[KR155E]

Due to a bad design choice made by Nintendo, every Virtual Boy will sooner or later suffer from faulty displays that show horizontal or vertical lines or are messed up in other ways. This is due to the cables leading to the displays being held in place by glue rather than proper solder connections. In case your Virtual Boy shows the typical symptoms, here’s a list of nice guys who offer their services to permanently fix your console(s) by soldering the display cables.

• TheForce81 (The Netherlands)
• Nes Freak (Forum) (USA)
• bennybtl (USA)
• HP Lovethrash (USA)

• This topic was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by KR155E.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by KR155E.

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Good one to have stickied! I do still repair them and probably will indefinitely.

thank you for the shout out 😛

Feel free to add me to the list as well for the USA. I’ve done a couple units and would be more than happy to help other members out.

I’m willing to do this repair in exchange for Virtual Boy games and accessories. If you have any of the following laying around:

VB controllers (working or not)
VB games (working or not)
VB game dust covers
VB eye-shades
VB stands
VB AC adapters
VB battery packs
Anything VB!
I would also gladly trade for Game Boy games and hardware.

I could do it for money, but I’m just going to spend it on this stuff anyways. So just toss this stuff in when you mail your VB or ribbons! Send me a PM and we’ll work something out. I’m located in the US.

I have two VBs that I had repaired. I sent one to TheForce81 and the other to HP Lovethrash. It’s been over 2 years and they both work great. Thanks guys!

Just wanted to publicly thank TheForce81 for fixing my VB screen. I found him and this forum searching for a screen fix.

I am looking for some help in fixing a non-functioning unit, located in London.

Krisse this is for your old unit that you sold me a long time ago. I’d like to get it working but don’t know where to start! I tried to buy a loose unit from eBay and just use that but they’re all advertised as non-working and I’d rather give some spend and support to a community guru that better understands these fine machines 🙂

TheForce81 I will send you a request in the hope you can help me out – thanks! 🙂

What’s not working?
I wager between getting the lenses soldered and this:
https://console5.com/store/virtual-boy-cap-kit.html
you’ll probably be off to the races

I have sent and mp to TheForce81 as I have begun to have problems with one my units.

trueskins wrote:
I have sent and mp to TheForce81 as I have begun to have problems with one my units.

Replied!

Just want to write about my experience with TheForce81, as I sent my displays to him to be solder repaired over the holidays and they have been fully fixed! Extremely cooperative and nice guy, he kept in regular contact with me, and I appreciate him holding on to them for a while. The work done was very rapid and high quality, and the dispatch was quick so I got them back in no time.

I really want to commend this guy for doing brilliant work for this community, he even helped guide me through the process of putting them back in and having to adjust them (which thankfully wasn’t necessary). Thanks a lot Force81!!

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Hi I Sent not one but 3 VB to be repaired. One of them was a hard work, as I had been supossedly repaired some years ago, but by someone who didn’t know what he was doing….

So I can just highly recommend TheForce81 to everyone. Thanks!

I have a VB that needs repair. The left eye seems washed out / too bright and the right eye has lines going through it. The last time I used my VB, I just had to leave it on for an hour or so and all the interference was gone…but that’s not working anymore.

I was hoping to get a permanent fix for the eyes, plus have two VirtalTap kits installed: One VGA and one RGB (I already have both kits). Is there anyone in the NYC area, or within a short shipping distance that can do this?

RetroRGB wrote:
I have a VB that needs repair. The left eye seems washed out / too bright and the right eye has lines going through it. The last time I used my VB, I just had to leave it on for an hour or so and all the interference was gone…but that’s not working anymore.

I was hoping to get a permanent fix for the eyes, plus have two VirtalTap kits installed: One VGA and one RGB (I already have both kits). Is there anyone in the NYC area, or within a short shipping distance that can do this?

PM sent!

Hey there. So I am pretty excited to join this community and spent a decent amount of money on a VB from Ebay that was from a good reputable games seller and they said the system had been inspected and worked well. I paid a bit of a premium for the peace of mind.

However, after getting the unit and trying it out, there are definitely some issues with the screens. I know some of these problems are typical and that the repair services in this thread can fix them, but some of the issues I haven’t seen addressed on this or other forums, so I don’t really know.

My left screen is very dim, I can hardly see it and can’t make anything out on it. The camera picks it up, but my eyes do not. The game seems to work fine out of this lens, but it is constantly blurry (due to a mirrored image?) in the pics, and I’m thinking perhaps there is an issue with the mirrors not oscillating. There are also horizontal lines across the top or bottom.

The right screen starts up fine, and the brightness is good. After about a minute it gets the telltale glitchy “The Matrix” look that I know is repairable, but after about another 30 seconds, it turns to mostly just a single bright thick line. I haven’t seen any examples of the thick line in other people’s posts.

Like RetroRGB, I plan on having my unit modded with a VirtualTap, so in theory, I would only need one good screen anyways, but given the premium I paid for the console, I would kind of like the system to work so that I have the option to play the console either with an external monitor OR through the viewfinder. If the right side monitor could be repaired and the left can not, it still might be worth it to tap off that one, but with the glitch turning into a thick line, I’m not sure even that is a possibility.

I have attached a picture below that shows the issues I’m talking about. If a modder has experience and can tell me whether my issues are fixable and worth the effort, or whether I should just return the item and try my luck with another unit, I would really appreciate it.

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brumbie13 wrote:
Hey there. So I am pretty excited to join this community and spent a decent amount of money on a VB from Ebay that was from a good reputable games seller and they said the system had been inspected and worked well. I paid a bit of a premium for the peace of mind.

However, after getting the unit and trying it out, there are definitely some issues with the screens. I know some of these problems are typical and that the repair services in this thread can fix them, but some of the issues I haven’t seen addressed on this or other forums, so I don’t really know.

My left screen is very dim, I can hardly see it and can’t make anything out on it. The camera picks it up, but my eyes do not. The game seems to work fine out of this lens, but it is constantly blurry (due to a mirrored image?) in the pics, and I’m thinking perhaps there is an issue with the mirrors not oscillating. There are also horizontal lines across the top or bottom.

The right screen starts up fine, and the brightness is good. After about a minute it gets the telltale glitchy “The Matrix” look that I know is repairable, but after about another 30 seconds, it turns to mostly just a single bright thick line. I haven’t seen any examples of the thick line in other people’s posts.

If your mirrors weren’t oscillating, you wouldn’t have a picture – the VB works by spinning mirrors at 50Hz, while flashing LEDs at them in certain patterns. The flash-n-spin is so quick and precise that it tricks your eyes into seeing a complete image, rather than the single staggered line of flashing LEDs.

Like RetroRGB, I plan on having my unit modded with a VirtualTap, so in theory, I would only need one good screen anyways, but given the premium I paid for the console, I would kind of like the system to work so that I have the option to play the console either with an external monitor OR through the viewfinder. If the right side monitor could be repaired and the left can not, it still might be worth it to tap off that one, but with the glitch turning into a thick line, I’m not sure even that is a possibility.

I have attached a picture below that shows the issues I’m talking about. If a modder has experience and can tell me whether my issues are fixable and worth the effort, or whether I should just return the item and try my luck with another unit, I would really appreciate it.

As to why your left screen is dim – I couldn’t say for absolute certainty, but a few things come to mind: 1) Your left plastic eyepiece needs cleaning 2) For some reason, the left LED board is undervolted (it requires 5V – perhaps the trace on the cable is partially corroded) 3) the LED board has been previously replaced by a working one from a DIFFERENT VB unit, one that simply wasn’t as bright.

Now for your right screen – almost without exception, visual defects of this kind occur because the ribbon cables that attach the LED board to the motherboard on the VB are glued (GLUED!) onto the LED board instead of soldered. Nintendo cheaped out on this, which is absolutely baffling.

Aside from the gimmicky cables and the fragile mirrors, the VB is a very solid device – I would be absolutely shocked if I couldn’t get this up and running for you. I have modded my own VB with the VirtualTap, and am a very experienced solder monkey.

I, amongst others on this site, would be more than happy to take a look at your console and repair those lenses for you.

Just posting up to say I’ve been in Contact with Dan about the issues. Thanks for the help!

Joined the forum to inquire about just this.

I recently acquired a real score Virtual Boy wise except unsurprisingly the video output is dead. You can see here https://twitter.com/robinhoodie/status/1102717946110099457 . But yeah, I am looking to get the system fully operational. I would be fine with just having Furrtek’s VirtualTap installed and using the system that way without the 3D elements but my timing is terrible and he is no longer selling that device.

Just curious what you all think would be the best course of action?

I personally enjoy staring right into the actual VB and getting the full 3D experience.

I mean I certainly am kind of torn. As a showcase piece it would be cool to have the unit functioning as intended. I am casting around for offers to do the solder fix right now. Do users here feel like that is a good long term solution for keeping the system up and running?