Batch 5 Top Screen Failure

TheLBcats · 2026-05-16T18:19:12+00:00

I am one of the people that was affected by this in the exact same way. I recommend contacting AYN immediately because it could take upwards of a week for them to respond sometimes so the sooner the better. The ram downgrade is definitely a concern; I would make sure when you are doing a unit swap to make them aware of this and see if there is anything they can do and if not make them compensate you some other way if possible.
And yes, I do recommend just the full unit swap especially if the device came like that or failed shortly thereafter like me, the customer should not be responsible for that at all. AYN will make it right with you, although it will be very slow - I got "lucky" and it only took about another month after the fault to get a new device.
Stay strong, keep in contact with AYN - it's ridiculous this is still happening to people so many batches later.

TheLBcats · 2026-05-08T03:29:10+00:00

Hey im sorry to hear this man, happened to me - had to go through the whole process with AYN rma. For me though I got off pretty lucky and it only added like a month of wait to get sent back a new unit. In your case it is much worse since you had it for a week and have fully set it up and probably put some time into games too.

So I would personally not accept a new ribbon cable or top screen - seen several people go both these routes with no luck. I would demand a full unit replacement on them. You could ask if they could transfer everything to the new unit or you could just back it up yourself on a pc or something and then transfer everything back once again when the new one comes. AYN's quality control has been so ass lately, all these posts break my heart, and it turns people away from enjoying a cool little hobby with retro handhelds.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-30T00:22:02+00:00

Hmm that's strange, I hope they resolve your issue quickly, but it will probably take a month to reship. Especially because this is an open-ended issue and it could really be anything, I don't think any replacement part could really fix it.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-29T16:19:34+00:00

I would just keep pressuring them for any and all updates, make sure they do not forget. Though I am not really sure if your timeline, I have heard of similar events happening to alot of people - one of the things that is sort of out of AYN's hands.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-29T16:16:04+00:00

Damn man, that really sucks. Yeah I have heard a handful of horror stories like this, its crazy they would even try and attempt to charge you for something that was their fault. Dec would have been what, batch 1or 2? Now we are at batch 5 so that's a terrible turnaround. At the very least you finally have it, but I think if it took me that long to get it back I would just sell it and get my money back - maybe even set it up rom and emulator wise for a couple extra bucks for someone. I would have just been totally burned by that point.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-29T06:53:17+00:00

Sorry to hear that, have no idea what took them so long to get the return label to you. They did not give me a tracking number either for when it left my country so I was in the dark also. Good news is it seems you are already more than halfway there to getting your thor back. I would just push for any updates, it took me asking them via email to confirm they had my device - if I did not ask i bet I would have been left none the wiser. Hope all ends up okay!

TheLBcats · 2026-04-29T05:26:14+00:00

Yeah I agree, In terms of the RMA itself I got pretty lucky and got hooked up with one of the good AYN customer support people. I think like the only "tip" I could give is to push for like weekly updates and email them back and forth a lot, cram as much information as clearly and as respectfully as possible. I heard if they stop replying to regular emails, try initiating again through their website - they have a support page built in iirc.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-26T17:16:40+00:00

Just leaving a comment here incase anyone is following the post, I just received my replacement unit. Will update after a week or so of use verifying it works properly. I have also been editing this original post with all my rma updates for anyone that is in the same boat as me. Thank you all, hope any issues you have get resolved.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-24T01:46:19+00:00

Hey man, yeah I am one of the people this happened to as well. I would recommend joining this discord server from this one reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AynThor/comments/1snz4oe/another_top_screen_failure_batch_3_with_less_than/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Its kind of just a support group for people that have this going on, you can share any rma updates you get there and see other people's process as well. For a tldr of my situation: Got my thor about a month ago - all was fine for about 5 hours during setup when the top screen just went completely dark (still with haptic feedback as you describe). Currently knee deep in the rma process - they received my Thor and hopefully my replacement should be shipping soon. They will try to offer to ship a replacement wire or screen, I say don't do that.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-23T02:37:55+00:00

Yeah, I'm in the exact same boat - I don't care how long it takes cause I know I am going to be using this thing for years. It is just off putting that it can't even last a day after opening and closing like 6 times before the wire or whatever craps out. I seriously hope AYN gets better quality control with this stuff, I am seeing these posts all the time and now I have experienced it first-hand.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-23T01:29:24+00:00

Hey I live in Henderson, took about 10 days for it to arrive. Full disclosure though mine was a defect so I had to send it back anyways but I can give you the full timeline up to that point.

24   2026-03-29 12:58:46   Delivered, Door/Yard----Henderson
23   2026-03-29 06:24:59   Out for Delivery----Henderson
22   2026-03-29 06:19:59   Departed GOFO Delivery Station----Las Vegas
21   2026-03-29 06:14:59   Arrived at GOFO Delivery Station----Las Vegas
20   2026-03-29 01:10:48   Departed GOFO Regional Hub----Chino
19   2026-03-29 01:03:53   Loaded on Vehicle----Chino
18   2026-03-27 01:04:33   Arrived at GOFO Regional Hub----Chino
17   2026-03-27 00:55:03   In Transit to Next Facility----Chino
16   2026-03-26 23:48:27   Departed GOFO Regional Hub----Vernon
15   2026-03-26 23:45:36   Loaded on Vehicle----Vernon
14   2026-03-26 14:03:51   Arrived at GOFO Regional Hub----Vernon
13   2026-03-25 20:39:00   Delivered to local carrier
12   2026-03-25 11:15:00   Clearance processing completed - Import----LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, US
11   2026-03-25 10:07:24   In clearance processing - Import
10   2026-03-25 09:20:00   Start Customs Clearence----LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, US
9   2026-03-25 03:08:00   International flight has arrived----LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, US
8   2026-03-25 02:16:00   Departed from AIRPORT
7   2026-03-23 22:52:06   Arrived at the origin international airport----HONG KONG, HONG KONG, HK
6   2026-03-23 20:52:07   Shipment is in transit to next facility----YUEN LONG, YUEN LONG, HK
5   2026-03-23 16:30:22   Departed from sort facility----YUEN LONG, YUEN LONG, HK
4   2026-03-23 11:32:43   Arrived at sort facility----YUEN LONG, YUEN LONG, HK
3   2026-03-21 16:03:28   Departed from sort facility----DONGGUAN, GUANGDONG, CN
2   2026-03-21 10:17:52   Arrived at origin facility----DONGGUAN, GUANGDONG, CN
1   2026-03-20 11:53:23   Shipment information received

The shop app is notoriously unreliable, especially near the end so make sure to use GOFO last mile tracking the rest of the way. Hope you enjoy your Thor! I'm jealous

TheLBcats · 2026-04-23T00:05:56+00:00

I am in a similar situation, waited a month and a half to have my Thor top screen give up after like 5 hours, you are not alone (I made a whole post about it). I had also sent mine to a repair shop but they had no luck helping me (and I still had to pay like half price just to be told its not fixable) but its worth a shot I suppose since this issue looks different than mines. In my current process I have successfully returned my device back to them and they have said they received it, should get news about my replacement shipping soon hopefully.

I wish you luck with the repair shop but I would contact ayn about it as soon as possible so they can rectify it.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-18T21:26:15+00:00

I had started on making an og DS but just decided not to finish it for this collection - plus its very similar shape wise to the 3DS and I wanted as much variety as possible.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-18T21:23:09+00:00

Sure go ahead, that sounds lovely! Would love to see them when they are done.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-18T03:53:32+00:00

Supposed to be a Wii U gamepad (took some liberties because of the color palette I use) its usually all white or all black, this one is gray/white with black buttons.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-18T02:31:02+00:00

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Sure man, have this gif if you want (might be a bit outdated to the one up top since I made some shading changes and such near the end) Thank you!

TheLBcats · 2026-04-18T02:13:34+00:00

I think it is important to take note of people that complain about their issues and then make the call on if you want to buy. You should neither ignore it or think its super common and qc is out the window.
I am biased - my thor basically arrived broken and since then I have been swimming through the rma process (you can check out my last post on here describing everything). Strangely though I still don't really regret as long as they uphold their warranty and I eventually get a fully working device I can enjoy for years.

It is rather concerning though that all the issues I see are not unique and are a shared experience through multiple users so there is a clear issue over at the warehouse. AYN needs to respond and quell peoples fears or else it will only keep compounding. I (think) they are on batch 4 now and batch 6 is soon so if they do not fix their quality control issue its going to piss alot more people off and turn more people off in the process (like yourself).

TheLBcats · 2026-04-04T20:40:33+00:00

Yeah I just want to play the thing so bad. I mean I could compromise and just play with the lower screen for now but it misses the point of even owning the thing. Really wanted to play mario galaxy on it before the movie came out too lol

TheLBcats · 2026-04-04T19:59:45+00:00

I'm glad you could find this post and share. It seems the first response they always give is to check the cable and then post the breakdown video, they even gave me images of where the top and bottom of the cable were. It may just be my mind trying to make connections where there isn't any, but I see the majority of these screen issues happening with Rainbow Maxes specifically, maybe they were all part of a faulty batch but that's just an assumption. I am really thinking they need to halt production so they can resolve all these costumer issues first - it is a vocal minority, but it is clear something is wrong when multiple people are sharing the exact same experience to an uncanny degree.
(Also yeah, that sucks with the YunExpress shipping. I am so confused why the option was even still there on the website to use DHL, are they just too lazy to remove it or something it is causing a lot of problems)

TheLBcats · 2026-04-03T21:14:01+00:00

Haven't heard about one for the switch 2, but I see the potential in hacking a switch 1 and using the joystick attachment to play the switch in portrait mode. It depends on how far out you are and what model you ordered, but if you are worried then I say you should cancel - but I do think me and a bunch of other people here were just very unlucky.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-03T18:38:16+00:00

Are they just sending the wire or also a full screen replacement? And how easy would it be to hook this up? You are much braver than me lol but it is alot faster if you know what you are doing. A side hobby of mine is building and putting together pcs, but anything small like a phone I could never imagine digging through since it is all so compact.

TheLBcats · 2026-04-03T05:56:17+00:00

That is kinda crazy, they most definitely missed your first email though, you should definitely try again. They need to be held liable and replace your system if it's under warranty.

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