These are Worth $400 - IF I Can Fix Them!

Summary

The video follows a repairman fixing two broken Nintendo 3DS XL consoles. The first 3DS wouldn't read game cards, so he replaces the damaged game card slot. The second 3DS had an unresponsive 'A' button that required hard pressing to work, so he takes it apart to clean and realign the button. After reassembling both consoles and testing them, the repairs are successful, transforming the broken 3DS systems into functional consoles worth around $200 each.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video is about fixing two broken Nintendo 3DS XL consoles.
• 👾 One 3DS XL won't read game cards, the other has an unresponsive A button.
• 🛠️ The first 3DS XL's game card slot is damaged and needs to be replaced.
• 🔧 The system board needs to be removed to replace the game card slot.
• 👍 The new game card slot is soldered in and the system works again.
• 🎮 The second 3DS XL's A button is dirty and intermittently unresponsive.
• 🧹 Cleaning the button contacts fixes the unresponsive A button.
• 💡 Removing and reattaching the button sticker helps improve contact.
• 💰 The fixed consoles can sell for around $200 each.
• 🤝 The video demonstrates fixer skills like soldering and cleaning.

Q & A

What were the issues with the two Zelda 3DS XLs?

One 3DS XL had a damaged game card slot that wasn't reading games. The other had an unresponsive A button that needed to be pressed very hard to work.

What tools and supplies did the person use to fix the 3DS XLs?

They used a ph00 screwdriver, soldering iron, solder wick, tweezers, isopropyl alcohol and a hot air soldering station.

How did they fix the damaged game card slot?

They desoldered the damaged slot from the motherboard and replaced it with a new one by soldering it into place.

What was likely causing the unresponsive A button?

Built up finger grease/debris inside the button mechanism was likely preventing proper contact.

How did they fix the A button?

They disassembled the 3DS, cleaned the button mechanisms, removed and reapplied the button pad to allow the buttons to make better contact.

Were there any indications of liquid damage inside the 3DS XLs?

No, both system boards looked clean with no signs of liquid damage visible.

What challenge did the person encounter when reassembling the 3DS XL?

Getting the delicate ribbon cables reconnected properly without damaging them.

How much are the repaired special edition Zelda 3DS XLs worth?

They said each one should bring about $200 if they are able to successfully fix them.

What precautions did they take when removing the button pad sticker?

They slowly peeled it off while applying heat to minimize any damage to the sticker so it could be reapplied.

Why did they remove and reapply the button pad sticker?

So the buttons would make contact at slightly different spots which could help resolve unresponsive buttons.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Taking Apart a Broken 3DS to Fix the Game Slot Pins

The first 3DS XL has a broken game card slot from bent and damaged pins. The repairer takes the device apart, removing screws and ribbons to detach the motherboard. They use solder wick to remove solder and replace the entire game slot which has been destroyed. After cleaning up solder points, they solder on a new game slot and reassemble the device.

05:11

😀 Cleaning and Testing 3DS Buttons to Fix Unresponsive A Button

The second 3DS XL has an unresponsive A button requiring hard presses to work. The repairer opens the device and cleans debris from buttons, using isopropyl alcohol. They carefully remove the button membrane sticker, clean the contacts, and precisely reattach the sticker. After reassembly, the A button works normally with light presses, likely due to cleaned contacts.

10:11

😀 Reassembling the 3DS systems and Testing the Repairs

After reassembling both 3DS devices, the repairer tests them. The first 3DS successfully reads game cards, indicating the new game slot works. The A button on the second 3DS responds normally to light presses, showing the cleaning fixed the issue. Both should sell for good prices since they are special editions in great condition.

Keywords

💡repair

The main theme of the video is repairing broken Nintendo 3DS XL devices. The narrator obtains two damaged 3DS XLs and attempts to diagnose and fix the issues with each one. He repairs the game slot reader in the first 3DS and the unresponsive A button in the second.

💡game slot

The game slot is the cartridge reader that allows games to be inserted into the 3DS. The first 3DS XL had a damaged game slot, with bent and broken pins, that needed to be replaced so that games could be read again.

💡ribbon cable

Ribbon cables are thin, flexible cables used to connect various components inside electronics. The narrator had to carefully detach and reattach ribbon cables when disassembling the 3DS units to diagnose and access the damaged components.

💡solder

Solder is a metal alloy that melts at low temperatures and is used to securely join electronic components. The narrator had to apply solder to install the new game card slot and ensure it made solid contact with the device's motherboard.

💡button pad

The button pad is the thin plastic membrane under the exterior shell that contains the conductive pads corresponding to each button. The narrator removed this to clean the A button pad and ensure conductivity.

💡adhesive

The button pad is held in place by a strong adhesive, which the narrator carefully heated to remove and reapply the button pad without damaging it.

💡debris

Debris refers to dirt, dust and other contaminants that can get lodged in electronics. The narrator inspected both devices for debris that could be causing issues with the game slot and buttons.

💡finger cheese

Finger cheese refers informally to the oils and dirt that accumulate on surfaces that are frequently touched, like buttons. The narrator had to clean this residue from the non-responsive A button.

💡hot air station

A hot air station blows heated air, used to loosen adhesive or melt solder when repairing electronics. The narrator used this tool to remove and reapply the button pad adhesive.

💡resale value

A driving motivation behind repairing the broken devices was their potential resale value if fixed, estimated at $200 each.

Highlights

The Zelda 3DS XLs are worth about $200 each but they're broken, so only if I can fix them

One 3DS has a bad A button, the other won't read games. Let's take them apart to see what's wrong

The game slot is badly damaged with bent and broken pins. We'll need to replace the whole slot

I'll remove the game board to replace the slot cleanly without melting nearby components

With the old game slot removed, I'll install a new one and solder it into place

The ribbon cable connections are tricky - that's the hardest part of reassembly

The A button on the second 3DS needs to be pressed very hard to work. Let's open it up

There's some sticky residue around the A button. I'll clean the buttons thoroughly

I decided to remove the button sticker gently to inspect underneath - risky but necessary

After cleaning and precise reapplication of the sticker, the button works great again

The fixed 3DS systems could bring over $200 each. Handheld repairs are worthwhile

Replacing game slots and cleaning buttons revived these broken Nintendo 3DS XLs

Ribbon cable connections are the trickiest part of 3DS reassembly

Thorough cleaning and repositioning the button sticker fixed the unresponsive A button

These rare Zelda editions in good condition could sell for even more than $200 each

Transcripts

these two special edition Zelda 3DS XLs

are worth about $200 each but they're

both broken so that's only if I can fix

them this one has a bad a button this

one won't read games let's get them

apart and see if we can figure out

what's wrong and we can immediately see

what the problem is here there is a

bunch of these pins inside that are bent

and broken so we need to either replace

the slot or those pins to do that we

have to get it apart so we'll take off

the battery cover by removing oh that is

really tight need to make sure I have a

bit that fits perfectly in there there

we go I'm using a ph0 the double zero I

thought was going to work better but the

zero actually fits in there better

so okay and Battery trying to tell if

somebody has taken this apart before I

feel like they must have but oh yeah

these screws are almost stripped out so

somebody has definitely been into this

before hopefully they didn't mess

anything up worse than it needs to be so

putting a lot of pressure down as we

turn to hopefully not strip them out any

more than they already are this is going

to be a hard

one all right got

it one more come

on it's spinning a little bit come on oh

man just slipped come on there we go I

got to see if I have some better screws

for this these things are not in good

condition all right

now we should be able to get the bottom

casing off but don't pull too hard we've

got two ribbon cables attached right

here one

there and one there wow this game slot

has been

distroyed so when I was first looking at

this I was hoping I could just replace

these pins that were bad in here but

unfortunately it looks like pretty much

every single pin is bad the whole game

slot is bent there it's been cut away

way here so I think probably the best

move here is going to be to replace this

entire game slot and one of the

advantages of just replacing the pins is

you don't have to remove the entire

board you can just do that all right

here but enable to do this in a way that

I'm not going to be melting like this

post right here and this post because we

got to get all the solder off I think

the best thing to do is going to be to

remove this board so I'm going to get

that done and then we'll see what it's

going to take to replace this thing

these ribbon cables are kind of a pain

to hook back

up but it's going to be worth it just to

have this board out so I am going to do

it anyway and with all the screws out we

can remove the

board and flip it up to get this last

ribbon cable on the bottom

side there we go and now we have the

board removed so these are mounted down

by four main mounting pins this one this

one this one and this one there's a

bunch of solder on each of these so what

I'm going to do is come through with

some solder Wick and suck some of that

up and then probably what I'll do is use

my pick to kind of pry up on the board

gently but enough to pull it away while

I heat up the mounting pin and that

should make it so I can gently pull up

on this game slot and start getting it

pulled away from the board once that's

done we just need to remove all of these

pins I might remove them manually but I

also might flip the board over and heat

it from the bottom side with my hot air

soldering station that will allow all of

these pins to heat up at once and the

game slot to just drop away but let's

start by removing the solder from these

pins so we can start to get this game

slot lifted

[Music]

up

[Music]

okay and that worked pretty well that

took a little bit longer than I'd like

but really not too bad and I'm going to

smooth out some of these solder pads

here there we

go now all we need to do is install the

new game slot so I'm going to line up

these

pads and then I'm going to solder on

each one of these mounting pads and I'm

going to push down on it while I'm doing

that that'll make sure that everything

is right down on the board where it

needs to be there is two locating pins

one right there and one right there so

we need to make sure those stay where

they're supposed to and then we can get

this soldered

on

[Music]

and here we go how do these joints look

the mounting pin looks great oh yeah

those are soldered on really well those

are nice and solid no worries there

let's get this thing installed and see

if it works now now the first thing we

have to do is probably the most

difficult part of this whole

assembly we have to to get this ribbon

cable into this connector I use a pair

of metal tweezers which I don't

recommend that's just how I'm used to

doing it and I flip it up that way push

it in push the Locking tab down and

there we go now we can flip the board

down make sure and get this ribbon cable

out right here come here there we

go okay all right so I flip it around

like this this

now using my same pair of tweezers kind

of pull this down like

that just like that and I push it into

the

connector almost had it it's been a

while since I've done one of

these okay try this

again and

to the

connector there we go locking tab down

and then this one is a little easier

just push it in with your fingers

locking tab down okay that's the hardest

part now I'll probably speed up this

part and get the rest done but I'll

speed it up so you don't have to watch

it all in slow

motion

[Music]

there we go did we forget

anything hopefully not we'll find out

once it's all back together I guess and

there's one other thing that I used to

always forget on

these tell me if you see it in the

comments these

guys can't even tell you how many times

I've forgotten to put these in and

having to take it all back apart just to

slide those in all right now back H how

does this thing go together front goes

down then the back then it snaps in

there we go all looks

good okay just the bottom case screws

then the

battery then the bottom plastic and we

can test it I'm not going to show all of

that before we test it let's move on to

number two and see if we can get this a

button working and let me show you

what's wrong first and here we are with

3DS number two if I press the a button

it doesn't do anything unless I press it

really hard all the other buttons you

just have to kind of press like normal

this one you have to press super hard so

I think I know probably what's wrong but

we got to take it all apart and have a

look at the board to figure it out for

sure I'm taking this thing apart I keep

thinking that there could be some liquid

damage or something in here I mean so

far it looks great I don't see any any

indications that there is liquid damage

but let's

see okay actually not bad get this

ribbon cable released and then we can

have a look at this board okay so that's

the a button there was a little piece of

debris there but I don't know it didn't

look too bad so that would also be the a

button right

there the board looks pretty good I

don't know it doesn't look too bad at

all let's have a look at the button

itself

and H there's a little bit of debris

there it's certainly not

sticky oh we got a little bit of got a

little bit of stickiness around here

some finger cheese so we need to clean

that out might as well just clean all

those buttons while we're here now

sometimes because of how these buttons

work there's a little bit of copper here

that can erode away so it is possible

that that's going on I can't tell but I

don't see any indication that that is

what's going on so I hesitate to remove

this sticker you can get more of these

and I think I have some around somewhere

but I don't know where they are right at

the moment so I hesitate to remove this

one because once a lot of times once you

remove it then you can't get it back on

correctly so I'm not sure that I want to

go there the other thing is that the a

button definitely has some finger cheese

on it the pad is a little bit dirty so

it is possible that that's the only

thing going on I don't know let's get

this thing cleaned off and think about

what we need to do next just trying to

decide if I need to remove that that

button pad not the button Pad but the I

don't even know what it's called plastic

piece that has the buttons on

it just going to use my pick to clean

this up and then of course some

isopropyl

alcohol there we

go and that is doing pretty good let's

check some of these other ones that

one's

good that one's good okay these actually

are pretty clean other than oh the b

button's a little dirty it's not too bad

but might as well clean it while we're

here now the button

pad okay now I think honestly to feel

good about this I think I do just need

to remove this sticker right here I just

need to do it in a way that is not going

to cause a problem I need to try and

lift it very gently and

slowly and not bend it I feel like if I

put this back together and it doesn't

work I'm going to be kicking myself for

not just removing that okay here we

go I might need to heat this a little

bit not a lot I don't want to melt it

hopefully enough to get it to get the

adhesive to loosen a little bit

oh there we

go we got it coming up

now okay just need to carefully go

around

it there we

go this gives me a little bit of hope we

can do it without causing too much

damage there we go come

on these look really clean so

far okay

and really not too much going on under

here there's a little bit of Mark there

there's some marks up here but not too

bad um I'm going to go ahead and just

clean this all really well get any

residue off of these things and hope for

the

best let's clean the actual buttons off

without getting too much on the

adhesive okay I think that's

good now how was it it was about right

there

[Music]

so got to line this up just

perfect how it

was how's that look

almost it's not quite right though oh

that is pretty close right there a

little bit over that way it's a lot more

difficult than it looks I'll tell you

that

much okay that's pretty good there okay

I think we got it okay now I'm going to

start up my hot air station again we're

going to heat this all

up and push down on it and hopefully

it'll be like we never even took it

off okay that looks pretty good it's

stuck on there nicely buttons feel good

the other advantage of removing this is

when I put it back on it's not going to

be exactly in the same place so these

little buttons are going to hit on the

copper pad on the board in a slightly

different place so I'm hopeful that

that's going to take care of this

problem I'm going to get this thing back

together and then I'll come back once

it's done and we'll test it all right

let's go back to number one and test the

game slot first we've got a game right

there ready to go let's push it in and

see what

happens and there we go let's just press

on it make sure it starts up all right

and the game is starting up let's go to

number two and see how this a button

works now I'm going to just barely press

it oh yeah that works great that feels

so nice like I barely pressed that so I

was able to fix these two Nintendo 3DS's

pretty easily and these should bring at

least $200 each these are in great

condition so they might even bring in

more than that if you like this type of

video where I'm fixing broken handhelds

you'll probably like the video where I

bought 44 broken handhelds I'll leave

that video right up on your screen now

so you can come hang out with me over

there and see how many of those 44 I was

able to fix thanks so much for watching

today and I hope you have a good

[Music]

one