So how can a handheld I never use just stop working?

Sounds like one of the fuses, as stated above.

I used to repair these for profit (buy cheap on ebay, fix, resell)

 

Yes as I stated that mofo lit up for a second or two then stopped.

So blown fuses are the DS' RROD?

 

That is one way to look at it.

There are two fuses, F1 and F2. If either blow then the DS is a brick until they're replaced. I've tried to replace F1 for somebody before with it still not fixing the DS. It'd light up for a split second while charging and then turn off the charging light.

Never did get it working but I've seen videos of people getting them to turn on with clever trickery.

 

F1 is the charging fuse, this blowing gives the symptoms you describe - charging light flickers but then goes off.

F2 is fuse from battery to power the system. You could try putting a known charged battery into the system, as a blown F1 won't stop the system powering on, just won't charge.

Another fault I had a couple of times was a dry joint on another part right next to the charging socket. I can get you the part location and what it's labelled as later.

 

What he said.

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GoH, did you say bubble-wrap envelope? For shipping your DS? Theoretically I guess it would work fine, but that's still scary.

 

Cost me $70 to ship my DVD player to be repaired a few months ago. I'm not going through that again

 

$70? You could've bought a new DVD player for that much.

 

Not one that plays back video, Up scales and is region free.

 

...yes, you could've. Except maybe for the region free part, no clue about that. But who buys a DVD player in 2011 anyway?

 

Somebody who thinks blu ray isn't going to last and is waiting for the next format

 

Hm... I guess your sig is a lie then...

But in all seriousness, even if Blu-ray doesn't last, there're already of ton of movies on Blu-ray, and they look really good on a nice TV. It's practically like having the original film at home. The only thing that sucks is a lot of classics that haven't been released yet, but supposedly that's going to change soon.

Also, Blu-ray players have gotten a lot cheaper. You can get one for like $100.

 

You just made me realize I had signatures turned off. Such a nice feature.

Ofcourse Blu-ray will last. It costs alot of money to launch a new format. No one can afford to launch a new one right now and offer something better than Blu-ray.

 

I think he is probably talking about digital - streaming, downloads, etc.

I imagine thats how things will end up going eventually.

 

Actually I was talking about Holograph discs.

Besides are there even any region free Blu Ray players? Not that'd I'd be getting Blu rays from europe but it's nice to have that option.

 

I think there are probably some cheap Chinese region-free Blu-ray players out there.

Assuming you're not kidding, I don't think holograph discs would really be any better for video. The only difference would be higher resolution. Blu-rays are 1080p, and honestly unless you have a gigantic 100 foot projector, you won't really be able to perceive any difference between 1080p and even 4K. On my 32" LCD, at a distance of about 8 feet, it's very difficult to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p.

In other words, Blu-ray will probably be the last physical medium for videos. Until we have retinal implants, we really have no need for more than 1080p. The only other way to go is streaming. They actually already make 4K displays (they're like $25,000), but I don't really see that ever catching on. Ironically, most new Blu-ray players have Netflix instant streaming built in.

 

I wish people would stop saying things like this in absolute terms. Some of us DO see the difference, even on smaller screens.

 

Sure, if you're sitting right next to it. But if you're at movie watching distance, like 7-8 feet, probably not. I didn't mean to imply that what I was saying was an absolute fact. It just generally seems to be the case.

Also, where have you seen a small 4K display? As far as I'm aware, the smallest one they make is 36".

 

36" is small to me...

 

Physical media isn't going anywhere. half the world still doesn't have Boradband hell parts of the US south and midwest don't even have high speed access.

I was half kidding. TV capable of IMAX resolution are in the pipeline and a media that can carry video of that resolution will likely be needed. Since Boradband isn't availible and Comcast apprently giving people an unadvertised 256GB cap a month) I don't see physical media going away anytime in the next 10-20 years.