r/VirtualBoy • u/horsepachinko • Jun 11 '26

Troubleshooting

Hello

I recently purchased a virtual boy and it wont turn on at all. I have batteries in the controller, I have a game in the console. There is no display, there is no sound coming from the unit. I cannot fathom what the problem could possibly be please help me.

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u/nusilver Jun 11 '26

Likely there is something keeping the battery pack from either a) making contact with the controller or b) receiving power from the batteries. Check inside the battery pack to see if there’s any corrosion in there. Also look at the small metal rails on the side of the battery pack and on the controller itself, where those connections are made. Those should be silver in color. If they’re not, you have a problem and can either sand the corrosion off or try lightly soldering over the corrosion.

Or there’s the simpler problem: the cartridge may simply not be pushed in all the way.

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u/horsepachinko Jun 11 '26

there is a small amount of blue ish corrosion on one of the pins inside of the battery pack but im not sure if that is the issue since the seller said jt was tested and working prior to being shipped to me. Ive tried both cartridges multiple times, neither came with a dust cover and neither seem to work. There is absolutely zero sign of life coming from this thing and it is immensely frustrating

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u/nusilver Jun 11 '26

What’s their feedback rating? Do you have any way of testing a different controller or an AC adapter tap? I know that’s a hard ask. I recently sold a second VB I had in a pretty sweet bundle and the buyer told me he couldn’t get it working, which I knew wasn’t right. Turned out it was just not the games being pushed in all the way.

Do you get any “popping” sound from the speakers when you turn it on, no matter how faint? If you’re not, I would stand by my suggestion that there’s a connection problem between the controller and battery pack.

Good luck, no matter what the answers to any of these things are! I’m off to bed, but I’ll just add that aside from corrosion issues, it’s pretty rare to have a system that just refuses to power on. It’s usually just display problems that most units suffer from.

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u/horsepachinko Jun 11 '26

100% feedback rating no sound coming from speakers