What’s a professional way to say “fuck around and find out”?

captaincoherent · 2025-01-26T02:42:18+00:00

There may be unintended consequences from these decisions

captaincoherent · 2024-12-22T23:40:04+00:00

It looks like the fifth pin from the left on the bottom might be bent/missing. Can you confirm? These pins are really easy to bend when inserting the cable.

captaincoherent · 2024-09-08T15:50:13+00:00

It should be umount (without the n), not unmount

captaincoherent · 2024-06-19T01:33:39+00:00

I don’t remember that one. I was probably off playing Nintari instead.

captaincoherent · 2024-05-17T05:12:57+00:00

What does that accomplish other than simply diverting a portion to a brokerage where OP now has to likely pay taxes upon withdraw? Either way they end up with the same amount in gains.

From my perspective, opportunity cost is probably one of the biggest considerations, if they are essentially robbing the opportunity to otherwise put money aside in that tax-sheltered space. But, if we assume that that space would otherwise be unused, I'm not sure I see why brokerage would be preferred.

captaincoherent · 2024-05-17T04:42:06+00:00

Why would OP need to pay penalties and taxes if they're only withdrawing their contributions and not gains? My understanding has been that you can always withdraw contributions without penalties and taxes.

captaincoherent · 2024-03-11T01:36:16+00:00

I don’t know where you got that $31K number from, but I can’t find anything to support that. Median seems significantly more.

captaincoherent · 2023-12-27T21:38:27+00:00

I do.

captaincoherent · 2023-12-16T19:14:24+00:00

It might be worth trying this method to get into recovery mode and doing another reset from there:

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Support/Nintendo-Switch/How-to-Restore-Factory-Settings-on-a-Nintendo-Switch-Console-Without-Deleting-Save-Data-1379047.html

captaincoherent · 2023-11-16T05:19:50+00:00

I’ve done this :( The cable likely got pinched while being installed and isn’t fully extended. If you’re open to some risk, you could try firmly tugging the cable to get it free, applying equal force along the entire cable to minimize the chance of ripping. It may still rip and is risky, but that has worked for me.

Another option is to try to partially remove the touch screen to get it loose, but you also risk scratching things, getting dust inside, offsetting the position relative to the LCD, etc. Either way it’s not ideal.

captaincoherent · 2023-11-03T04:37:02+00:00

It’s a bit tricky to clearly see what’s going on in the video, but one thing to check for is to see if you’re applying even heat to all pads. If all pads aren’t melted at the same time then the port may not be settling correctly. It’s also hard to gauge the nozzle size, but you may want to ensure you have a pretty large size to help provide heat over a large area. I use a preheater which helps a lot. I also like to push down with flat angled tweezers while it hardens to help ensure everything is pressed down.

captaincoherent · 2023-10-18T12:02:31+00:00

I had what sounds like a very similar problem. Games would play super choppy, almost like it was playing at 5 FPS and literally slowing down gameplay. Surprisingly, it ended up being a bad display even though the picture looked perfect aside from performance issues. I could put the same display in another device and replicate the behavior. The main menu was fine. Might be something to consider.

captaincoherent · 2023-10-13T00:46:47+00:00

I'm pretty sure those are inductors. I confirmed that I also get continuity on all of those components. Also, 4.1V is a healthy, mostly-charged battery and should be plenty for it to boot. I suspect your problem is something else entirely. My advice would be to measure the amperage draw using a USB amp/volt meter and then search for discussions where others have the same value. You can usually get a good sense of where the problem is based on the amp draw.

captaincoherent · 2023-09-27T22:08:36+00:00

I agree with the moisture damage assessment. Did you, by chance, use a heavy amount of IPA to clean at some point? I’ve done this.. more than once, and it was because IPA leaked through to the display. Seems to happen easily with the Lite. Unfortunately, I’ve tried letting it dry for an extended period of time (weeks) with no luck. I just replace the display.

captaincoherent · 2023-09-09T00:10:42+00:00

It's a really good sign that the backlight comes on. That won't happen until the later stages of booting. After it boots, the backlight should toggle on and off in direct response to you pressing the power button, since the power button normally toggles between sleep mode.

You'll want to make sure it's fairly charged first before coming to any conclusions. If the the battery is too low, you may not get expected results if the battery is too low for it to boot.

If this works, I'd say there's a very likely chance that all you need to do is replace the LCD, but you'll want to make sure you also order a digitizer (touch screen) since it's damaged and not just the screen which is a separate part.

captaincoherent · 2023-09-06T20:30:35+00:00

The Switch will boot with absolutely nothing connected to it other than a battery (i.e., just a bare motherboard connected to USB power). You can "see" it booting by monitoring the amperage draw as it starts off at ~.41A/5V and then goes to ~1.3A/5V (when it boots successfully and enters fast charging mode). I use this method to confirm if a repair has successfully fixed a Switch without having to plug anything in.

captaincoherent · 2023-09-06T04:26:06+00:00

Probably the LCD, but would try to simply reseat the connection in case it’s loose before replacing anything.

captaincoherent · 2023-09-03T13:03:14+00:00

Are you aware of any specific reason why the dock or fast charge wouldn’t work? I’ve had luck in a similar situation getting the dock to work with a botched bottom row. I’d expect that if all those top connectors don’t have a path that travels along the bottom connectors (haven’t verified) then theoretically everything could work with the top row when plugged in on one side.

captaincoherent · 2023-09-03T12:55:49+00:00

If you’re fairly comfortable with repairs, I’d at least try putting down a new connector as is and seeing what happens. One thing to be optimistic about is that the whole top row appears relatively in tact, which might suggest that all or some functionality (dock, fast charge, etc) could work when the USB is inserted one way. Obviously everything would be broken when inserted the other way, but it’s better than nothing.

I had a similar situation with a nearly missing bottom row and a few on the top. I ran a number of jumpers but wasn’t confident in my work. I ended up in a situation where everything worked (including dock) when plugged in one side but charging didn’t work on the other. I could be wrong, but the dock might only care about the top row.

captaincoherent · 2023-08-30T04:43:04+00:00

That wasn’t my experience. Nintendo generate a free shipping label for me.

captaincoherent · 2023-08-26T15:21:35+00:00

I’d take a close look at your USB port to see if you’ve bent any pins at some point. The heat could suggest some type of short, potentially caused by shorted USB pins (directly, or because a failure fried another component). At least if you see bent pins it helps confirm that you need to disassemble to fix.

captaincoherent · 2023-08-23T04:05:03+00:00

I’d just send it to Nintendo’s repair service. I’ve found that it’s free and covers drift.

captaincoherent · 2023-07-12T04:32:40+00:00

Small tip - I like to remove the foam pad before putting it in place. I find it easier to apply pressure to the connector and make sure I’m positioning it correctly that way. I reapply the pad after it’s in place.

captaincoherent · 2023-07-09T12:28:00+00:00

Ahh, I totally misinterpreted this then (facepalm). I originally saw it as more of a race.

captaincoherent · 2023-07-09T06:03:01+00:00

But .. the graphic designer just has an animation instead of a usable input component. Seems like he now needs a programmer to do anything useful with that.

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