I opened up my Virtual Boy today to check on some weirdness with one of the speakers, and while I was poking around inside, I noticed that some insulation on some of the wires is starting to crack.

Take a look at the attached picture. Those green wires, where they bend to meet the motherboard, all have maybe half a millimetre of exposed wire. I noticed there were some cracks forming on the wires on the sound PCB as well, where they bend to meet the connectors.

Has anyone else noticed this happening with their Virtual Boys? If so, does anyone know what causes it, other than pure mechanical stress on the wire?

And am I right in assuming that this problem will get worse over time?

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I believe this is normal. I have opened a LOT of VBs, and they have all looked similar (although with various amounts of exposed wire).

I think it’s just a side-effect of how they prepared the wires for insertion in the connectors. The wires inside are plated, anyway, so it shouldn’t affect anything, really.

If you’re super-paranoid about it, you could paint on some kind of conformal-coating or liquid electrical tape, but do a neat job, and make sure whatever you use cures thoroughly before you close the VB back up.

RunnerPack wrote:
I believe this is normal. I have opened a LOT of VBs, and they have all looked similar (although with various amounts of exposed wire).

I think it’s just a side-effect of how they prepared the wires for insertion in the connectors. The wires inside are plated, anyway, so it shouldn’t affect anything, really.

If you’re super-paranoid about it, you could paint on some kind of conformal-coating or liquid electrical tape, but do a neat job, and make sure whatever you use cures thoroughly before you close the VB back up.

This, all the Virtual Boys I have opened all look like what you posted here. I do understand the need for confirmation, but it is nothing to worry about.

Okay, well. I’m glad it’s normal, at least.

It does worry me a little that the wire sheathing fails under normal strain, though. I wonder if the engineer who picked out the wires was the same one who decided to glue on the display ribbons?

Or who designed the stand? Could be the bean counters’ fault. 😉

completely normal dont worry about it. ive fixed over 150 virtual boys. they are like this from the factory.