GBA SP Repair seemingly gone horribly wrong. Need help.

So, I was repairing and re-shelling a busted up GBA SP that worked totally fine before I disassembled it.

After that I ran into 0 issues transferring parts in and out of the new shell and I got it all screwed together and I go to test it. And half the face buttons aren't working. And the L trigger wouldn't work without pressing hard.


I have no idea what went wrong. I opened it up and tried again several times without avail. So I left it un assembled over night and tried again this morning. I thought the contact pad for the L trigger might have been misplaced or something so I fiddled with it(Because it wouldn't work even without the back of the shell on just by pressing on the contacts) and now it works perfect.


But now the D-pad and A/B buttons aren't working properly. The latter not at all.


To clean the buttons last night I Soaked them in 99% Isopropyl Alcohol for about 20-30 minutes and I cleaned the motherboard contacts with a Q-tip/Cotton-swab and the Alcohol.


Now i'm thinking somehow the Alcohol damaged something but I don't know how. The buttons are just the buttons in the shell with rubber pads behind them to hit and depress the contacts on the motherboard. When the 3 motherboard screws are in, the buttons don't seem to click like their are supposed to.


I'm at a loss. I've repaired GBASPs in the past without issue with the buttons. I"m at a loss.:concern:

 

EDIT: just read again, my bad.

There might be some fluid still inside the buttons, try throwing the mobo in a bag of rice for about 24-48 hours.

 

That's a good idea I'll give that a try thanks!

Edit: I put it in a plastic food container. I assume that will work fine too? Should I put a lid on it and leave it sealed or leave it open?

 

sealed

 

Sealed it is.

 

Container will do fine. I would suggest sealing it, either with the lid or some plastic wrap.

 

If you dont seal it, its pretty pointless. The rice takes the moisture out of the air. If you leave it unsealed - there is a room to take moisture from before the thing you are attempting to dry out.

 

So I also ordered a can of Compressed Air to help clean the contacts (And to clean my PC) but Amazon sends me this bullshit email

Yet It still shows the item as purchasable even though it was out of stock when I ordered(Saying they should ship when available) and still is.

 

Its nothing to do with a stock issue, its about not being able to ship it (probably via air) because its compressed gas (explosion risk probably).

 

Ugh. What do I have to pay extra for UPS ground or someshit?

I guess I can just order from another seller and pay a little more.

So much for free super saver shipping haha.

 

So I got my air in. I left both the buttons and motherboard in a sealed container of rice completely covered for 2 days.

cleaned the contacts on the board with the air many times. And it still wouldn't work.

So I thought, try it without the buttons. Try manually depressing the motherboard button contacts. Low and behold still doesn't work. So i'm thinking I either must have shorted out part of the motherboard with static somehow. Or it's the ribbon cable. Which goes into the socket fine. But one side is out just a tiny tiny bit. Hard to get in there without moving part of the cable itself.

But I don't think that could be it, because the Ribbon cable just carries the video to the screen right?


Now i'm thinking i'm screwed...until I can find a broken AGS-101 that has a working Mobo to replace it. Or Sell off the Individual parts for a loss. Can probably get 20$ for the screen

Well shit.

 

The rubber pads have a conductive carbon material on them - possibly the contacts on the PCB, too. Sounds like you've used the wrong thing to clean them and altered the conductivity.

What happens if you short the pads?

You can get a rubber keypad repair kit from decent electronics suppliers, but it's expensive. So definitely test by shorting first!

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/20-3890

 

Glad I read this before taking apart my GBA SP and cleaning it. Now I'm scared haha

 

SP doesn't use rubber conductive pads... right? It has the little metal dome switches.

 

I used 99% isopropyl Alcohol. Which should be safe for electonics. I've bathed entire PCBs in tubs of this stuff in the past and i've never had a single issue arise from using it on any electronics D:

Here's a picture of a GBA AGS-001 mobo (I've run into AGS-101 Mobos with brass colored buttons/contacts. And white'ish metallic ones. None with grey ones like this)



I don't think it uses conductive pads, because normally on a working GBA SP you can trigger the button just by manually pressing on the pad/switch manually on the motherboard by hand. Works that way without issue. I did this on another SP I repaired the other day to double check and it worked fine.

 

I've had the same problem, I apply some 70% isopropyl alcohol on a q-tip to the contact and when I close it up it seemingly works fine until about an hour later or so and then the buttons take quite a bit of oomph to get pushed down enough to get working. Oddly enough its only on the D-Pad though, I'm gonna end up ordering some isopropanol contact cleaner and see if that doesn't change anything.

 

Ah yeah, it's microswitches, then. Test the continuity of the switches. They have a finite life, so it's quite possible they'll need replacing.

Cotton buds aren't always the best things to use, as you can get bits of cotton stuck in places! Quite unlikely you'd get cotton in a microswitch, though - let alone several!

 

Yeah when it snagged the first time I tried not to hit the area where it got snagged and kinda tapped it with the swab, but thanks for the help mate.

 

I just bought an AGS-101 and the right trigger doesn't really work. I took it apart to make sure it wasn't the mechanical trigger, but when I pressed the little metal dome switch, it did the same thing: It wouldn't register a press unless I pressed HARD.

Is there anything I can try? De-solder and re-solder? Buy a new switch? I'd really appreciate any suggestions.