Topic: Original Game Boy suddenly "dead"

Well, couple weeks ago I played my original Game Boy and it was OK, only dpad needed to be pressed bit harder than expected. Today I opened the device in order to perform cleaning, there was dust under the display plastic etc.

However, after putting everything back together the console is now dead, no power, nothing. When disassembling I tried to remove the ribbon cable as carefully as possible. Should I be able to hear the "bing" noise from headphones without the screen attached?

Contact Nintendo.

"Buy a new system and download your favorite Game Boy games on 3DS Virtual Console."

I think that is what Nintendo will say.

Actually I'd think contacting Nintendo would be a valid thing to do. After all, they handled repairs on the NES for much longer after it's warranty.

It's worth a shot I think.

My guestimate: you broke the ribbon cable. After 20+ years, those cables - not the sturdiest material to begin with - tend to become quite inflexible and brittle so the slightest movement can damage them.

I strongly, strongly doubt that Nintendo will provide any assistance in the matter. The system has been out of the marketplace for a very long time now, and they would not, in any way, be obliged to provide customer assistance for such old hardware, particularly as they are no longer producing the original parts in order to perform repairs. You should either try to repair the system yourself, or seek a cheap used console (or an expensive new one, if you are that way inclined). Their support team would also not be trained to provide troubleshooting for hardware that the company is no longer selling/producing.

Maybe in the 1990s, the early 2000s would be pushing it, but certainly not 30 years after release! Heck, I wouldn't even expect Nintendo to repair the original Nintendo DS, let alone all of the systems that came before it.

Hi, thanks for the replies. I highly doubt Nintendo would do anything

However, it seems that there are problems with battery contacts or the batteries. I managed to get the system to work after some random tinkering and I noticed that it didn't matter if I touched the ribbon cable, also the picture had no problems so I assumed that ribbon was fine. However, after I took the batteries out and assembled the whole thing it wouldn't power on. I removed and replaced batteries couple times until I left the power switch to "ON" -position and moved batteries around in their "sockets" (sorry about my english) as much as they do move and suddenly the console booted and seemed to work fine. I played Mega Man 3 for couple levels until the console resetted itself all of sudden. It seems that once I get the console to recognize the batteries it will work unless I again remove them.

So at this point I'm suspecting battery contacts, they probably need cleaning. Good thing is that I was able to fix what I originally intended which was the dpad down not working good.

EDIT: The batteries I use might be problem since while 3 of them are from same batch, one is just a random battery I found somewhere, it has different max. capacity than the others.. They are all reachargeable. I don't know if Game Boy's generally like non-rechargeable better.