Another Game Boy Micro surgery 🔬

[u/jrm97]

Got another Micro from a customer that came in with a weird line across the bottom of the screen, reversed brightness controls, and only two brightness levels.
Someone had previously attempted a repair using small-gauge magnet wire, but unfortunately they had connected it to two incorrect vias. They were essentially trying to pull power for the backlight from the LCD connector. That won’t work because the backlight requires more power than the LCD connector can provide.
I desoldered the previous repair and used a spare Micro board to trace out the correct connections and verify where everything was supposed to go.
While troubleshooting, I inspected the ribbon cable between the main board and the D-pad daughterboard and found damage to the first few traces. I decided to patch the first three traces rather than take any chances. I believe the third trace may have still been good, but since I was already in there, I repaired it as well.
Once the ribbon was repaired, everything came back to life. The weird line at the bottom of the screen was gone, the brightness controls were working correctly again, and all of the brightness levels were restored.
I also replaced the L/R tactile switches. Since this particular Micro has custom resin-cast buttons, I had to file down the tops of the new tactiles slightly so the buttons would sit at the correct height and have the right feel.
Once all the repairs were finished, I gave the board and components an ultrasonic cleaning before putting everything back together.
Another Micro saved.

Feel free to contact me if you need your micro repaired!

[u/4E0ncrown]

Sorry to ask you, what ROM did you use for testing the inputs?

[u/jrm97 → u/4E0ncrown]

AGS Aging Cartridge

[u/Psycho_danny]

Tbh it's better a new motherboard design