Video Game Repairs in Raleigh, NC

This one was truly a diamond in the rough. Brought in a Switch console where buyer stated that it, "turned on, but the power button didn't work." 🤔 When I started testing, sure enough the power button didn't work, but I could get it to turn on when plugged in with the original charging cable. I opened it up and saw some liquid damage around the power button connector, so I cleaned it up with some isopropyl alcohol and the power button started working! Easy peasy, right? If only ...

Once the power button issue was fixed, I went to turn the console OFF and the fan started blowing at full power! The console was completely powered down, no overheating or anything, and the fan just continued blowing until I turned the console ON again. No matter what I tried, the fan kept doing this every time I shut down the Switch. I was baffled!

So what does any technician do when they can't figure something out? Ask Google 😁 And for the first time in my life, Google failed me😱 Across the entire internet, I only found 2 forums where someone had reported this problem, and NOBODY HAD EVER FOUND THE SOLUTION! At this point, I was determined to be the first. Challenge accepted ...

There were no obvious short-circuits on the board, so I resorted to a voltage trace to see where the fan was getting power from when the console was in shutdown mode. After a couple hours of effort, I finally found a tiny BGA chip on the back side of the board where one of its capacitors was showing the same 5 volt reading I found on the fan connector. On a hunch, I pulled the chip and replaced it with the same part from one of my donor boards, and voila! The fan was back to normal!! I LOVE a good challenge, and I was happy to contribute this knowledge to the internet for other techs to use in the future.

Are you facing a challenging problem with your Nintendo Switch? Send me a message, and let's get it fixed!

My most recent job was a Switch console reporting an error code on boot: 2134-0501. Research indicated that this was an issue with the power management chip embedded in the motherboard, so the first step was attempting to replace this IC to see if the problem was fixed.

When I first opened the casing, I was amazed by the amount of dust buildup behind the heat shield 😱 I can only speculate what caused the power management issue, but overheating due to dust buildup like this is a pretty strong candidate. This was a good reminder of how important it is to keep your game consoles in an open, well-ventilated space!

Cleaning all of the dust bunnies took some time and TLC, but it's an important first step to make sure the same problem doesn't happen again. Using hot air to melt the solder joints, I pulled the existing chip and replaced it with the same part that I pulled from a donor board. Luckily, this was enough to get it working again - a successful and relatively simple surgery!

If your Nintendo Switch ever has problems charging, turning on, or throws an error code like this, send me a message and let's get it fixed!