So I bought a Virtual Boy a few years back, console controller and battery pack, and it has been working as recently as 08/2018 if my memory serves me right. I recently bought a few more games to round out my collection and went to test them and I could not get the console to power on. I’ve seen that I’m supposed to hear a hum or game audio but I have the volume up and I’ve held the headset to my ear (through the visor) and haven’t heard anything when it’s “powered” on

I tried new batteries, and tested the batteries and got a voltage reading from the battery pack, no luck.

I tried popping a game in and out of the console for 15 mins or so to try to loosen and dust or dirt, no luck

I tried cleaning the contacts on the controller and battery pack as one side was a bit corroded, no luck.

I bought a new controller from ebay (listed as working), no luck.

I’m wondering if anyone knows of any other suggestions? or maybe I should just be looking for an all around VB repair service?

try contact cleaner in the controller port

[Sephiroth112688]

I ordered some and tried it Sunday waiting till Monday night to turn it on again. No luck.

Edit: To be more specific I sprayed the contact cleaner into the plug on the end of the controller cable as well as the socket on the headset.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Sephiroth112688.

The one time I had an issue like this, it turned out to be a bent pin on one of the wire connectors leading into the motherboard. I removed the connector, straightened out the pin and then everything was fine.

If you’ve been messing around inside the VB, or if someone else has, it’s worth checking.

Sephiroth112688 wrote:
I ordered some and tried it Sunday waiting till Monday night to turn it on again. No luck.

Edit: To be more specific I sprayed the contact cleaner into the plug on the end of the controller cable as well as the socket on the headset.

when you sprayed it on here you put the plug in the hole in and out rapidly? that will clean the connection. if that doesnt work your power regular is likely dead on the motherboard. (little black board with red led)

Nes Freak wrote:

Sephiroth112688 wrote:
I ordered some and tried it Sunday waiting till Monday night to turn it on again. No luck.

Edit: To be more specific I sprayed the contact cleaner into the plug on the end of the controller cable as well as the socket on the headset.

when you sprayed it on here you put the plug in the hole in and out rapidly? that will clean the connection. if that doesnt work your power regular is likely dead on the motherboard. (little black board with red led)

I gave that a try last night and no luck. Do you know of any repair services for that?

litephiter wrote:
The one time I had an issue like this, it turned out to be a bent pin on one of the wire connectors leading into the motherboard. I removed the connector, straightened out the pin and then everything was fine.

If you’ve been messing around inside the VB, or if someone else has, it’s worth checking.

I haven’t tried opening the headset up yet(no idea about previous owners) but at this point I guess I’ve got nothing to lose?

You might as well. It’s an easy thing to check.

Another time one of the speakers on one of my VBs wasn’t working. Unplugging and reseating the connector that ran between the sound board and the motherboard fixed the issue.

If that doesn’t work, and contact cleaner doesn’t work, then you’ve eliminated all the easy-fix causes and you can start focusing on other things.

litephiter wrote:
You might as well. It’s an easy thing to check.

Another time one of the speakers on one of my VBs wasn’t working. Unplugging and reseating the connector that ran between the sound board and the motherboard fixed the issue.

If that doesn’t work, and contact cleaner doesn’t work, then you’ve eliminated all the easy-fix causes and you can start focusing on other things.

apologies for the the delay. Everything looks to be in order inside (had to wait for screwdriver to arrive).

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In my case, everything looked fine, too. It was only by unplugging and reseating those wire connectors that I discovered/resolved the problem.

They work sorta like the ZIF ribbon connectors you see on newer boards. There are little plastic tabs on each connector that you have to lift with a fingernail.

There’s a better than decent chance that your problem has nothing to do with these connectors. The only reason I’m suggesting it is that there’s a chance, and it’s easy enough to check.

If you plug in the controller and turn it on while it’s open like that, do you see a red LED come on anywhere inside the “guts” of the VB?

Ok I tried pulling out and reconnecting the two ribbon cables and no change. There is a red led that comes on located right next to the game.

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Do the mirrors start oscillating when you turn the system on? Try a game that starts with noise, like galactic pinball or Mario clash if you have them, that way you can deduce the problem. If the system starts playing the startup music for the games, then you know it’s reading the games properly and playing the sound. The virtual boy must have the mirrors oscillating at 60 Hz before it boots the game, so try inserting the game while the cover is off and watch if the mirrors start moving at all, if not the mirrors oscillation system might not be getting the signal to go.

I tried Mario Clash and Galactic pinball and now the red LED in the picture above won’t turn on.

I remember when the led was on there was no sounds or any movement with the mirrors.