I recently bought a tap and power adapter , i havent used my virtual boy in over 5 years. I tested the tap with a multimeter and its got juice. Any ideas of what the problem could be before i crack open the console?

(I assume you know to check for the hum of the scanner, and there isn’t one.)

You should check the connector on the controller to see if power is getting that far (making sure the switch is on, of course). Here is the pinout:

1. Data out
2. +5VDC (From VB)
3. Latch
4. Clock
5. GND
6. Battery/Tap voltage (+6-13VDC)

I fear that it may be the internal regulator board (it seems to be a fairly common cause of dead VBs). If so, it will have to be replaced; a somewhat involved procedure. See these two threads for more info.

Yeah, listen for any sort of activity… you should be able to slightly hear, feel, and see (if you look carefully, or shine a flashlight into the eye) the mirrors vibrating. If they don’t move, then you’ve probably got a power problem.

I assume you’ve tried putting in a game, turning the volume up and listening for static, or pressed start a bunch of times and listening for game sounds? The most common problem is bad display cables, so you could see nothing, but the mirrors and sound should still work.

Otherwise, yeah… check the power out of the controller, and if that looks fine, you’ve probably got a dead regulator (seems to be getting more common, though more related to power abuse, like hooking up power backwards, wrong voltage, etc). You can make your own with a 7805, though I wouldn’t use that from battery (inefficient and would kill the batteries quicker).

DogP