Game Boy Advance Repair 

Awesome video man!

Great advice. I have a GBA that needed a new power switch, battery terminals and the volume switch and earphone jacks were filthy. I’d put a lot of time into cleaning it all with isopropyl and only limited sound through the earphones. Vinegar and an electric toothbrush worked amazingly well. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for the video - it helped me repair an old and very busted GBA. It wasn't turning on, so I gave it a good cleaning with IPA and voila, it worked. Now that I know it works, I'm going to modify the screen with a backlit IPS display, give it a new shell, some new buttons, and give this little guy a new lease on life.

IT WORKS! MY GAMEBOY ADVANCED WORKS NOW! THANK YOU! I ALSO LIKED YOUR VIDEO!

Never knew about the white vinegar trick! Definitely going to use this tip today! Great video man!

seems less like a repair and more like a deep cleaning to me, I just need to know how to reattach the oscillator to the left of the CPU.

Thank you. Mine did not go on but had a lot of gunk on the battery connection. After cleaning with vinegar the power light went on and the sound worked but screen did not. Then i cleaned the whole board with vinegar and waited for it to dry. And it works perfectly now.

Finally a person who know what to do! Thanks so much!

Thank u so much I have that same exact Gameboy has all the original stickers all the original parts but it didn't turn on I looked at the battery compartment in boom so much corison

Excellent video 🎉

The cross head screws on the GBP *aren't* phillips head. They're JIS (Japanese Industrial Strandards) screws. You should use an appropriate JIS screwdriver since the standard does have differences and using a phillips makes it easier to strip the head.

Nice video!

The shell is in a great shape because it's an aftermarket one, you can tell by the sticker on the back, and the fact it doesnt have a barcode

Good video, thank you!

Very useful

Really, awesome video and the most interessant part are the narrative with all the problems you overcame. Sorry but didn't really understand the tip someone gave you about vinegar. Can you please explain? I am not a native speaker. Thank you very much for your work!

I definitely need a Gameboy Advanced

Cool video dude thanks

New sub! Great video!

I'm thinking of giving my GBA a bit of a restoration as it's good condition and works, but bit grimey. Weirdly enough, my original Gameboy looks pristine in comparison despite been used intensively by my even younger self. Guess a carry case makes all the difference.

Totally late to this, but after having an easy time with SP's the original GBA's board is a frickin nightmare in comparison! That said, is it worth putting some icyprope in a spray bottle? The last bottle I got is a giant one from Amazon, which I have to pour into a glass to use a cotton bud with...it's fine, but having your room smell like a brewery on a Monday isn't so hot.

I accidentally dropped mine yesterday morning... screen was a mess (glitched graphics, blank/black screen, etc) and I thought it died. Cleaned the screen flux that goes to the board a little bit and... it worked ! playing Emerald right now :-)

I have a GBA with a non-working screen that had major corrosion so I guess I'll be buying myself some vinegar tomorrow!

I cleaned out a old gameboy , previous owner said only the screen was burned so got it good price , I cleaned it with alcohol n installed a new lcd screen and got it all set up in the end the start button doesn't work ..contact looks clean n shiny, any ideas what else I can try

I liked the video but I wanted to know how to increase/fix the brightness cause I find it to be dim in my opinion and having to put it in view of natural or torch light to see the screen but unless there's no way to turn up the brightness that without the screen mod then I guess I could just put up with what I have

I fcked up a SMD component while changing the screen :( The C35. Do i need to solder it back again? The GBA was functioning really well before I messed it up.

I have a gameboy advance that I had a lipo and I put the negative to the positive and the positive to the negative any way to fix it ?

Idk I have a GBA and it works fine but someone when I wiggle or move it a little to hard or to much it would turn off or restart and I tried the battery’s and it came back on just for sone reason I have to lift the bottom battery up a bit to touch the silver connector and it would turn on but I would have to do that every time it turns off and I cleaned the inside of it the front and back of the board with isopropyl alcohol and I tried to clean the battery connector’s with some isopropyl alcohol but I didn’t try vinegar

Where did you buy this from?

Thank you so much!, I toothbrushed and my problem gone haha

hi, Please suggest the below problem. My GBA [with ips screen] does not turn up with two 1.3v rechargeable AA batteries. But working fine with two 1.5v AA batteries. Please suggest I have to replace the capacitors. Previously it worked fine on 2.6v AA with ips screen

I just got a game boy advance and it’s functional but the start button won’t work so when it’s on and I try to press start it won’t work but it’s a hand me down so it’s expected but got any tips for it?

Thank you, got a spicy orange gba in the mail today with corrosion everywhere. I've tried to clean the board with 99% alcohol but didn't work, now I've seen I've forgotten that vinegar might do the trick. If that doesn't work I still have a nice original orange gba case for another Mobo ;)

Exact same problem with my old game boy, now I know how I might be able to fix it

Would you say it would be a bad idea to just put the whole thing in a container of vinegar

Hey dude, I'm looking to buy a non-working Gameboy Advance to diagnose and repair it to full working order as part of finding a new hobby in console and/or electronics repair. That being my venture, can you tell me what tools I would need for disassembly of an Advance and any other materials I may need, other than what you used in this video? Like, did you buy a toolkit when you first started, or did you buy your tools individually? I appreciate it!

Can you do this but with a nintendo switch

Mine powers on.. most the time, but nothing shows up on the screen.

I cleaned off my whole pcb, although it wasn’t very dirty there was still some funky stuff in there, my agb 001 still turns off randomly though, pretty much whenever I press down on the dpad too much or if the screw closest to the power switch is too tight it turns off. Any suggestions?

I couldnt really hear how did you fixed it, vinegar? any special vinegar? or i hear wrong

What % was the vinegar? Here in Germany I only know about 25% or less. What do you think will help? And did you say you put the whole board in vinegar? So Like "under water" ? Thx and nice and honest video!!

My gba only has two screws for the motherboard I got my gba broken from my cousin so I had to fix it.

I found out no matter what I can tail the screen because I got the game boy advance for my neighbor because he didn’t want it no more and I found out why because the screen is broken and when I looked up inside and I saw inside the screen I saw was all messed up and it look like something was sticky inside of it so thanks for the video still it’s cool

IPs displays don’t forget

I've been cleaning my GBA for 2 days and it keeps going back and forth between green light flickering once on opening/closing to green light staying lit up when turning on but with no screen. I don't know what to do, any of you guys have an idea ?

Cause I have one with the same problems

What about a dark screen?

:D

Who else is watching this in 2024?

What about the game boy micro?

Yeah so what do I use vinegar or alcohol 99% proof

Hey thanks for this video! I had the exact same symptoms (power light but no sound/boot) and my issue turned out to be the power switch. I was getting voltage after the switch and on the test points and everything, but when I ohmed out the switch it was showing 40-50ohms between pin 3 (connected to F1) and pin C. That apparently was enough of a limit on current to prevent the cpu from functioning. Deoxit didn't do it, but following this video to deep clean worked: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G946mQCkIQc.html I had to wick the solder off the pads on mine before I could pull the top off, and also re-bent the slide contact to help create a more reliable connection in addition to scrubbing out with alcohol.