Switching nintendo DS lite cases due to broken hinge

tiamai_d

My sons DS lite has a broken right hinge, it's completely off, but the DS still works fine.

Nintendo want £35-£50 (can not give price till I send it away) but I see that eBay have full replacement cases for about £15 and he can choose the colour he wants.

How easy is this to do?

scottishf

I bought a replacement case recently......but when i looked at the tutorials on how to go about the replacement, there was just so many fiddly bits that could go wrong. There was a chap on ebay that did the replacements but i ended up not doing it in the end. i bought the housing here
and there is a video tutorial here. Hope this helps

tiamai_d

Thank you!

DH used to make microchips circuit boards and stuff so he is used to fiddly bits! I'll get him to do it. Great tutorial, thanks very much for that.

scottishf

Let me know how he gets on, and i might make my daughter happy by attempting to change her silver ds to a pink one hee hee

tiamai_d

LOL! we have 3 in this house! An original DS that is looking very tatty and scratched and occasionally wont play games, that DS2 (3) plays with, and 2 black DS lites, one for me and one for DS1. The broken one was bought for £50 from a pawn shop! Now if I could find mine :rolleyes: I'd maybe change it to the red one... but funnily enough... nobody knows where it is....

scottishf

Is an original Ds that my little one has....but im lothed to start messing around with it...im going to try and pick up a broken one at a boot sale or something...to practice....before i let myself loose on hers

ajchamb

Hi this post may be a bit late but I did buy a replacement ds lite case from a seller on e-bay for approx £20.00 (it came from Hong Kong and looks exactly the same as an official Nintendo case but I suspect it isn't official, it also came with a magnetized screw driver in the kit, essential for working on the DS )
I downloaded a PDF file to explain the process took a deep breath went ahead.
The process is fiddly and you need to be aware of not losing the tiny screws and bit and pieces however with a bit of patience 2 hours later I had a new looking Nintendo ds for my son who was delighted and saved myself a good £80.00 .
There are companies who will change the case for you with a saving of half the cost of the machine , however I would recommend the DIY route and if it needs to be done again I will be able to do it in half the time plus the satisfaction that goes with it.

tiamai_d

Thanks ajchamb, I went ahead and ordered a replacement case from eBay (coming from hong kong). They sent a link to a site that details how to change it and it looks fiddly but possible. DH is used to this type of work anyway, and a friend has changed them before so we should manage it ok.

Just waiting on delivery now... :rolleyes:

Ally

We ordered replacement covers. O/H tried to do it but DS is now useless as one of the flat wire thingies came undone. I fixed it back into position, but still no joy .... have had to get a replacement one now

not please about it at all