Are you able to test other games? Sometimes the game may not work. You should also try and clean the contacts of the cartridge port and the game itself, because unlike the GameBoy, the VB will not turn on if it doesn’t detect a game plugged in, if I understand that correctly.

For the rest of this post, I’m going to assume you are using an AC adapter. In theory, you could do the same thing with a six-double-A battery pack. Monrintari does have a point, it could be a loose connection from the controller. What you could do is use some wire and electrical tape and stick the wires into the barrel of the power supply and, paying attention to the polarity of the power supply, attach the other end of the wires to the contacts of the controller to make sure it’s not the AC tap causing the problem. I think the left contact, with the controller facing down, is the positive side. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, then you probably shouldn’t do that.

If you have a multimeter, you could check to see if you are getting the correct voltage out of the power supply, and if you do, you can use some wires to probe the 5th and 6th pin of the controller port to see if that voltage makes it through the controller.

If the voltage does make it through the controller, the next step is to check the voltage regulator. My system had a fauly voltage regulator, where the 5 volt pin was running significantly under 5 volts. That would cause the system to not show any signs of life.

Let’s say your problem is the voltage regulator. It’s probably not, but if it is, I am not aware of an easy fix for that short of buying another system and hoping the regulator is good. There was a recent post from speedyink showing a design for a supposed drop in replacement for that voltage regulator, but to my knowledge nothing like that is currently being produced.

Thanks for the tip, I’ll be sure to use that someday! Unfortunately though, my system seems to have shipped with a faulty voltage regulator, so I am not able to get it to work. I’m looking at getting another system that DOES have the proper tap, so if I can get that one, I won’t have to do it assuming it doesn’t arrive broken.

You are right though, if I were to do this again, I would make sure that the wires and socket are soldered, hot glued or otherwise solidly attached in a way that they would never easily come loose.

I would love for someone to give this a try some day, and maybe even sell it! After finding out that the voltage regulator on the VB i just got isn’t good, I would love to give that a try on a future system should that happen again some day.

Under normal circumstances, I would absolutely love to use official stuff, but what I can find on eBay is going for more than I can justify spending right now. It’s either $50 for an adapter on its own or $120 for that and a controller.

My original idea was to just stick the wires into the male end of the power supply, but I decided to play it a little smarter. I got a female jack with wire leads out the other end, and I plan to use some electrical tape to secure the wires and socket in place. In theory, nothing will come loose and short out.

I know this isn’t ideal, but it’s all I can really do right now. I do have a multimeter, so I am able to verify the voltage that the power supply outputs, and the polarity of the contact pins on the controller. I am absolutely aware that shorting wires is dangerous, that will be on my mind while I work on that.