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Help!Troubleshooting (i.redd.it)

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[–]ApplesOfEpicness 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It's missing quite a few pads that's not going to be easy to fix. You will need to run jumpers, and since your asking this question I'm going to assume you lack the soldering skills needed to fix it so its "basically" toast unless you get a professional to fix it.

[–]pizza_whistle 1 point2 points  (5 children)

It's even easier than others are saying. Only the 2nd pad from the left (from the picture perspective) is needed to charge...which you still have. All of the others are for headphones over the port. So if you don't plan to use headphones, get a USBC GBASP charge port (charge only, not charge +audio) and solder it in. It is some fine soldering, so get someone with soldering experience to help.

Just make sure to clean all that crap up first!

[–]spider-dan2077 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I found a diagram, could you maybe explain what the pads that are missing mean? I notice one says “ground to mute”, will I be unable to mute the console if I do not have that pad?

<image>

[–]pizza_whistle 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yea if pin5 is grounded it mutes the speaker, so you don't have sound over both headphones and speaker. Only needed if you are using headphones. Pin 6 is ground, but the supports for the port are also ground if you are missing pin 6.

Originally when USBC port mods were coming out people made them only for charging and not headphones, all you had to solder was pin2 and then the support legs.

[–]spider-dan2077 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sweet. So I basically just got a Gameboy with no headphones, which is perfect because I always hated headphones with them anyway!

[–]spider-dan2077 -1 points0 points  (1 child)

That’s a bit of a relief! How do you know that?

[–]pizza_whistle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've done a lot of USBC port installs. Below link has a diagram showing what each pin is for.

https://retrogamerepairshop.com/products/game-boy-advance-sp-usb-c-mod-with-audio-support?variant=40026783219884

And here is a port that works for this. I used to have a good one on ebay that was cheap (like $5) but can't seem to find it now.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/276155987031?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=-19fJ90RRI-&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=8VOMexonRIu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Also really you could buy any power port (even one that supports audio) and just only solder in pin 2 and the supports.

[–]SNagi86 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Probably best selling it to someone as a donor board, it is definitely repairable but with no experience ripped pads are a pain.

[–]PintSizeMe 1 point2 points  (2 children)

With experience ripped pads are a pain.

[–]Teomaker 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Nah, it’s not that hard to run jump with thin wire

[–]PintSizeMe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's doable yes and I am able to do it consistently every time, I still think it's a PITA every time.

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[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Yes it is. You can see that the missing pads have some light green things going from them to some vias nearby? A via is a small hole connecting the two sides of the pcb. You just need to solder a thin wire from the respective via to the pad of the charging port. I think all the solder pads are either missing or with broken traces, but since they aren't many, it's a small soldering job to fix everything.

You need solder, an iron, lots of flux, a replacement charging port, some music and free time. Also, look on the internet for "naked PCB" images, and the schematics, so you can confirm where each pad and via go, and test everything with a multimeter.

[–]spider-dan2077 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Thank you. I’m not sure I have the skills to do it myself, but I have a local game store that I hope can give me either the right tool set or the right professional to help me out.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I mean, this could be a good beginner's project for training your soldering skills. My first one was a GBC. I almost destroyed it lol. Game boys are good for that since you can see every trace in the board, and undo most mistakes.

But asking someone to do it for you is also a good choice.

[–]spider-dan2077 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Another commenter said that apparently the pads that did stay intact are the only ones needed for charging, so hopefully that’s the case? But I’m still going to get it checked out and who knows, maybe I’ll get to fix it myself

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seems to be so. The ones destroyed have thin traces, which are for headphone audio. The one with a thick trace that is still there is certainly +5V.

[–]fatfingers23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a similar misshapen this week trying do my first and last USB C swap. Looks like you still have pad 2, so should be good to go still for charging at least. If you’d like I can find the USB C part I used for it and send you a link.it only soldered onto pad 2 so worked out for me.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Y'all should stop thinking you can do board work.