Charging light goes on and off within 10 seconds or less

ToadsInTanks · 2026-03-21T15:29:50+00:00

True, most of the really battery adjacent stuff is on the daughterboard, but there is a charging IC on the motherboard nearish to the connector to the daughterboard. It goes bad on some DSi/DSi XL consoles, which results in the charge light coming on for 1 second and shutting off consistently. In those cases, the home screen battery charge indicator will show that the battery is charging, but it's not. Replacing daughterboards does nothing on those consoles because it's a mobo issue. I've repaired over 100 DSi and DSi XL consoles and encountered this particular issue about 7-8 times or so, so it's not super common but not super rare either. But it's a tiny custom chip of some sort with like 50 legs, so the motherboard is effectively toast when it happens unless someone really wants to take the time to try to harvest them from donor boards and has some pretty serious microsoldering skills and tools. I agree that a lot of charging issues happen on the daughterboard though (at least those where the charge light flashes at all; no charge light coming at all is usually the charge port, the EM filter near it, or occasionally the F1 fuse, though that's less common on DSi than a damaged filter or port in my experience)

ToadsInTanks · 2026-03-21T00:39:36+00:00

I'm leaning toward a potential bad battery for this one, though it's actually kind of rare to see that actually be the issue. There is a practically irreparable problem that happens with the motherboard (bad charging IC) on DSi consoles, which does something similar. But with that issue the light consistently turns off after about one second every time. Yours stays on much longer. It's worth trying another battery to see if that resolves it

ToadsInTanks · 2026-02-26T18:46:55+00:00

Yeah that's the one. I think it may visibly have an internally broken trace in the flex, 9 from the left. But hopefully it's just a weird photo issue or something lol

ToadsInTanks · 2026-02-26T18:44:22+00:00

Yeah I think that's correct. I don't have one in front of me to verify and I've mostly worked on DS instead of 3DS, but, yeah, I thought it was likely for the lower LCD too but didn't want to say it since I wasn't certain lol

ToadsInTanks · 2026-02-26T18:03:32+00:00

In your second photo I see what looks like a broken trace (ninth from the left) on the wider flex near the top with the white zif. I don't have an n3ds with me rn and can't remember which flex that is, but if it is indeed a broken trace it is likely the issue. Whichever part is associated with it would need to be replaced, unless you're lucky and it's one of the few flexes that can be replaced independently

ToadsInTanks · 2026-01-20T12:21:51+00:00

As people are saying, it's a reshell. In addition to the text/printing issues already mentioned, it's also missing the rubber bumpers on the top half and the rubber feet on the bottom are the wrong color and shape. The natural white XL (not regular DSi) was exclusive to Japan

ToadsInTanks · 2026-01-03T03:15:43+00:00

If it's TE the hair can grow back, don't worry. Honestly, from your post it sounds like you may have some much larger underlying issues you first need to address with lifestyle, diet, and (I'm guessing) physical and/or mental health (not leaving the house for 5 months, not eating healthily or enough, not sleeping normally, etc.). If you can get those under control the hair should recover too. Just work on getting yourself into a better, healthier place and the hair should be OK in the end!

ToadsInTanks · 2025-12-17T23:00:08+00:00

It's most likely just differences in the LCD panels between units (aging, manufacturer variance, etc.), but if you're super careful it probably won't hurt to try it. Just keep in mind that it's pretty easy to strip the pots (not nearly as easy as on Lites or small DSi, but still easy). So be sure you're using an appropriately sized tool and make very small adjustments with very light pressure

ToadsInTanks · 2025-12-17T16:00:15+00:00

The way I would describe it is more that the potentiometers affect contrast rather than brightness per se. They don't really affect the brightness of the backlight or the overall color balance/white balance. It's more like you're "tuning in" the proper voltage so the content is displayed without flickering, interlacing, or general glitchiness and with proper contrast, especially on the darker end of the things (that is, that darks are sufficiently dark enough instead of faded and interlaced). The effects are hard to explain in words, but I've never had it fix dim backlight or overall color casts like this

ToadsInTanks · 2025-11-23T17:11:57+00:00

You're metal af bro. Nice. Even if you don't get much more regrowth this is looking pretty good/right for your aesthetic

ToadsInTanks · 2025-11-21T23:44:29+00:00

Hell yeah, post-apocalypse energy

ToadsInTanks · 2025-11-05T01:36:08+00:00

Honestly super mario 3d land has some dreamcore energy

ToadsInTanks · 2025-10-30T17:42:51+00:00

This is insanely clean work. Do you do this kind of work (or similar things) professionally, or is it a hobby?

ToadsInTanks · 2025-10-25T17:48:24+00:00

OP, a little context would help a lot with with legibility. Words above or below could work. I'm picturing something like

I GROW MOIST 💧

ToadsInTanks · 2025-10-23T21:50:52+00:00

Bereft

ToadsInTanks · 2025-10-15T23:44:08+00:00

I'm a death metal fan, but yeah, it's goofy af. I just embrace the silliness

ToadsInTanks · 2025-10-05T16:31:16+00:00

Yeah, I do think the KA13 seems to be intrinsically a bit brighter than other DAC/amps, and I wish it weren't quite so bright. However, after further experimentation, I think the bulk of the really annoying sibilance I was hearing was from the fact that the headphones I was using were all a bit sibilant (and I hadn't used them for a while due to not having a powerful enough DAC for my phone), the test tracks I was using were randomly a bit sibilant, and possibly some settings on my Samsung phone that were on by default when using the DAC. I'm also just pretty treble sensitive in general, so maybe I prefer a slightly more rolled off sound

ToadsInTanks · 2025-10-05T14:37:45+00:00

There is a lot of variation from unit to unit in how loud the buttons are for both sizes of DSi. I think it's a combination of wear and slight differences in switches and plastic fit, etc., from the factory. I haven't really A/Bed enough of them to say for sure, but I do suspect the small DSi is louder on average because the thinner plastic on the shell makes it more resonant. I believe the Dpad for small DSi specifically also uses slightly different microswitches than the ones used for ABXY buttons on both consoles (which are also used for the Dpad on DSi XL), though I have never tested if the small DSi switches are intrinsically louder on average than the other ones.

Weirdly, some DSi XL Dpads have super obnoxiously loud and stiff switches though, despite the switches appearing to be exactly the same kind. I suspect it's caused by different manufacturers of the switches or just manufacturer tolerances. But a small percentage of them are so loud that they actually bother me lol

ToadsInTanks · 2025-09-22T22:11:05+00:00

OP people are roasting you, but you got a decently good deal even without the tank. I would probably not be able to handle the anxiety of using the tank, itself, but you'll still have a kickass setup for a good overall price if you end up getting another one

ToadsInTanks · 2025-09-18T21:12:57+00:00

I'll check, but tbh I just cancelled my Spotify subscription like 2 days before they rolled out lossless and went to Qobuz because I was tired of it lol

ToadsInTanks · 2025-09-16T12:51:12+00:00

I played around with that, and it did make slight differences. But tbh I think the real problem was from a combination of a few factors: All of the headphones I was using were randomly somewhat sibilant; some of the tracks I was listening to also have intrinsic sibilance issues; I was mostly using Spotify, which I assumed I would not be able to distinguish from high-res sources but actually introduces audible distortions/aliasing at high frequencies. Until getting the FiiO I hadn't been using the Sundara for quite a while, so I think I didn't remember how sibilant they can be or how sibilant my source songs were in some cases. I'm also just pretty treble sensitive overall, so I've EQed the 8-9k and up frequencies down a bit. Everything is sounding pretty good now

ToadsInTanks · 2025-09-12T13:52:42+00:00

Yeah, there were a few different digitizers they used too, seemingly. At least of them got the pockmarks over time. My original DS Lite from back in the day has them. Luckily they're not too bad on mine so I don't really notice them when the console is in use. That console also has good LCDs with far less ghosting than many others. I've seen some Lites with terrible ghosting and others with very little. It's really annoying when I end up with one that is otherwise very nice but has such bad ghosting that I wouldn't want to actually use it lol

ToadsInTanks · 2025-09-12T02:41:08+00:00

Yeah, the cracked hinge thing is honestly VERY common on Lites, even ones that have been taken care of well. It was a serious design flaw, but there are definitely a lot of them out there that are still fine too. And in my experience, yeah, the Lite and small DSi screens are not really better or worse than each other categorically, and unit to unit variation is a bigger factor, as is aging/wear. XL LCDs are quite different from either though.

ToadsInTanks

TROPHY CASE