Question GameBoy Macro help!

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Hi there!

I am very new to all of this and today I started work on a GameBoy Macro, due to its supposed low difficulty.

I followed steps on 3 different guides to make sure I knew what to do, and for some reason when it‘s all closed back up, it doesnt turn on.

I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.
 

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Doom

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Your resistor looks a little goopy, clean up the joint just in case there's a short. I'm looking at the picture in my phone so not the greatest of quality for me to view, but there may be some stray solder on the pad to the right.

Otherwise, test with just the back case on to hold the battery in place. One of mine that I made kept shorting out on something when I put the top of the case back on.

Also of note, even if you said it doesn't turn on, check the sound with some headphones. It may just be an issue with which screen the gba is outputting to. I was pulling my hair out on a couple that just had audio bc I forgot that you change the display screen on the ds menu lol. Best to try and boot it as many ways as possible, ds cart, gba cart, and without any carts just as a test.
 
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make sure the lcd is properly seated, that can cause it to not boot
 
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The resistor for the top screen delete definitely has too much solder, and is shorting both points rendering the resistor useless. Without that resistance, the system thinks there's a problem with the top screen and won't boot.

When you close the shell, be real careful with the volume slider and power switch. Make sure that both are lined up with the plastic seats and close gently. The power switch is notorious for snapping off if it's not lined up and too much pressure is applied.
 
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The resistor for the top screen delete definitely has too much solder, and is shorting both points rendering the resistor useless. Without that resistance, the system thinks there's a problem with the top screen and won't boot.

When you close the shell, be real careful with the volume slider and power switch. Make sure that both are lined up with the plastic seats and close gently. The power switch is notorious for snapping off if it's not lined up and too much pressure is applied.
Brilliant thanks everyone.
 
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I am having a lot of trouble with what seems to be a very easy step. I cannot properly solder the resistor to the board. Either the solder moves around too much or it solidifies as soon as i lift the iron, I have had to try so many times with about 30 resistors now and I am quite sure I have ruined the board. Help please.
 

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take a q-tip with some rubbing alcohol and clean off the flux to revel the board so we can see the contacts. also, cut that copper trace off going from ground to voltage in at the charging port. another thing that prevents it from booting is no wi-fi card, didn't see the back, so didn't know if it was there or not.
 
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Remove the resistor and wick up the excess solder with some desoldering braid or even the clean tip of the iron. Clean the area with isopropyl. Once the two test points are clean, apply some flux to both points and hold the resistor in position with a thin tool, making sure the ends of the resistor are touching their respective test points. Apply the smallest dab of solder to your iron and touch one of the test points with your iron. You should not need to hold the iron on the pad for more than a second. Repeat for the other side.

Flux is the key to getting the solder to stick to the conductive surfaces of the board and resistor. Go light with the amount of solder used on both ends. Clean the area with some isopropyl when you're done to remove the residual flux.
 
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WillF

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Hey guys, this is my first GameBoy macro project and I wanted to make this as stock as possible to the original DS lite so I can bring it up in conversations

“Hey so I turned my brothers broken DS into a GameBoy ”

here’s my issue:
I desoldered the speaker because I wanted to relocate it and while attempting to solder it back, I accidentally burnt off the golden pad on the VGND pad. So it’s pretty much impossible to solder the speaker on there.
Is there some sort of external micro 3.5mm speaker that I could use to plug into the headphone Jack for sound?
B5BBD0AF-F371-4829-8794-922FC7A128E2.jpeg
 
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