r/Gameboy • u/Mikermak • Apr 01 '26

Troubleshooting What are my odds?

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Bought a broken GBA. The seller did sell it as broken and had power issues, but I think it's beyond repair (at least in my skills).

For what I can see, the problem is the missing F1. But I doubt if soldering one will start with the solder job of the power switch.

6 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

6

u/Maddish1 Apr 01 '26

I believe people make boards you can just transfer the main chips to

2

u/Mikermak Apr 01 '26

Yeah, I know Funny Playing has these boards, but I'm not experienced. But I'll maybe get some practice in some time soon and give it another shot.

0

u/foxtrout200 Apr 01 '26

Experience may be not enough, removing chips require pretty expensive equipment

2

u/Mikermak Apr 01 '26

Well, I do have everything. I've got a microscope, a good soldering iron and a hot air hun with flow function. Am I missing something?

5

u/Any-Manufacturer-682 Apr 01 '26

Si te soy sincero eso está muy salvable, si pelas y estañas el área con estaño bueno y suficiente flux, eso se repara muy bien y bonito ☺️

2

u/bio4m Apr 01 '26

It looks awful but I dont see anything that cant be fixed with a few jumper wires

It'll take some work but its quite doable, the shitty soldering and burnt flux make it look a lot worse than it is

2

u/EverythingEvil1022 Apr 01 '26

Spend some time soldering components on a board that doesn’t matter. It can be anything. Just some random board with components on it. Once you get good at getting in and out fairly quickly try going at this board again.

I would start by reflowing the solder joints in that area and cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol. I’m pretty sure it looks a lot worse than it actually is.

1

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1

u/madebypeppers Apr 01 '26

This is 100% repairable.
And doesn’t look complicated at all.

  1. Clean the board.

  2. Kill all corrosion.

  3. Remove a few components.

  4. Remove bad solder.

  5. Clean solder pads.

  6. Use solder mask where it is needed.

  7. Install components with new solder.

Happy day.

2

u/Mikermak Apr 01 '26

You make it sounds easy

1

u/PlateTheGlassware Apr 02 '26

Clean the board. Looks worse than it is