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Original DMG - Fix Missing Lines

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Fixing the missing lines

Sitting around for 30+ years, you can expect some original Game Boy to show these symptoms. Where lines start missing. Main issue here is the ribbon cable attachment to the glass lcd becoming loose.

Fortunately, there is a way to fix it.

Disassemble and get to the ribbon cable

There are tons of tutorials for this. But, few things to keep in mind.

  1. Make sure to remove the rubber gasket (or whatever you want to call it) from the ribbon.
  2. I also removed the adhesive. Apparently no need to do this

Fix the issue

While a lot of the tutorials show how to do this. Here are few things to keep in mind.

  1. Iron temperature - don't go beyond 500 F. 450 F seems to work just fine
  2. Angle you are holding the iron matters a lot
  3. Gentle pressure applied while iron is run over the ribbon
  4. Multiple passes. Lines appear after the ribbon cools. So keeping the iron on one spot doesn't help.

Completely satisfying!

Yay! I fixed it. It is a good feeling.

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