What could cause a single dead line on the display?

8bitAndy wrote:
Hi, my right display was out. I was able to get it working again with a hot iron. However, it still has a single pixel line that is dark, even after several tries.

Looking at this link, it seems that a line in the ribbon cable controls 8 pixels on the display. This would mean that my single bad pixel can’t be caused by a ribbon cable problem:

http://furrtek.free.fr/?a=vbtvout

Could it be a defect in the LED? What else might cause this?

a single black line is a dead led on the board. its not your ribbon

astro187 wrote:

Nes Freak wrote:

a single black line is a dead led on the board. its not your ribbon

I have a system that I got the permanent solder fix for about 4 or so years ago (by a skilled member of PVB, not some eBay hack) and it had worked fine but recently now has a single dead line in one display and I had been meaning to ask this too.

So it sounds like that LED board is shot and just needs to be replaced? (i.e. can’t be repaired somehow?)

Unfortunately yes, the LED’s on the board are so tiny, replacing it without a robot isn’t possible. If you want a new one, you’d have to get an additional VB unit, since you can’t get the actual LED board anywhere else. (I had to get another donor VB for this reason, but it’s not a bad idea for other replacement parts as well) I recommend buying a “broken” one so you can get a cheaper donor since the displays may only need soldered to be fixed most of the time.