I have an original Game Boy (DMG-01) that needs to be repaired. It doesn't power on and there is heavy battery corrosion on the battery terminals. This is common with these units especially since many of them had batteries that were left in them long past their expiration dates resulting in leaking acid from the batteries.

The full repair video can be viewed below. That being said if you want to take on a similar repair you are going to need a few items to complete it.

1. Distilled Vinegar
2. Toothbrush
3. tri-wing screw driver (some call this a tri-tip)
4. Phillips screw driver
5. Pick & Tweezers 
5. Soldering iron + flux + solder wick + solder (Optional)

The first thing you need to do is dissemble the Game Boy, by removing the battery cover, removing any batteries and then removing all 6 tri-wing screws.




once the screws are removed you can separate the shell, but be careful as there is a ribbon cable that plugs the screen into the main board. This needs to be pulled out of the socket before you can fully separate the shell. There are no locking tabs on this socket, its a friction socket design, so a bit of force pulling on the cable will remove it. Likewise that is also how you will plug the ribbon cable back in when you are done repairing the Game Boy.




There are 4 Phillips head screws holding the system board in place. Once removed it pulls out of the shell. If you have corrosion on the battery terminals that are soldered to the board this could take a bit of work to get those parts to release as the shell is only slightly larger than the components. Watch the video below for the full repair and to see how to do it.

Video goes live 6/18/2024 10AM Eastern