DS Lite Not Turning On/Charging - Not Common Issues

Update: Issue was a stone dead battery! Read thread for roller coaster.

New day, new thing to fix.

Picked up a DS Lite and this thing is MINT. Seller said it was only used for a few hours (I'd guess less) and then was put away for years. There is absolutely zero signs of usage on this thing.

Problem: DS Lite won't turn on, and when you plug the charger in the orange light goes on then off.

Already went through the common issues with this sort of problem using this website: "How to fix many DS Lite Problems"

I've already changed the F2 fuse, and probed around the other areas with a test light.

1. The charger has the correct voltage coming out of it. 5.2v
2. The F1 fuse has power on both sides.
3. The lower half of the "Charge Transform", as the site calls it, has power. I used a test wire to jump the top two and that didn't change anything.
4. Neither of the screens flicker or show white or anything when plugged in, as that is apparently another symptom.
5. There are no signs of cartridge slot pin damage. As I said, this thing is pretty much brand new.

What I am seeing is that the F1 fuse and "Charge Transform" have constant power. But the F2 fuse does not, except when I plug in the charger and the orange charge light goes on and off, I have power at both sides of the F2 fuse that also reflects that. To write it another way, when I have the test light on either end of the F2 fuse, I get a brief second of power there when the charger is first plugged in.

Any ideas? Perhaps there are more obscure solutions. Unfortunately, whenever I search the net for "NOT F1 or F2 fuse" stuff, all I get is information on how to fix the F1/F2 fuses.

 

Made some sort of progress I guess. The more I mess with this stuff, the more I realize I don't really understand electronics at all haha.

I got it to turn on and stay running. This is my discovery.

This thing here at position R31 on the board, assuming it's a Resistor as I think that's what the "R" signifies. Using a test light, touching the right side of "R634" while the DS Battery is not connected, I get a very small amount of constant power all the time. When I touch the left side of "R634" (marked in the blue square) I get a very very tiny pulsing effect from the test light.

If I hold the test light on the right side of "R634" when the DS Battery IS connected, I get nothing.

If I hold the test light on the right side of "R634" when the DS Battery is NOT connected, I can hit the power switch and the system will turn on. If I remove the test light immediately, it shuts off. If I continue to hold the test light there for about 5 seconds, and then remove the test light, the system remains on.

Using the multimeter on "R634" checking at 200 ohms scale, I get a reading of 1.2 but that was with it on the board. Not sure if that will make a difference for a resistor.

Edit: So with some research, learning about this resistor code system, supposedly this thing should have 0.634 ohms resistance. That seems to be a tricky rating to find? Removed it from the board and it still tested 1.2 ohms. I guess it's bad? Ugh but I can't find any damn info on the specs. I also found some french forum and the guy said he tested his (working I guess) for reference and it was 0.8 ohms.

So what exactly am I doing here? Is that resistor definitely bad or is there something else going on here? Trying to find specs on this thing.

 

It may be loose considering the system works when you touch it (putting pressure on the solder joint to make the connection). Have you tried resoldering it?

 

*Sigh*

I guess it's time to fess up.

Turned out to be a dead dead battery. *braces for slap*

Another "broken" DS Lite I bought arrived today (seller said it didn't read games, turns out it does. I think they didn't realize old DS and DS Lite can't "Hot Swap" the game. You need to power it on with the game in it.) which works perfectly fine so I had something to compare this green one too. After testing that resistor with my multimeter and it still read 1.2 I thought "wtf?" and then had this omg I'm an idiot epiphany moment where I realized the base resistance reading (probes directly touching) on my piece of crap multimeter is 0.6 ohms. So take my crappy multimeter resistance + the 0.634 resistor (what it's supposed to be) = 1.2 ohm resistance I was getting on my multimeter screen.

So mad at myself for not realizing that. I then took the battery from the working DS Lite and tried it in this one and it charges and works fine. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH

I just figured this out a couple hours ago so yea.

Turns out a bad battery will cause the on/off orange charge light issue, which I'm not sure I saw anyone mention in all my Google searching. Everything just points to those F1/F2 fuses.

I need a better multimeter.

Edit: I also like thread title still. "Not Common Issues".. Or actually the most obvious issue haha... ah man I feel dumb but hey, after days of messing around with the multimeter, I've learned some stuff.

 

Not surprising, used once and put away for years, the battery probably flat lined, There is a protection circuit in all lithium ion batteries that constantly drains power, these circuits permanently disable the battery if they fall too low. Putting away a battery at 100% is even worse, that can cause the battery to swell like a balloon.