Hi everyone,

I just bought a Virtual Boy cheap at a garage sale today. After spending some time scrubbing the dust and grime off, I started it up, and to my disappointment, I couldn’t see anything on the screen. The sound worked fine, and from pressing random buttons and listening, the game (Mario Tennis) seemed to work fine. I just couldn’t see anything.

This was the first time I’ve ever had an opportunity to play a Virtual Boy before, so I don’t know very much about how the system works. Is this something that can be fixed, or should I just be happy knowing that I now own a rare piece of Nintendo history to display at my apartment?

Sounds like a real bad case of glitchy displays. If the sound works, that means the VB does work. There are ways to fix the displays, some more difficult (and permanent) than others (not permanent).

Take a look here:
http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3295&forum=1

I myself use this method, which is quite doable and doesn’t need chemicals:

PeckGoesVirtual wrote:
Hey everyone,

I’ve found another method for the soldering fix! 😀 , its not my own but I figured it might help some people out if I posted it here. :thumpup:

it’s allot less complicated compared to the method using NaOH to expose the copper tracks and has fewer procedures to go through to get the tracks soldered down 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQC4c9Lylg4

Also posted here with some more information:
http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=8767

TheForce81, I’ve seen from other posts that you’ve done repairs for members here in the past. Do you still do them? I have two bad VBs with four displays that I’d like to have fixed. I’d be shipping from the US, but I can do the disassembly and just send the displays.

Feel free to send me a private message if you can help.

Yes, I still do, see your PM!