I recently acquired my first Virtual Boy. I’ve been reading up on it, as much as possible. The dreaded horizontal lines issue kept coming up, so I was wondering what might cause this, and if was at all avoidable. Is the room’s [where you operate the VB] temperature a factor? Or perhaps, its humidity? If you have any tricks to prevent this from happening or any thoughts related, please let me know. Thank you!

Unfortunately, the displays failing in any form is only avoidable or preventable if you get your displays soldered before the issue arises in the first place. Otherwise, your displays will eventually show some sort of glitchy problem, due to the fact that simply glue was used to hold the cables to the PCBs.

It is possible to delay the inevitable, but not avoid it. When you are not using your Virtual Boy, it is recommended that you turn the IPD dial located on top of the Virtual Boy all the way to the left (as counterclockwise as it can go). This will put the least amount of strain on the cables, which are nevertheless going to separate from the PCBs inside the Virtual Boy someday, if you don’t get them soldered to stay in place permanently.

There is actually an Ebay seller now, who offers the solder-fix service for what looks like a reasonable price:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Virtual-Boy-Permanent-Fix-Lines-on-screen-distorted-display-/152080381025?hash=item2368b27461:g:uqwAAOSwLs5XK7vR

Whether you wait until the display problem arises or not, you can get your displays soldered, so that you won’t ever have to worry about the display problem either in the first place or else ever again.

Thank you Benjamin, for taking time to explain all this to a noob. I’m REALLY glad this site exist. Cheers!