Gameboy Adavance Repair

A friend of mine knows that I like to salvage and repair anything that is broken, so he recently gave me his old gameboy advance that no longer turns on. So I loaded 2x AA batteries, flick the power button on, the LED indicator blink green and red and immediately went out, so there’s hope. It’s also missing the battery cover.

Current condition - broken screen, dust everywhere especially in the speaker grill

After removing the back cover, it’s not too bad inside honestly.

Flipping the board upside down, I discovered what seems to be the root cause, it’s a blown up component. After quick googling around for schematics, the component is called Power Transformer. It used to be covered by a cap, but that was blown into pieces, exposing the wounded up coils.

Looking around on ebay and locally, I cant seem to find the parts so my only option is to look further east, way further! Good old Aliexpress has everything, including the part that i needed.

I placed the order and while waiting for the parts to arrive, which could take months. I decided to give the rest of the shell a clean since I already dismantled it anyway. Poppin the LCD out of the case

After many cotton buds and sprays of IPA, toothbrush here and there.

Printed the backcover in gold color

So once I have received all the parts, I will post a follow up.