Had a few consoles arrive from Mexico for some much-needed repair, first up (and much easier of the two) was this Virtual Boy!
Customer mentioned no image in either eye which is super common problem, though I would find out it couldn’t be fully repaired later on sadly…
Job began with a full teardown of the shell and removal of all internals. Things are quite compact in the VB but modular and remove easy enough. Once I got the shell apart, I also took out the VUE riser board (plastic) and both adjustment dial parts and eye covers and got it all soaking in the tub and then thoroughly scrubbed and set aside to dry.
When it comes to the Virtual Boy, I have also found it quite common to have cold/cracked joints on the audio amp board which presents with crackling or no audio, so I ALWAYS reflow those joints as a preventative measure. Tackled recapping all 3 boards one at a time starting with the aforementioned AMP board then Servo and Vue (order of reassembly)
Using a quality cap kit from Console5 it’s an overall pretty quick recap job!
With the recap done and out of the way, it was time for the primary task, lens ribbon replacement.
Some elect to solder the stock ribbons but its messy, and there are other solutions out there that really suck (SegaSonicFans VirtualRibbon is garbage, avoid at all costs!) so I stock a large quantity of Cardosi Customs VB “Eyepatch” and include 2 brand new ribbons in the cost of my service. I was able to do this thanks to him offering generously discounted ribbons when purchased in large quantities at once!
I take my xacto knife and gently score the old silicone bead on the lens/ribbon joint, then carefully peel while applying hot air. After removal, a K tip with generous blob of solder and flux burns off the old glue while also tinning the pads, 2 birds with 1 stone!
I then tin the underside of the new ribbons, apply a layer of flux and “Stick” the new ribbons in place and carefully align (needs to be pretty damn perfect) then Kapton tape the center to hold, solder both edges then remove tape and work my way up and down across the ribbon to flow evenly and make sure all castellated vias are connected securely
Once done with both, clean up the leftover flux and the hardest part of the job is complete!
With the shell dry and all work done, re-assembly begins! again its tight but modular so it’s just a matter of putting the parts back in with the reverse order. While reassembling I noticed the IPS and focus rails were quite stiff and squeaky, so I applied some Shin Etsu grease to contact points and that fixed it right up!
I also quickly buffed out the red plastic eye covers with some PolyWatch to remove most of the scratched and make seeing easier. Got it all back together and confirmed the unit fires up, display an image in both eyes and plays audio which it did all of the above, however… my heart sank a bit when I realized there were 3 horizontal lines of missing pixels. I took out the affected eye, swapped them and confirmed the issue followed the lens to the left side of the board. I quickly removed the ribbon and tried another just to confirm it wasn’t possibly a ribbon issue (unlikely) and problem persisted.
I had heard that some VB lenses naturally lose some LEDs with age and use and I chatted with Cardosi briefly and he confirmed my symptoms. Sadly, once that happens nothing you can do besides source and replace the lens itself which cost about half of a full virtual boy alone
Reached out to the customer and explained the situation. I was definitely feeling bummed, but customer was appreciative of all the work and stated “still way more playable than it was before” which was a good point. Before it got here, you couldn’t see a single pixel in either eye, now both were working minus those 3 lines.
With some more testing I found it to be not super noticeable on games that feature heavy black backgrounds with red overlay (most games) and more on the games with lots of red. Still playable but annoying
Can’t win them all I suppose but overall, still a successful repair and on to the next!