Hi, found your community just a while ago when retro wind passed by and i bought a Virtual Boy.
issue is that i got it really cheap (20dollars) and of course it doesn’t work
it powers on (displays moving and red powerled? inside) but no sound or video.
tested with 2 cartridges, opened virtual boy and cleaned cartridges pins with no result.
I recently had issues with one not accepting the cart if it was pushed in too firmly. Try pushing the cart in with different amounts of force, or pushing it in and then pulling very slightly on it, before applying power.
If the voltage regulator lights and the mirrors vibrate, it has to be a cartridge or cart port issue (or dead display cables; see below).
BTW, what carts did you try? Some games take a few button pushes and some waiting before they make any sounds. If the displays are completely gone (as in: the cable no longer makes any contact), you may just not know it’s running.
Hmm… It’s odd that the LED on the regulator is working when the regulator itself isn’t. Of course, that may be how it goes; I’ve never had one go out, personally.
But, if you have it powered up through the controller port, and it’s still not booting, I guess it’s time to start looking over the PCBs for damage. There could be a short, a broken solder joint, or a damaged trace. A regulator suddenly going out could be caused by a power rail being shorted to ground. Electrolytic capacitors are another possible culprit—they are getting up there in years, you know.
Have you checked all the internal cables and connectors? Maybe one is loose or making intermittent connection. Without being there to look at the “patient” first-hand, I can’t think of anything else to check.
Keep us apprised of what you find out. You may help save other VBs in the future!
yep, i wired 5v trough the controller port so i can’t use controller to press buttons , but picture isn,t coming either only popping sound and mirrors.
so i just have to search other faults like you said. better hope i find something.
virtualnoob wrote:
made custom regulator (capacitor,9k resistor and regulator)
now the mirrors turn on
but soon after powering on the voltages and current slowly drops near zero. im losing my hope on this : s
Don’t give up! We’ll find out what’s wrong, eventually.
What are you powering the regulator with? Make sure it can supply enough current and that it meets your custom regulator’s dropout voltage requirement (without exceeding it’s maximum voltage, of course).
Other than possibly insufficient input capacitance, that circuit looks fine to my very inexpert eyes ;-). I assume the RC timer is there to simulate the “power good” signal as described in this post/thread:
Do you have the means to test the reset signal? It’s possible the mirrors will still start even if this signal isn’t working, but the CPU probably requires it.
I’m still hoping it’s running and just not showing any outward signs (like bad display cables combined with a faulty audio amp or volume control).
