I’ve worked on my share of Nomads over the years and while the OEM screens these days are almost universally horrible, it can vary and that’s the gamble you take on a “for parts / untested” unit as you will not be able to see its condition until some repairs are already done.
Had a customer reach out to ask if I would diagnose and fix a Nomad with no power so it could then be recapped. Normally I would avoid but only because Ive seen this exact issue before and 99% of the time it’s a busted power jack or bad TR201, seemed like there was good odds it would be fixable… Which proved to be the case but ultimately still was a disappointment because of the OEM screen 😢
Started with a quick teardown and immediately knew someone had been messing around in here. Outer shell was missing most of the screws and the inside wasn’t any better, screen was only held in place with 1 and the sub board only with 2.
Once I got both boards out, I focused on the power jack area. The large cap at CE202 had leaked a bit but nearby traces looked ok and nothing immediately obvious on top side, then I flipped it over and… looks like someone had replaced the power jack and done a horrible job removing it and installing new one. several missing plated through-holes and a severed traced not even attached to the leg. Based on what I would discover my best guess is the TR201 failed and instead of diagnosing that they assumed it was bad power jack then tried replacing it… poorly!
Jack itself tested fine and looked in great shape (hence why I believe it was a recent replacement) so I desoldered it from the board, scrapped and tinned the traces/pad areas to bodge and then cleaned up under and around the jack. Reinstalled it in the board and carefully made sure all 3 legs had a solid connection to board and cleaned up any unspent flux.
Now that I knew power should be reaching the TR201 I tested that and found it was indeed receiving the correct voltage in but NOT outputting 5V where it should so I quickly assembled a replacement board from Alterac and soldered it in place, which allowed me to then confirm operation and discover… The screen was toast!
Looks to be polarizer damage. If you look closely, you can see some surface scratches on the LCD indicating pressure, though heat can do so as well, hard to tell. Handheld mode is basically unplayable in this condition, so I reached out to the customer and they asked about modern LCD options. Unfortunately, no good ones are in stock at the moment anywhere, the only one is from Hispeedido on Aliexpress but those do not work properly and are not worth the money so I’ve got eyes on a kit from ElectronShep that will hopefully be released soon.
Told customer I would get recap and board cleaning done so unit is fully refurbished and operation confirmed then we can revisit screen mod down the road if they want to send it back in (or if they choose to go elsewhere that technician will know it’s an LCD issue and rest of unit is now in good operational shape).
Recap is quite tedious on the sub board with so many SMD, but the main board is super quick. Console5 kit used and cleaned up all unspent flux then tested the unit for a while in RGB out mode to make sure it was playing games ok, sound was ok, etc.
There is a chance a polarizer replacement could be attempted here but I don’t offer that kind of service. Always sad to not end on a high note but ultimately, they are still in much better shape than before and perhaps you will see this same unit back here in the future for a nice LCD upgrade! Another order complete!