Yellowing on old handheld displays - resources, causes, potential fixes

Video Games
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Much has been said about the yellowing of plastic on old consoles, but it’s clear the displays on old handhelds have their own issues here.

DS, PSPs, PS Vitas, Wii U GamePads and Nintendo Switch systems have been found to be impacted by this, where the edges of the panel have a yellow hue, one that does not match the pixel structure in terms of how it spreads out.

This was originally brought up on the DS thread last year but there still doesn’t seem to be a definitive conclusion about what causes it and what could fix it. So I thought it’d be worth starting a thread where we compile knowledge and resources.

Resources:
GBA Temp: DSi LL De-Yellowing Experiment

VG Collect: Yellowing screens of moderns handhelds

Reddit PSP board: Yellowing on PSP 3000 screen?

The cause

cause doesn’t seem clear. After reading through the above three resources, the yellowing could be caused by a number of factors that either directly cause the yellowing or lead to aging of components that cause the yellowing:

  • humidity
  • glue melting
  • layers of the LCD separating, creating uneven light diffusion
  • UV light/heat damage (I think this is more related to the polariser on reflective displays like GB Pocket)
  • plastic diffusor over the backlight
  • cigarette smoke

Possible fixes

1) Leaving the displays on for extended periods: For DSi XL/LL owners who have systems impacted, leaving the displays on over an extended period of time, preferably with the pixels set to rgb 255 255 255 (white) will reduce the amount of yellowing on them after a number of hours. In the GBA Temp thread above, one user mapped out the deyellowing profile of 5 separate systems left on for up to 58 days.

2) Replacing the light guide plate: As detailed in August 2025 by a user in the GBA Temp thread, swapping the light guide plate in from another system fixed the problem.

As for my personal systems, the two European DSi LLs that I have owned since 2013 and 2018 respectively have yet to develop any yellowing.

But a white DSi LL I just received from Japan yesterday does have this issue, and fix 1) has yet to deliver a noticeable improvement after 24 hours:

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Eager to hear your thoughts on this!

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Still looks very yellow?

As food for thought, here’s a US region DS Lite I bought brand new in 2014 in person in Canada at a store that still had them somehow. Probably one of the last units manufactured. I know the entire history of this system, I do not smoke, it’s spent most of it’s life in a cool dark basement, I brought it on one flight to Japan in February where I didn’t end up using it outside the plane, I can’t recall ever using it outside.

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Still yellowed.

LCD screens have a lot of layers, there could be any one or more with just aging plastic that yellows over time.

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The fact it’s yellow does hint to me that it is also yellowing plastic, maybe the top plastic layer or something.

My launch day DSi has screens that don’t match in temperature. I didn’t notice when I first got it so I’m pretty sure it developed at some point, but they haven’t gotten any worse in the last probably 10 years.

My DSI XL has developed black faded edges like a vignette on the bottom screen. This is apparently due to humidity?

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Thanks for the input, it sounds like the yellowing can’t be due to smoke or humidity based on the conditions hardware has been stored in.

I’ve reached out to some people who I know that work in the displays industry and will hopefully have an answer to it!

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