Game Boy/Color/Advance OT + Collecting Thread - Get into it!

Re: replacement lcd screens for DMG Game Boys

I recently scored a DMG for super cheap with the plan to add a bivert and backlight. I bought it sight-unseen and unfortunately it has a problem with horizontal lines that I haven’t been able to repair. The shell is in good shape, though, so now I’m thinking of replacing the screen with something totally different. Any recommendations?

I know Benn Venn has some options that would require some case modification which would be fine. Maybe using a GBP screen is another possibility? Considering how little I paid for this thing ($8), I’m willing to splurge a bit to make it functional, but I wouldn’t call myself an expert in GB modding so want to keep it reasonable and with a high likelihood of success. :slight_smile:

I did the bivert mod on my DMG Game Boy tonight and I had issues with horizontal lines after the mod. I think when I was peeling the film off the screen I stressed the ribon cable under the screen too much. I started pressing the edge of the ribon where it connects to the screen on the right side. The lines started appearing and disapearing like they did on the other ribon for the vertical lines. I have no idea how to fix it but I messed around with it for a few hours, pressing it together, applying very slight heat to it. I got it all out except one line! That line is gonna haunt me, maybe it’ll just go away haha.

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Well done! You’ve given me a bit more hope that I can fix the horizontal lines. (I gave up after about 20 mins of applying ~200C heat. Maybe I wasn’t doing it in the right place on the ribbon?) After a couple days of looking around, it seems the BennVenn 3" LCD is the really the only viable option, but I’ve not been very impressed with the motion blur and quality compared to the bivert/backlight mod.

Yeah, at first I was pressing on the ribbon under the screen but it wasnt affecting the lines at all. I found the right side of the ribbon where it connects to the plastic screen is when the lines all start jumping around when pressed. Good luck.

You may not be not enough. Typical soldering temperature is around the 350C range, and old solder can be particularly stubborn, requiring flux and fresh solder to really get flowing.

When I’m doing solder work, I typically have my iron set to 750F (400C), but then you have to be careful not to overheat components.

In typical situations you’re right, but this particular cable is very sensitive to heat and others have damaged it with something too hot. The most common advice has been to use a heat gun set at 190C, but I don’t have one and used my adjustable soldering iron as a substitute.

@DarkStar - just to make sure we’re talking about the same thing, you applied the heat on the top side where the cable connects to the screen (green arrow) and not to the underside where the cable meets the board? (red arrow) That bit of plastic covering the cable there threw me off and seemed to make any heat application more difficult.

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I used the heat under that plastic bar, right where the ribbon was. I cranked the heat to like 800F and just got close to the ribbon without touching it. Honestly I dunno if the heat really did anything but after it was warm and I pressed it with my fingers, and then layed the screen back down in the cavity, the lines would start to go away. I think I just got lucky, because as I pressed down on the screen lines would appear and disappear again. Its really frustrating.

I hadn’t used an original GBA since I got my SP and later, DS, so that’s about 15 years and counting. But I used a friend’s today and I was blown away by the quality of the display given the time. There’s far less ghosting than later GBA, DS and PSP models, and the image output is incredibly crisp. When playing Link’s Awakening and Wario Land 4 I failed to notice any ghosting at all.

The other thing I wanted to point out was that the AGB-001 actually received a screen revision before the SP released. I remember reading about it in NGC Magazine at the time (I even picked up a Black GBA to replace my glacier blue launch model), but couldn’t find anything online about it. I finally found some information about it in a GameFAQs hardware FAQ:

“Is there any difference apart from superficial ones between them?
A. Some of the newer GBAs (black and orange guaranteed, others sometimes) have superior Matsushita (Panasonic) screens as opposed to the older Sharp ones.”

Does anyone else know about the exact differences between the displays? Im surprised the newer displays in the GB Micro, AGS-101 and DS Lite had ghosting issues - is it perhaps linked to power consumption? Apparently if you use a cartridge which draws more power you get relatively more ghosting across non-backlit GBA units.

Hi all, I recently bought a Gameboy Advance SP. I never had one growing up, but a childhood friend of mine, she had an original Gameboy and so did my cousins, so I got to play some games through that route. I personally had a Game Gear, and I think it was fun in it’s own way, but it’s library really did pale(I thought so as a kid anyway) in terms of size to the Gameboy.

I don’t really have any questions at the moment, but I’m just here to say that the GB/GBC/GBA are simply incredible systems and I’m having fun playing all sorts of games on them. I picked up Final Fantasy Legend 1-3, Mario Golf, Namco Arcade, Baseball and Mario Land all very recently. I’m always on the lookout for fun gems at thrift stores and the like now.

I would like to eventually get an Everdrive for it, but even after I get one, I still want to get the carts for as many games as possible that I know I would enjoy.

Anyways, it’s been fun reading through the thread and seeing everyone’s awesome collections and mods and whatnot.

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I got home from work and turned my GB on and that line went away! I’m so happy.

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Glad it all worked out. I didn’t have as much success tonight and only managed to make the screen worse. Gave up in disgust.

I have another DMG coming to try again.

Welcome to the site!

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Thanks @Peltz! I’m really enjoying this board!

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Oof sorry to hear that. Hope the next one works out. Getting that foil display thing off the lcd is challenging. I want to do a few more now just to see how they turn out.

Well, got the damn thing working…for a short period of time.


Then it randomly goes on the fritz:

Must be my shitty soldering because if I press on the front of the unit, the display comes back. Not sure I have the will to try to figure out what’s wrong. I’ve already wasted too much time and money. Should just stick to drop-in replacement screens from here on out.

Not sure if this would help but this person claims to have fixed the horizontal lines.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/comments/75ibwy/how_i_have_fixed_the_horizontal_dead_lines_on_dmg/?st=JHXSJOUN&sh=59d2d625&utm_source=share&utm_medium=branch_ios_app&_branch_match_id=642148832513212048

Someone has posted a questionable-quality Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS repro to ebay. Those same handful of copies are still being relisted for ~300$. My hatred festers.

Economics is brutal sometimes.

I would doubt that anyone hunting for a rare shmup won’t be tricked into buying a sub-par repro, and any eBay dispute will rule in favour of the buyer, if the product is fake.

But maybe suckers gonna be suckered?

Yeah, this is a great guide actually, will get the Game Boy Interface to work now!

Funny thing just happened… Isn’t irony great?


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