Hi I was just wondering if anyone has changed the case on their ds lite, and how easy is it to do???? The hinge has just cracked on my little girls DS Lite, i've contacted nintendo about a price for repair as it's out of warranty and this was their reply. In general terms, minor repairs to the DS/DS Lite and DSi are charged at £30.50 (repairs outside of warranty period) and major repairs to the DS/DS Lite and DSi are charged at £55.02 ( misuse or physical damage). I can pick up a new case for about £11 so i'm thinking about doing myself.
I did a clear case replacement on my DS lite. It took me about 4 hours, mostly because I didn't really know what I was doing. I was following this guide, but otherwise had no experience taking a DS apart. http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=98240 You need to be really good with very tiny parts (shoulder button springs... UGH! I spent almost an hour trying to get them to work) but if you have steady hands and the proper tools it isn't too difficult. You need tiny screwdrivers, triwing and phillips. A pair of long tweezers or a very small needle-nose pliers. A clean and brightly lit workspace is a must as well. Oh, and in my case, the D-pad and ABXY buttons included with the replacement case were too short to properly hit the contact points. I had to take it apart a second time to take them out and put the originals back in. I don't know if that's common or I was just unlucky, but it's something that I would check before you have everything all screwed up tight.
I have done over 30. (Kittymat has done more) There are some tricky parts to it, but it can be done. If you are not used to working with small electronics it's not really a "first-timer's" project. However, that being said, everyone's got to start somewhere.
All done and working fine. Them bloody shoulder button are hell to get right got there in the end. Anyone doing a case replacement check out youtube there some good walk throughs on there.
