Unfortunately, my 3 year old DS Lite has developed the dreaded 'hinge crack' problem, and will likely need to be repaired or replaced soon. Nintendo is quoting me a $65 repair cost. Is it worth it, and are there any alternatives besides eating the cost or purchasing a new one?

Thanks in advance.

If color is not a concern, FRYS 'instore' has the Green Nintendo DS with Personal Trainer™: Cooking and Carrying Case Bundle for $71.16. I picked up the DS Lite some time ago when eBay was running the 35% promo when paying with Pay Pal. When it retailed for $129.99 at that time, I believe I paid ~$90. So I don't believe it's worth it to pay the $65 to repair the unit.

No Fry's B&M up here in NH

Color isn't a concern

The cheapest I could find (now) was through Dell for about $100-ish with coupon. Thanks for the suggestion!

fix it yourself?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nintendo-DS-Lite-Repla...id=p3286.c0.m14

http://site.powergamingparts.com/RepairNdsl.html

Thanks sarinne, I had looked at the "powergamingparts" site and the prices on there were a lot higher than the eBay listing you pointed me to. I'd definitely try to repair it myself

Anyone else tried this?

OK, well I ordered the kit from eBay - about $20. We'll see how well it works!

good luck! those pics make me cringe.
I just bought a DSi for DD's BD.

good luck! let us know how the repair goes. =)

This probably would have been my repair kit of choice, at least initially. Note that it is available in a wide range of colors to meet almost any need.

I got lucky when my hinge cracked since it happened 2 years ago when my Lite was still under warranty and a hinge crack was actually covered by warranty. A few weeks after I sent mine in, people were told hinge cracks weren't covered anymore.

If my hinge cracks again, I'll just use that as an excuse to sell the Lite and get a DSi.

Got my kit in the mail from HK today. Looks like a fun project!

Well, I completed the case swap last night. It took me about 2-3 hours spread out over a few nights (not much free time ). I'll try to track down the couple very good guides I used for reference and link them. Pictures really help when identifying the right way to take the unit apart.

I didn't have to solder anything (some guides do require that you solder to remove/reattach parts). The hardest part was the re-installation of the ribbon cables for the LCD's, and especially the very small touch screen ribbon cable. Also, I couldn't find a good picture of what the springs on the top (L and R) buttons were supposed to look like when installed, so that took me a while to figure out.

If you're careful, have small(ish) fingers and don't mind working with very very very small parts, it's definitely a doable and fun project, and for $20 vs $65 from Nintendo, it was a no brainer

Thanks for the encouragement! Now off to fix the buzzing noise from my Wii disc drive

[edit]
Here's one of the guides I used:
Link

I find a kit like thisdoes wonders for a noisy drive.

If your Wii has more problems than just a buzzing noise, you might be able to get them to fix it for free if you can convince them that your problem is related to the newest system menu 4.2 update.

My out of warranty launch Wii was set up as a "warranty repair" but it had a few different problems. The problem that I always had with it since December 2008 (out of warranty by then) was that my games would freeze, but I just kept on playing with it since I didn't want to pay Nintendo to repair it. After I upgraded my system menu from 3.4 to 4.1, I started having different problems (SD card related, Mii Channel errors, and games still freezing). Since some of my problems were caused by me updating to 4.1, they set it up as a free repair, it would have been $75 otherwise.

Plus, a lot of people seem to be having issues with the new 4.2 update, so Nintendo says they'll repair Wiis for free as long as yours isn't modded:

http://techforums.nintendo.com/nins/board/...thread.id=29992

Beware though, you might end up getting a replacement Wii in return. That's what happened with me. They couldn't (or didn't even try to) fix my Wii, so they sent me a different one back. They were able to transfer most of my saves from my old Wii (lost my Smash Bros Brawl save), but my wifi enabled games won't let me online anymore because my friend codes were created & tied to my original Wii. They give me error code 60000 when I try to go online with them - from other people's experiences with this error code, the only way they were able to get online again was by deleting their save file and starting all over again.

They also didn't transfer over my address book data or any of my Miis (80+ in my plaza and 600+ in my parade), so I lost all of that too. My friend who sent in his Wii got his address book data transferred to his replacement Wii (they even kept his old Wii number), so YMMV with this.

They did manage to keep my Wii message board messages and all the pictures on my message board, but I don't really care about those.

So, you can try to call Nintendo and see if they'll fix it free. Or if you can figure out what's wrong with it, maybe it might be better to fix it yourself and keep your saved data & everything else.

Or you could go with JDMnAR's solution.

Yikes, sounds like you've had a lot of problems. Mine has been very stable, just has the buzzing noise, which has gotten quite loud. Fortunately, I don't have the scratched discs that some people report as being associated with the noise.

I like JDMnAR's solution

My 4.1 related issues went away after a couple of days, but I sent it in anyway since it was still freezing.

Looks like Nintendo also has a sticky topic on Wiis making noises, but you'll still have to pay for the fix if your warranty is expired:

http://techforums.nintendo.com/nins/board/...thread.id=29069

Maybe if it becomes a more widespread issue, they'll update that thread and start offering free repairs.

Argh, I got all the way down to the last tri-wing screw on the Wii, and it stripped the cheap metal tri-wing screwdriver I got with the DS Lite repair kit. Now I have to try to find another tri-wing locally - why can't they use normal screws?!

Same reason why MS & Sony use torx screws in their systems. Because they don't want people taking them apart.

If you've ever gotten in on any of those cheap PC tool kit deals from Radio Shack or other places, they usually come with tri-wing bits & torx bits too.

Have a lot of tool kits with Torx screws, but no tri-wing. Tried a bunch of places locally, and no luck. I ended up buying this screwdriver from DealExtreme - $0.85 w/free shipping. Only problem is that DX is in HK, so I have to wait (again) 3 weeks for it . Unfortunately we don't have an import games store in the area, because I'd guess they would probably have them in stock.

Finished the Wii rattle noise repair! Unfortunately the darn screw was still stuck, even with the new tri-wing screwdriver. I ended up using a hacksaw (!) to cut the head of the screw, and it came right out with a regular screwdriver and only minor damage to the Wii case. Took a bit to find the best way to loosen the cage around the disc, but once I loosened the right screws it got quiet immediately

So, repaired both units for about $20 out of pocket - not bad! Thanks for all the support everyone

wonderful news!!

sometimes a hack job works best, eh?