I recently stumbled over these Game Boy boards (main and display) on an online action platform. They were listed as "for spare parts and repairs" and really cheap, so I took the risk.

I connected the boards, hooked them up to my bench power supply, inserted a game (Bart vs. The Juggernauts) and got my hopes up for a second.

The game was actually starting up, the sound was coming out loud and crisp, but the display had a lot of dead stripes. Vertical stripes are usually fixable (see my post for details) but the horizontal ones typically mean game over.

I tried for a bit, but actually made it worse. The black "stain" in the center of the display is the result of these efforts 🤦.

Replacements Needed

Since I only had the plain boards anyway, the plan had always been to get a new shell for this Game Boy. With the display turning out the be unfixable, I extended my search to a new display as well. I haven't done full display mods before (however, I had done a backlight mod a few years ago) and was quite surprised by the cheap IPS mods available (on AliExpress and the likes). So I figured, I would give this a try and ordered a kit.

I got a new shell - translucent, of course 🤓.

And a full IPS display kit.

Assembling the Parts

I was pleasantly surprised by how the easy the whole process was from here (although I'm not sure what I had actually expected 😆). The whole process was like building LEGO - no soldering required.

First, I put the buttons and speaker into the new shell.

Then, I connected and screwed in the new IPS display board.

Finally, I connected the new display board with the original mainboard via the ribbon cable again.

I closed the case back up, turned it on and there was "Bart vs. the Juggernauts" running smoothly 😎.

Final Test

Then I did what I also do with new or repaired Game Boy consoles: I quickly start and play through Kung Fu Master - my first ever Game Boy game and the one I have played through most often so far.