Is My NDS Bricked?

[exists]

Hey guys. I think my Nintendo DS might be fried. When I turn it on the LED power indicator shows red (low battery), the screen briefly flashes white, and the unit shuts off! The charge light doesn't come on when plugged in. Tried different outlets, but no luck.

I thought it might be the R4 so I tried a regular cartridge, but got pretty much the same result.

I looked online for answers, and people were saying the battery might be dead, but the NDS should at least work when plugged in, right? Every other device in the world seems to. Other people were saying it might be a fuse or something, but I really don't want to start spending money until I have a good idea of what's going on. I don't have a second unit, otherwise I'd be testing the adapter and battery.

It all started after last Thanksgiving. I let my nephews play the NDS, and told them to Keep The Tesla Coil Away From It (they might have already messed up a few other electronic toys with it). I even made sure the Tesla coil was unplugged, but at one point I saw that they had it out and were playing with it again!

At least I can still emulate the NDS on the computer, but I'd really like to have the actual device working again. Any ideas would really be appreciated!

 

[Tude]

A DS isn't all that expensive. It'll probably cost you the same to just get a new one.

 

[MagickalKat777]

Sure your charging port isn't broken? Because if it turns on then the battery isn't drained to 0 so that's not it.

By the way, DraStic for Android is by far the best emulator for DS I've ever seen. It flies!

 

[exists]

A DS isn't all that expensive. It'll probably cost you the same to just get a new one.

Yeah, I guess I could get a new one, a DS Lite maybe, since the R4 will work for both. But I *really* hate having nonworking devices laying around. It seems like a waste to me.

Sure your charging port isn't broken? Because if it turns on then the battery isn't drained to 0 so that's not it.

Not sure. Like I said, the battery light shows red, which indicates a low charge, and the charging light never comes on

By the way, DraStic for Android is by far the best emulator for DS I've ever seen. It flies!

I don't have any Android devices The fastest setup I have currently is DeSmuME JIT 0.9.10 running on my Windows 8 laptop. Runs at 60 fps, but with occasional hiccups. Unfortunately, my Phillips retractable gamepad is hella laggy. I do have an original XBOX gamepad that once worked just fine with Windows XP (using a USB connector), but it never worked with Windows 8. For some reason, Windows XP no longer recognizes the XBOX controller at all, which sucks very badly

Can anyone recommend a good PC gamepad? At this point only RPGs are worth playing, as they don't require super-fast reflexes. I was thinking about getting an XBOX 360 controller w/ USB converter, but I really like gamepads that have parallel analog sticks.

Also, does anyone know of any good SNES gamepad brands? I got my mom one of those FCTwin consoles awhile back (she's a Tetris fiend), but the controllers bit the dust early on. So I got her some Tomee-brand controllers as a replacement, but they gave up the ghost faster than the FCTwin controllers!

 

[MagickalKat777]

Personally, I think that the best gamepad by far is the PS3 controller. MotionInJoy will let you use it with Windows with a little configuration although I'm not terribly sure how well it works on Windows 8, I dropped back to Windows 7 after Windows 8.1 caused my HD 3000 to flicker.

Outside of that, I have a Saitek P2600 and I'm quite fond of it although it doesn't have buttons under each analog stick - that said, there are few games that use those buttons anyway. I use it for PS2, SNES, GC, DC, NES, PSP, and PSX emulation without issue. I also don't use drivers with it which is a big plus because it works with anything by just configuring the buttons.

Your DS issue really does sound like a case of a broken charging port. If you keep turning the thing on, it will eventually drain the battery completely and then it won't come on at all anymore.

 

[exists]

Personally, I think that the best gamepad by far is the PS3 controller. MotionInJoy will let you use it with Windows with a little configuration although I'm not terribly sure how well it works on Windows 8, I dropped back to Windows 7 after Windows 8.1 caused my HD 3000 to flicker.

Outside of that, I have a Saitek P2600 and I'm quite fond of it although it doesn't have buttons under each analog stick - that said, there are few games that use those buttons anyway. I use it for PS2, SNES, GC, DC, NES, PSP, and PSX emulation without issue. I also don't use drivers with it which is a big plus because it works with anything by just configuring the buttons.

Thanks, MKat, I'll check out those options.

It was nice having an XBOX controller working, since by already having an XBOX, I could use the controller for both. It seems awfully suspicious to me that Windows XP would no longer recognize the gamepad... Makes me think I'm being hacked.

And I could care less about those buttons under the analog sticks. They're only truly useful for games they were meant to work with in the 1st place.

Your DS issue really does sound like a case of a broken charging port. If you keep turning the thing on, it will eventually drain the battery completely and then it won't come on at all anymore.

At this point I'd be happy with a hack that let me use the NDS without any battery whatsoever. Why can't the NDS be like all other devices, and actually work without a battery? Probably just Nintendo trying to increase profits

 

[MagickalKat777]

I've never owned an XBOX so I can't help you there. I had a 360 but I never even thought to use its controller with Windows (I have always preferred PlayStation controllers to any others) even though Microsoft supports it out of the box.

As for your DS, a lot of devices won't work without batteries. If you plug a modern phone in without a battery, it may not power up at all or it could give you a nice annoying bright red LED like Samsung does. I have never researched why they do this.