Some regions of the touchscreen are imprecise on a DS Lite

[mrparrot2]

Hello, folks.

So recently I ran across an used DS lite that was given to me. The overall health of the system was excellent at a first look:
1. The shell is in excellent shape. No visible scratches or anything.
2. The battery seems to be working very well even after years of not being turned on.
3. It was missing the GBA cover. However, GBA games worked fine on the first attempt.
4. It failed to launch any DS games on Slot-1. Taking a closer look I found that one of the pins on the slot reader were bent. I unbent it with a knife and managed to get it to boot an `Acekard 2`. It doesn't boot 100% all the time, but seems to work most of the time.
5. It had a DSTT flashcard on Slot-1 which is not working at all. My DSi report the card (on unlaunch) to have all checksums as 0, so I think the card was somehow damaged with the pin being bent.
6. There is no visible damage on any of the screens, and also no visible scratches on any screens.

But here is the catch: The touch screen have zones where it doesn't register the region touched precisely, i.e. it registers the touch point a few pixels to the side. I tried calibrating the screen but regardless how precise I am on this, it keeps annoyingly imprecise. So I am wondering what could have happened to this DS and what could be done to fix this. I do not see evidence of trauma, liquid damage, or anything bad on it.

 

[JuanMena]

Hello, folks.

So recently I ran across an used DS lite that was given to me. The overall health of the system was excellent at a first look:
1. The shell is in excellent shape. No visible scratches or anything.
2. The battery seems to be working very well even after years of not being turned on.
3. It was missing the GBA cover. However, GBA games worked fine on the first attempt.
4. It failed to launch any DS games on Slot-1. Taking a closer look I found that one of the pins on the slot reader were bent. I unbent it with a knife and managed to get it to boot an `Acekard 2`. It doesn't boot 100% all the time, but seems to work most of the time.
5. It had a DSTT flashcard on Slot-1 which is not working at all. My DSi report the card (on unlaunch) to have all checksums as 0, so I think the card was somehow damaged with the pin being bent.
6. There is no visible damage on any of the screens, and also no visible scratches on any screens.

But here is the catch: The touch screen have zones where it doesn't register the region touched precisely, i.e. it registers the touch point a few pixels to the side. I tried calibrating the screen but regardless how precise I am on this, it keeps annoyingly imprecise. So I am wondering what could have happened to this DS and what could be done to fix this. I do not see evidence of trauma, liquid damage, or anything bad on it.

Multiple touching the touchscreen can damage it as well as using light touch force.
I don't think there's anything you can do software-wise to fix a hardware issue.

Not sure though, if disconnecting the Touchscreen and connecting it again could "reset it", but it might as well get the digitizer entirely replaced.

 

[Indy13]

As @JuanMena said, it's unlikely you can fix this without opening the console but you can still try using Diagnose to:

1. do a general test (it doesn't hurt)

2. repair possibly dead pixels

3. recalibrate the touch screen with a different app than the DS


Diagnose :

https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/Diagnose

 

[UK_Ray]

I would just replace the touch screen.

If it isn't calibrating correctly then it's faulty, replacing it gives you the comfort of knowing it is going to last.

Some people press the stylus harder than others, some use these big daft stylus which also get pushed to hard,

There is also a chance that someone may have fitted a replacement touch screen which could have just been faulty.

Here's one I fitted a couple of weeks ago, it was brand new, cost £6, everything was fine with the exception of the top corner when setting the date, as you can see in the picture, the up arrow is highlighted to show it's being pressed but I'm clearly touching it outside the area.



If you do replace the digitizer, beware of buying the 'cheapest' ones, I ordered 3 from a Chinese site, when they arrived they all 3 were faulty! I knew they were faulty before fitting them as if you tap the stylus across them (pretty much in all the green starts in the picture below)



The sound the stylus makes should be the same, if you tap an area that seems flat or hollow and has no 'bounce' I wouldn't bother fitting it and would get a replacement sent.

I know this sounds fussy but if I'm charging someone to replace their touch screen or fitting one on a console that I'm going to sell, I like to be confident that it is going to last, it saves bad reviews, bad feedback or having to dismantle it to fit a replacement a few months later.

 

[mrparrot2]

So I have just spoken with the previous owner and she said there was no screen replacement and the touchscreen have always been a little 'off'. She got it brand new so it is possible that this unity was faulty from factory or she damaged the screen on early usage.

I looked into some digitizers on aliexpress and the comments says they are imprecise. So I wonder if it is actually worth investing in a replacement if this won't be 100% fixed...