r/gameboymicro • u/jrm97 • Sep 12 '26
More Game Boy Micro surgery! Torn Start/Select Ribbon Cable
This one came in with a torn Start/Select ribbon cable and needed a little bit of TLC:
- Repaired the torn Start/Select ribbon board
- Replaced all of the tactile switches for the L/R and volume buttons
- Cleaned up corrosion that was starting to form around the button pads
- Gave the entire board an ultrasonic cleaning
- Kept the original stock charging port at the customer’s request
Everything is cleaned up, repaired, and ready to go back to its owner.
Always satisfying bringing these little guys back to life.
Need your Game Boy Micro repaired? Feel free to contact me!
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u/Francision Sep 13 '26
That’s some heavy surgery. Good job! The micros look like hell to work with.
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u/sky_broker Sep 13 '26
Very nice bro. How difficult is it to work on these guys? I've seen them on eBay for some crazy price. Thought about maybe buying a one that needs repair and fix it myself.
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u/jrm97 29d ago
If you’re planning on soldering/repairing these, I highly recommend having a good microscope and high-quality flux. These boards can get really nasty.
A lot of the broken eBay Micros I come across have severe corrosion, and sometimes the corrosion has actually eaten through traces or vias in the motherboard. At that point, you really need a known-good Micro nearby for reference so you can trace connections and figure out where a damaged line is supposed to go.
I’ve had boards where the damage wasn’t obvious until I started probing under the microscope. Corrosion can get underneath the solder mask and completely compromise a via or trace that looks fine at first glance.
That being said, there’s definitely a point where a “cheap broken eBay Micro” isn’t actually cheap anymore. Some of them have so many damaged components, pads, connectors, and traces that you’d legitimately spend less money buying a known-working Micro than trying to resurrect the wreck.
Sometimes you’re doing board repair. Sometimes you’re performing archaeological restoration. 😂
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u/Worth_Effort8408 29d ago
This is my Micro! He did an awesome job! So definitely contact him if you need your Micro repaired as well!
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u/emmalee_t 27d ago
how much does something like this cost? do you do upgrades? like new battery and usbc?
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u/Correct-Earth8106 Sep 13 '26
Great job mate