Troubleshooting a Pre-Modded GBA from eBay

A viewer sent me a pre-modded Game Boy Advance he had bought from eBay that didn't work. Can I figure out what's wrong with it?

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[TheMerauder]

Glad I sent it to you, good to know it wasn't something obvious I was missing there lol. And fwiw, the one I bought off of Etsy was MUCH better built then this one, I checked the wire routing, much cleaner, and it included the foam pad and proper screws (which I recall being missing, the board just popped out when I took the back off of it). My second one also appears to be using replacement pads, but they feel fine to me, only minor issue is rarely, the top of the screen will go grayscale and jutter a little bit, which I assume is related to poor connection.

[DK-]

It's always fun trying to play detective for half-assed mod work :D

[Saber_Nico]

I've started selling pre-modded gameboys that I made. I made sure that they work before I put them up for sale.

Not even testing your builds before putting them up for sale just makes the rest of us modders look bad.

So yes, ALWAYS TEST before doing anything else.

[silentfanatic]

Always appreciate seeing your expertise and enthusiasm in action, but you also have the chillest music in all of your videos.

[preiter]

I really enjoy your videos. Thank you for making them!

[chrishenrico]

Whipped out my old GB Color and GB Advanced SP from years ago when I was like 11/12 years old. Ended up deep cleaning my GB Color first then found one of your videos on the GB Advanced SP. Got me sucked right in and now i'm looking for replacement parts and all that! Really enjoy your content. got my sub.. hi from South Africa by the way :)

[SatoshiMatrix]

On the one hand, shotty mod work. On the other hand, the modder both gave Greg a refund AND let him keep the unit. If you really think about it, it's Greg who gained in this exchange.

I've had experience with a certain notarious modder in the past who destroyed what I sent him to mod, didn't offer me a refund, and even had the gull to try and charge me to replace it so he could try again.

[MrTimotei]

I bought a pre-modded backlit GBA and wanted to replace the rubber membranes. When I opened it up, I was surprised to see two of the internal screws were stripped. I got desperate trying to remove them and used a pair of pliers to twist them out. It worked (though I accidentally knocked a capacitor loose and had to re-solder it on), and thankfully, the replacement rubber I got came with replacement screws, too.
After it was all put back together, all I could think was how did the person who assembled it manage to put in the backlight mod and close it up if they were using stripped screws?
Anyway, it was comforting to know that not everyone selling pre-modded systems is giving a perfect product. Thanks for being informative as always!

[sugaryhull]

I wonder how Voultar would have reacted to this. lol

[Oran]

Colin, I actually bought my heavily modded Gameboy from a guy on Etsy. The sad thing is that because of health issues, It is very hard to stop my hands from shaking. So really, I am basically unable to do any really tough stuff. I am hoping that in the future I will find a way to fix that problem, . So yeah, I am luckily I found a very great guy to build mine.

[sjm]

Yep, I agree looks like the molex press fit connector was possibly rough handled and the finished mod was never tested. I'd be tempted to bodge solder a tiny wire to bridge the missing pin or just run the wire permanently to the lcd flex but that'd be a pita tbh.

[xureality]

The second hand community here has solved this problem pretty well: take videos of the thing in question, show serial number if it has one, on and playing or if it's in a state of disrepair, show exactly what's wrong with it. If there's no video, it's untested.

[Deanster]

As someone who mods these consoles I cannot believe he didn’t test it. I always play my units for a week before putting them up for sale.

[juanbermudez]

You right, there’s only two things that could happen!
One is that the seller didn’t even tested it after completed installation, that to be honest that make no sense, to me Bering a mod freak I love to see my work done and test consoles after I’m done!
And the other thing is that the seller knew that the console was broken and was hoping to pull a fast and sell his broken gameboy!
PLEASE PEOPLE TAKE PRIDE ON YOUR WORK SPECIALLY WHEN YOU DOING IT FOR SOME ONE ELSE

[SoulSilverIV]

It would be interesting to see the schematics for that ribbon mod and find out exactly what that missing pin is meant to supply, and therefore see if that would tie in with the symptoms you're seeing. Another great video btw!

[ML-gxrp]

Love a good TDNC upload, always really thorough and informative 😀

[Foxmosis_]

Okay so this is interesting! I mean regardless this is a cool video but recently I bought the kit you just recently did a video on, and it was having the same exact issue as this one is having! So I looked at the part you mentioned but it doesn't appeeeear to be missing any pins. I mean obviously that is the issue here but I don't know what's up with mine. However the people at Hand Held Legend are sending me a new ribbon cable so that's nice of them. This was just a neatly timed video with my personal life.

[Ruslan.]

That's my biggest pet peeve, people throw something together and don't test it. Even if it's not the installers fault there are bad parts out there.

[Ruslan.]

That's my biggest pet peeve, I always test after modifying or repairing.

[raisethe]

Great in depth analysis. Glad you found the root of the problem, but at the same time sucks for that buyer.