Trying to FIX: NINTENDO SWITCH with NO DISPLAY on LCD or TV 

Been waiting for another Switch video! Wish I could tell you what the problem was but just can't tell from the video. Nice work on replacing that screen ribbon cable!

A few thoughts for you Vince. Something caused the burn mark on the LCD connector. My guess is a small piece of dirt that was conductive enough to short pins together. If one of the pins that got shorted was a power line and the other was a data line, then high voltage would have been sent to the chip that outputs the data to the LCD. Probe the connector on working switch, note the voltages on each pin, and compare to the switch that had the burnt connector. If you find one that is missing trace it back to the chip. One more thought, there would be enable signals to the chips to sent data to the LCD as well. If the enable isn't present the data won't be sent to the LCD either. But the backlight is working, so if the data and backlight work on the same enable signal then that is not your problem. Unless there is a schematic available (I assume there isn't) it could be difficult to find the enable signals. Note, I have never worked on a nintendo switch before. This is only based on general knowledge of electronics. Cheers

I'd say the simplest solution is usually the most obvious... Follow the first 4 or 5 pins where there was scorching of the display connector (typically VCC) and follow the traces, i bet the scorching on the connector was prolonged secondary damage and the real culprit is further down the line, smells like a burnt open to me - either a resitor or trace, compare with a donor and find supply source, the open will likely be as a result of a soft short. Great vid Vince!

Just today I repaired my first nintendo switch and thats all thanks to you! Ive watched many of your videos, but the videos covering phones or game consoles (especially nintendo switch) are imo the most interesting, because they are high risk high reward items. So my interest in trying to fix something myself increased after each of your videos.. eventually I made the first move and bought a broken switch. As a guideline I litterally watched all of your switch fixing videos (like 6-8) in the last few days over and over again x,). And finally it helped me find the culprit, thank you so much

Lovely to see Nintendo Switch fix videos back. Great job as ever on the video Vince.

I love to watch these, so interesting and informative. Pls do more of this. ~ big fan

Another great video Vince mate keep up the good work you're over half way to that 1 million subscribers

remove the LCD connector and check the continuity between the connector and the filters and try to check the voltage on the connector pins and compart it with those of a working one good luck vince i learned a lot from you

Yay a new Vince upload also Would love to see more psp fixes.

Nice to see you working at a desk so you can focus more clearly on working and be comfortable : )

I wish you revisit this soon and finally find a solution! very good job on fix usb c port and get video from dock, so now you know the videochip is working at least on tv set...

Love these vids so much.

I love your vids Vince can't wait for switch vids

for some reason i much enjoy watching People fix Stuff. Its one of those Oddly Satisfying things

First off, I love your videos. I have an idea I have brought up to multiple RU-vidrs that make these types of videos and they all say it's a good idea but none have done it yet. Make a video about how to change the front half of the Switch's shell. Like the half that integrates the exhaust slot and power buttons. I have a day-one Switch that has ONLY been used docked and still works great but the plastic shell is basically crumbling to pieces. Just FYI as far as I can tell there still isn't a single video showing how to do this and it is a widespread problem. Thanks for reading this if you actually do ;)

Hm, quite a confusing problem. I would love to have a guess, but you've been very thorough and I've never worked on a switch sadly. I hope someone in the comments has an idea of what it could be, I would love a revisit.

hello Vince I've had this problem before I don't know if anyone has mentioned it over the 200 comments. but with my experience. with the LCD connector if the LCD connector is not displaying picture. I would check the diode near the LCD connector And in my personal experience. with replacing the LCD connector is that you do not want to apply any heat to the LCD connector directly or use a soldering iron. What I do for Perfect results every time it's remove the connector. And then I would prepare the pads and tin with a nice amount of solder then apply the new Flux And place the connector on top of the tinned pads then I would apply heat from the other side of the PCB and now the heat to slowly radiate through and Melting the solder and the socket to flow and pull itself perfectly into place. If you have any more questions drop me a message. best regards Ash

Those zoom shots really crisp. 👍

Time for bed? Time for Vince! Damn you :P

I know little, you know far more. The burned end of the LCD connector suggests to me that something happened. While you may have replaced the connector, I have to wonder what caused it and is that also still the problem?

Did you double check there is continuity for all the tracks on the ribbon cable for the LCD? Maybe somehow the ribbon cable became faulty and its just really hard to see.

The fact that the original LCD connector from the beginning of the video was obviously burnt on the very end of one side makes me think there was an issue with power. If you had a working Switch, maybe you could check the pins on that side of the connector while the screen is on to see what readings you get, and compare them to the broken Switch.

The Error noise at 12:46 May be an error about the switch overheating, because You have not put in the heatpipe And therefor the main Chip is overheating

You have the same helping hands that my husband has 🙂 he let me use his when I was soldering my LED chritmas tree kit.

I love your videos VINCE! I was wondering.... Do you think you could do a video on how to fix a faulty Nintendo Switch??? 😀👍👍 I JOKE.. We luv ya man! You truly have the best vids! So peaceful and I learn so much! P.s. My girlfriend thinks you should model your hands in commercials!🎮🎮🎮🎮😀😀

This video saved my switch. Thank you so much!!

Having watched you work on this board before and knowing what a frustrating pain its been... every burned spot on it makes me giggle. LOL Teach it a lesson, Vince! :D

Is there a fuse or something on that board between the LCD connector and the main chip? and it is preventing the signal from getting through?

Perfect, something to watch whilst I am doing the boring task of replacing DS Lite top screens :-p

Just a suggestion for the next time you try something like reattaching the charging port after lifting the solder pads. After attaching the wires to the missing pads, try using a toothpick and applying some solder mask to the sides of the wire and curing it. That way you provide a solid connection to the circuit board which wont slip with heat from the soldering iron or hot air. If you over apply the soldier mask and cover the wire, you can always scrape back until you get back to the wire without cutting it off. You may even be able to shave back half of the thickness of the wire to flatten it out a bit so it doesn't stick up so much for surface mounts. You just have to be careful around the good pads.

I love watching your vids m8

Well I just watched this video because I had the same problem. Didnt really help me but I might be able to help you. I changed the usb-c conector on a switch that wouldn't dock, and the LCD just wouldnt work after. I have been micro soldering for a few years so Im quite confident I didnt mess up anything, so I thought maybe the LCD conector was fragile, so I changed that FPC: nothing changed, like in your case. So I started checking filters and everything surrounding the places I touched, and everything was OK. Tested with new LCD, same issue, booted, touch worked, but no image. After checking everything, and everything checking out OK, I ultrasonicd the board with no luck. So I tought "well, its all or nothing now" and fluxed the C/GPU, reflowed that bastard, ultrasonicd again and closed the switch. With very little confidence I pressed the button and guess what, it worked. All that trouble for some dirt/cold solder under CPU

I’m not sure but if it stopped working after you made changes to the usb c part could that have a dual function between handheld screen and dock? Maybe the problem lies there? Hope this helps and keep up the good work 👍🏻

I had a similar issue on one of the Switches I fixed. It was the video chip that was the culprit. Maybe the chip from your donor board was bad. You might want to replace it and see if it changes anything.

great video as always

To avoid damaging connectors and stuff you can buy a pre-heater and heat up the board until you reach 150ºC on top, this way you can easily desolder stuff without damaging it. For that tiny capacitor you could have used solder paste and hot air, it would be easier. Great video Vince :)

Have you diode mode the display connector? I have a switch I am about to replace the connector on if you want any readings? Would love to find a reliable schem/boardview for the switch.

Vince you fr need a gaming channel cuz I swear I'd watch that crap everyday of my LIFE and congratulations on what you've done with yourself it seems like you're pretty wealthy

Hi vince, have been a subscriber since your telephone tutorial days! I have a expensive smart car charger which recently went bang! I'd love you to take a look at it, else it's heading for the bin! I'd more than happily pay for your time and whatever parts are needed! It wasn't far off £100 when I brought it and its about 3 months out of warranty!many thanks. Chris

Hmm interesting one. Chip that generates video should be fine if video works normally in dock mode. Really weird, that type of burn is not from 5V or 3.3V for sure - it's clearly from backlight line. I think that something ( maybe that little dirt inside connector? ) made short between backlight voltage and some data pin thats why backlight and dock mode works and data signal doesn't. Try to trace that tracks where the burn was - you will then catch faulty component. As always lovely video.

did you ever try a known working video ship or did you only try the one from the water damage water bouard?

Hay vince got a question I have not seen any one do this what would happen if you put a video chip from a switch to the switch lit would you be able to dock or is their still something blocking it when trying

Love your vids

Vince you should replace the connector again but use hot air. Slow settings Or you could build an Nintendo switch home console has you can have it docked. It would be a permanent switch docked. I would love to see that 😊

If I remeber this correctly, the LCD display and the back light works seperately. The ribbon cable for the back light which only have two lines in the ribbon cable( I think one is power, one is ground according to the thickness of the line) is the one beside the LCD display's one. Docking backlight off, undocking on means the console could recognize its state. From now on, just my guess, since I don't have a switch, but I reckon all LCD screen works similar. I am not 100% sure the connector works, because the touching function and display works seperately. You could check the pins to find it out. The signal for the screen will be either 1 or 0 since it is digital, which means you will get 3.3V(not sure whether it is 3.3V, but definately a voltage much bigger than 0) or 0. Talking about the pins on one LCD screen, there will be at least one power pin, usually several pins. The touching function and the display function work seperately, this will explain why one is working, another won't. There will be 16 pins for data transmission. There will be a write-enable pin for the LCD to get data from the chip, which I think this is where the problem lies. If you could find the schematic for the LCD( maybe find the manufacture, find the product model, or any way you could), this the function of the pins will be known. And you could find out which one is write-enable and whether we need to give this pin a 1 or a 0 to enable writing.

Mr Vince, I eagerly await the promised attempt at the partial power / blackout ps3 mentioned in the first nec/token video it's a relatively common fault, and virtually zero diagnosis exists online, aside from the thousands of amateur RU-vid videos of kids going "look what my ps3 is doing" any progress on that is sure to further your rockstar status :) (unrelated to video or above comment) tantalum cap placement tip: stick them to a long strip of kapton and stick it to the board. solder positives, peel tape, solder negatives. must be stuck to kapton prior to any flux contact, or won't hold properly. saves TONS of time with tweezers / placement / flux, and when done it has a OEM appearance to it :) no intention to walk over this video ;( I do most of my RU-vid watching on smart tv (which doesn't support commenting)

@My Mate VINCE , Get and old iphone speaker take it a part use the copper wire for jumpers and use UV solder mask to keep the jumpers in place under the the usb c port. Very nice soldering job

Excellent job, I have a d’ange joycon with broken ribbon connector sockets, can you tell where I can get replacement sockets

Just has this exact same issue. However In the dark I could see the screen turn on, just the back light working and could also hear sounds when tapped. It was the LCD connector. They are EXTREAMLY sensitive! Might be worth getting a new connector. Remove old one, clean all the pads. Tin them up. and with no flux place the new connector on and heat from the back of the board while pressing down on the connector.

what flux are you using? im just getting some tools and materials together and im no sure what to buy.

You should check the data lines to the LCD by setting your multimeter to diode mode and then place the positive probe on any of the grounds on the switch and the negative probe on each pin of the filters that you tested that are connected to the LCD. You should get around a diode drop (0.6V or so) showing the protection diode in the chip that it is connected to. If you get anything else I would think that is a suspicious reading.

I'd check those hdmi traces from the screen ribbon connector as far down the board as you can, maybe those lines are connected directly to the other hdmi filters near the USB port, I think the lcd screen connector will have a couple or more pins allocated for voltage as apose to signals, I saw a test point to test this voltage near the ribbon connector, you could cross reference what this voltage is supposed to be on a working board, if you are getting an image in docking mode, it can't be the apu, or video chip, it has to be either an open line on one of the signal lines or that voltage isn't there for the lcd (it's not the backlight voltage it's a seperate voltage which should be there on the lcd ribbon connector)

okay, i have the exact problem you had at the end of the video. works in TV only... did you find outhow to fix and is it an easy fix

Can I have some advice please. My Xbox one x has a strange problem. When I switch it off and leave it off for a few hours or more then switch it back on it won’t read any disc or eject the disc. However when I switch it off then back on again it works, I don’t get it. Would it be a software problem

Great stuff =D Ouch at the USB connector =/ I think I would next measure voltages on that video IC (compare between a working Switch and this one). Maybe a voltage is missing or low on that video IC. Having said that, is that video IC just related to HDMI, or does that feed the LCD?

Try fixing the Aiwa AD6800 on eBay, now the reward for fixing that is a beautiful tape deck that's appreciating in value. Throw the B&O in the bin. You will be blown away by that Aiwa and fixing it is a great video op

Why didn't you remove the nand module when you were heating thr board and when checking the filters and chip connection?

Relax about the flux. The flux you use is non-conductive and non-corrosive. You could not clean it off at all and the electronics would be fine (just sticky) as long as the contacts are clean.

My Switch has this same thing. It was missing for three months and it was found in the yard. Yeah i was really surprised it even turned on but it doesnt display on the screen or dock.

I might assume that the connectors were both faulty? I really do not know, but, both of the connectors might be faulty? If not, check the capacitors near the LCD connector?

Just wondering if you had a bit soldering iron bit you don't mind losing and cutting a slot in it to accommodate a a piece of copper strip that can heat up all pins and allow you to re-solder those awkward connectors, Jessa in Rochester NYC fixes NINTENDO Switches, Looks like someone is designing a FPGA version of the NINTENDO Switch.

Well, video cards or onboard gpus have "heads" for various output, for example a head for vga, a another on for hdmi, those are seperated. That means, when one "head" fails, output can still be gained from another connector. It just so seems that your "head" for the LVDS died. That does not mean that the hdmi via usb c is in danger, could very well be that a short on molten connector caused this.

vince see if the backlight connector is loose hold your finger down on the latch and then try and turn it on

What switches it back to the LCD when you undock it? perhaps that is faulty.

did you check the contrast or brightness

Hey, my daughter dropped her drink the switch lite only got a little bit wet and dried it off straight away. Now and again we got sound but no screen whatsoever. Any ideas

Hi Vince, I had one where the lcd was just broken. Maybe you can try a working display?

Is it stuck in doc mode? Why is it stuck in doc mode

Hey @My Mate VINCE check the coils of the lcd they can go bad check them contuinity i ve seen gone bad on iphones have nice day

I have a feeling I was bidding against you on eBay for this specific switch :D

Vine. Heat the connector from underneath the PCB. to remove it. Use Kapton tape. When solder back, don't go for all the pins directly but put it in place, and solder just one pin (the anchor pins) It's easy to adjust afterwords

Watching this again as I took the plunge a very cheap working Switch but doesn't dock and just wondering whether if its worth fixing it or just using it as a "lite" as is, if I can rebuild a twin mainspring Soviet watch movement I reckon I stand a good chance if its something little that prevents docking lol

new title earned : The mighty switch ressurector !

High voltage to the data line from a shorted out connector cable will blow the output signal lines on the APU. unfortunately probably isn't fixable, at least it still works in docked, which actually surprised me. damage to the APU is usually Fatal

You have the patience of a saint..I would've thrown that damn thing against the wall😫

Hello VINCE, did you solve the problem with the switch that does not work with the docking station? That only Show 480P? Was it the video chip? Thank you for your PERFECT work

Wonder if this fix gonna be easy or an hour long special on it's way 🤔

Does anyone know why the large coil to the right of the display connector is on ground as the top coil pad is grounded but the bottom coil pad coming from the little iC Chip isn’t ???? As there are no surface traces running to the top coil pad I’m guessing that it is internal to the board going somewhere 😐 I have also removed the P13USB Pericom iC Chip and the Short is still at the top coil pad 😐 Any help would be very much appreciated.

can you take off the white clamp bit off the connector then put it back on that way you could use hot air and it wont melt the white thing??? might be easier

Hello, I have the exact same problem on one of the repair I did actually and it’s happen when I just try to put the motherboard in one other switch to see if the screen is working … I think the screen didn’t work and I put it back in his actual case and no more working on the switch just the TV… I changed 6 time the Lcd connector (yes that’s true) and nothing… so please tell me that you found the solution and please let us KNOW…. Thank you

Maybe a problem around the hdmi connector/output curcuitit may think Its docked hence no screen but can't output to dock.

What about lcd ribbon cable or the main chip

I had the same issue. Mine was definitely the LCD flex ribbon ziff connector. I swapped it out and it didn't work at first then I used a toothbrush and a lot of alcohol to clean the connector of flux. It worked.

Have you tried changing the filters 🤔

Oho, this will be fun.

It could be a broken trace between the display connector and the GPU.

Ficou muito bom

All elements on other side right behind LCD connector responsible for LCD output, check with working switch mb you will find something burned or shorted. Also that melted Connector probably tells us that capacitor near LCD connector is heating up.

When the switch "SWITCH" is docked the display is redirected, could it be that the HDMI portion of the circuit is hindering this signal to change from HDMI to the LCD? If I remember the switch takes a few seconds before the HDMI or TV displays anything, so if your switch when docked is instant it may just be the case, mind you I have no idea what method is used to switch A/V to either the HDMI or when undocked to the LCD Screen, but that's what I would suspect.. APU I dropped a Like..

@MyMateVince I notice that when you test for shorts, you place the hot lead on a metal component and use the black one on the individual traces. I'm trying my hand at fault finding and I'd like to know how you get the multimeter to beep so to indicate where a device is failing.

I know it has been more than 1year, but I have Switch with same problem, and people told me that the culprit can be the small chip next to the connector (8316) or the caps/res next to it (more likely them then chip)... I am still to test it out with a working Switch, but I trust the source...

Do you think I can take my switch to a repair store if I have this problem?

take care. the lcd has gate and source lines. the gate to triggering the crystal to turn, the source to supply the power needed for it. basically like millions of transistors. the filters are only for the signal to control the crystal rotation of the gate line, not the main power to actually turn the crystal via the source line. since the video signal works as seen when it is docked i guess that the dc dc converter for the source line might be busted. usually it is close to the actual lcd driver ics but nintendo could have it on the main pcb. the burn mark on the connector could have come from a bad voltage given from the dc/dc converter. sorry but i have no idea about a switch's layout, only lcd knowledge. check the max77621 dc-dc converter. only one i could find with google which seems to be on the switch pcb at least once. since the defect did not move with the lcd, it has to be on the pcb.

Waiting for the revisit video :-)

Vince can you help me my switch displays and charges on the dock and everything but it won’t appear on a tv I think a display chip thing is broken but the screen shows when in handheld mode

Try to match the itens around the pin that burn. I saw in others video there is filter by that side that have the burn. Just a tip ehhe

worst case scenario is, a path between layers blew up or shorted. That would be pretty much unfixable IMO. "If you can't see the problem, then, maybe... you just can't see it". The official schematics would definitely dissolve any doubt - as if it was a viable option, lol. Videos like this remember me NOT to purchase any faulty last-gen console in hope of fixing it.

LCD display maybe bad Try nicking another one and see if that’s the culprit? I had a similar issue but on the vita several years ago and that turned out to be it. That too was water damaged.

My switch started doing what happening at the end of the video where it works in dock mode but not handle . you get a little light and sound but no picture on the screen . so i can only play my games docked. wish someone could find out whats wrong so i can fix this issue too.

Psst See if you can buy some Circuit stick on tracks, and do some practice runs on any old trash board, once confident enough, try and remove and repair the mother boards HDMI area, hopefully all the problems is just that..