haha! I’m just used to saying “pop”. I’ve grown up saying it. A lot of people around me say “soda”, but I’m stuck in my old ways. The one version I can’t get around is calling it “coke”. It’s only “coke” if it’s actually coke!
Dude, you just made a claim and then asked someone to disprove it. If you make the claim, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate that it’s happening.
Great question! Part of it is old habit of always power cycling when I plug and unplug peripherals. The other part as was mentioned is a quick way to test the select button on the controller. You’re right, I could’ve just swapped controllers and pressed reset to get back to the game select screen. But that was just the subconscious habit I followed and what worked for me!
I don’t believe so, no. But they do attach to a ribbon cable that has a number of different purposes, so if that is torn, that may cause issues booting the 3DS.
@@TheBrokenPast ok cause I have so speakers on my 3ds xl that were torn off but the cable is still intact and the 3ds xl won't boot after replacing the screen
Probably! I'm not sure what "better" options are out there. I feel like you are kind of limited in the quality of speakers you can get at this size. But, there's nothing saying you couldn't dremel some bits and make something work with a larger, better quality speaker! 😁
Are you referring to the mat that the system is on? It's a "silicon soldering mat". Basically, it's just a mat that helps to keep things organized, but is also heat resistant so you can do soldering work directly on it without damaging the table underneath. Here's a link to the specific one I bought years ago: www.amazon.com/Kaisi-Insulation-Soldering-Maintenance-Electronics/dp/B073RGVB39 But there are tons out there you can buy on Amazon, AliExpress, etc!
It seems this question has come up a few times in the past, so I'll pin it in a comment here. The battery I bought for this video is no longer listed. I bought it from a random eBay listing a few years back that is no longer available. However, you can find it pretty much anywhere online (Amazon, eBay, etc.). Here's a current active listing for one of these batteries for sale (not an affiliate link): www.amazon.com/dp/B0B74S8145 I just searched for "Kindle Keyboard" and "Battery", and found one that matched the model (S10-346392-0100). Hope that helps!
I just pinned a comment with an Amazon link to an active listing for a replacement battery that will work. But, here's a quick link to that listing for you as well: www.amazon.com/dp/B0B74S8145 Hope that helps!
That it draws amps without anything connected means you have a dead short somewhere. It shouldn't draw anything. To melt less plastic you need to move the hot air. Use low melt solder to use a lower heat with the hot air. Watch more of joeydoestech, northridgefix, thecod3r, tronicsfix. All of them have repaired a lot of switches. I myself been buying broken switches to repair them. Hope to see more switches beeing repaired from you in the future good luck.
Unfortunately the TV issue is something you run into far too often with older consoles, it's even worse when you try playing on computer monitors. Newer screens have default encoding/ decoding built in and they sometimes don't recognise unencoded signals at all... This can cause obvious confustion/ frustration when testing and generally trying to play old consols. (As I found out when HDMI modding my old N64). My advice if you have a TV you know works for all your old consols DON'T SELL/ DUMP IT.
Great advice! Thank you for the detailed analysis! I used to have a super nice, flat CRT TV years ago. I eventually recycled it because at the time I had no use for it. High quality RF, composite, s-video, the works! And every day I kick myself for recycling it. What I'd give to have that TV back again!
Thanks! Glad you got it working again. I have lots of happy memories playing on mine back in the day. Oh, your description should say Genesis (Mega Drive). The Master System was its predecessor, and also great.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I tried to add a bunch of extra *bits* in there to keep it entertaining. I had a lot of fun putting it all together in the end!
Thanks for the feedback! I wish I had time to make more videos. This is still a side hobby for me, so it's tough to find time to storyboard, record, and edit in post. But I'm trying to find more time to make more vids and continue to grow the channel! As far as cameras, it's just a mid-grade Lumix G7 with a fixed lens on it. Of course, it helps when I don't forget to change it to 4K when I'm recording 😂.
Unfortunately, I don't think it's a screen problem. When the switch lite boots, there's a pattern that it traditionally follows, and then restarts and boots once more at a higher fast charging rate. Mine never did that, and was permanently stuck at the lower rate. I did also try turning the volume up so I could test if I could hear anything, but it never made any sounds either.
How are the Dpad's on these aftermarket shells? I got a japanese DSi and the dpad is absolute dogshit, It just sits way too low and is impossible to hit two directions at once. I had to flip the rubber pad but now the pad clicks loud as fuck and is super stiff.
It's not bad. It's better than having something broken that doesn't work at all! I think if you didn't compare it to the original, you wouldn't think it was bad at all. But to be honest, it's definitely not as good as the original. There's some "slop" in fitting, and how well the Dpad rotates and pivots. But definitely good enough to be considered usable and enjoyable!
Are you able to connect it to your account and still load current books? My concern is the discontinued support from Amazon for the older devices. I just tried charging my Kindle Keyboard for the first time in about 4 years and I would really love for it to work again if I can get my current reads on it.
I tried that too on my one console that I couldn't get past the grey screen. Unfortunately, no luck on that one. Now to buy a desoldering gun and go to town trying to socket and swap chips!
I have a NES console that had the Grey light of death too and literally nothing I did made it work, I had 5 different connectors, new and used, it would either just show a solid color or garbled content whatever you did with it, I could put the connectors into other consoles and they worked, put them back and they did not. I polish the edge connector on the PCB, re-cap the whole board, checked every trace, measure every voltage, checked everything and all checked out and still not worked. I was sure it was a faulty chip on the board somewhere as nothing worked. But in the end it was STILL that damned 72 pin connector it was not happy about, even if I tried several different ones, original or not, boiled, refurbed, cleaned, ultrasonic, cleaned, sanded, you name it. when I finally managed to make one connector it was happy with this console have worked ever since with it. I don´t know how and I don´t know why but it just seems extra sensitive for some reason, It went grey again one time but then I just took the cleaning cartridge to it and it was good again immediately. it is by far the pickiest console I own but I made it my stereo sound mod console and I call it the franken-console- with my own console in mind I think you could try to test some more with the connector too in case you have the same problem as me
Interesting to hear! I will definitely have to investigate trying that spare connector I have left, and see if that makes a difference. And if it doesn't, maybe it's worth picking up another one for cheap just to try it out. Worst case, I'll have a spare connector to use down the line. Thanks for the recommendation!
Hello i just want to ask while i was repairing my old 3ds xl my black cable in the speaker got out , is it ok if i still repaired it and didn't fix it or will it damage my 3ds xl? (since i am not an expert in soldering ) and i already have other 3ds xl that i regularly use but i just dont want to waste this 3ds xl
If you were repairing your speaker and one or both of the speaker wires came out, you'll want to solder them back in. It's not a huge deal if you don't, as it just means you won't have sound on that side. Whether or not that bugs you is your decision. However, soldering them back on is SUPER easy. As long as you have a soldering iron, you don't need to be an expert to solder it back on. Heck, you don't even really need to mess with flux or anything if you don't want to. Just put some solder on the iron after it heats up, touch it to the pad, and use some tweezers to hold the wire in place. Remove the iron, let the solder harden, and you're good to go! Good luck!
