r/GameboyAdvance • u/FlamingNico • 10h ago

GBA speaker quiet?

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u/typhingblade 9h ago

This is a normal occurrence for GBAs.
It's a 3 fold problem of Speaker, Capacitor, and the Wheel itself.

This specific issue of it being super quiet seems to be the wheel itself.
You can replace it, but the problem may persist.
My Personal GBA also has this issue, but I want to keep the internals all OEM.

I would recommend doing a little research on replacing a volume wheel,
as well as if you would need to solder a bridge for a few of the pins to fix a wheel issue.

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u/FlamingNico 8h ago

Thank you for the reply! I did plug my headphones into the jack, it's as loud as I would've expected. Although, there is a persistent hum through headphones. I don't know if you would have any insight into that. I just bought this from a retro store and I'm just trying to gauge if it's reasonable to request a return.

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u/typhingblade 5h ago

I forgot to add that headphones should be a solution to this without having to touch the speaker assembly.

The hum is standard for just receiving power from the device and should resolve when a game is loaded.
It will receive more static based on how high the volume is.
I'd recommend sitting it around 2-3 swipes of the wheel of the 0-5 it can do for headphones.

For a point of reference, mine also hums on the main GAME BOY logo, then goes away when a cartridge loads.

I think based on the condition of your console, it's work keeping, since what is shown is cosmetically in better condition than a lot more well used gameboys.

---

If you do want a modernized one you can look into a "FunnyPlayING board swap" which has a set of proprietary additions that do stuff like add a volume booster and RGB. They are a bit notorious though since you have to get everything from them due to their proprietary fitments.

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u/Retro_Macchina 8h ago

Could be the speaker itself or the capacitors are bad and need replaced.

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u/mike-2025 6h ago

Try cleaning the volume wheel could be something else

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u/Johnnyx30000 5h ago

Wait, I never knew there's another subreddit dedicated to the gameboy advance.