I usually play Game Boy and Game Boy Color on my Game Boy Advance. But this weekend I had my original Nintendo Game Boy out, and discovered that there were some AA batteries inside that had a 1998 expiration date on them. Needless to say, there was some corrosive penetration of the outer steel shell by some potassium hydroxide, forming feathery crystalline structure that grew and spread out from the batteries, leading to oxidation of copper traces and other components. In other words, the old batteries leaked inside the Game Boy.
I tried cleaning off the battery terminals with some baking soda, which got the bulk of it, but the terminals were just covered with a layer of black crud (using more scientific terms) and when I put it all back together again, it still didn’t work. Took it all apart again and physically removed the battery terminals (after unscrewing some of the circuit boards). Scrapped and scrapped at them with some blades and steel wool until they shined, put it all together again and… the plastic cover over the screen fell right off. It looked like the old glue just failed. Cleaned that up, glued it back on, put some fresh batteries inside, and presto! Working Game Boy! Not what I was expecting to do last night, but I’m glad it’s working good as new.
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