Nintendo DS Lite Shell replacement

[gtmtnbiker]

Has anyone done bought and replaced the shell on their Nintendo DS Lite? My daughter's DS has developed a crack in the hinge so we need to replace the shell.

I'm looking for recommendations on where to buy the shell and if they're decent quality.

[theclaw]

I can relate. My current one has a crack near the hinge, yet slightly different than usual.

Its touch screen is also scratched. Motion across is somewhat rough in spots.

[flojocabron]

I heard this is kinda a defect in manufacturing.

Mine finally did this after taking care of it for 5 years.

Supposedly they were tightened too much and they eventually crack.

I see this all the time too when I see some DS's at the fleamarket.

I hate the floppyness of it

[alexis524]

gtmtn,

i did mine a couple years back with a shell kit i bought off of ebay, which there are still some floating around ebay still with plenty of color choices. I won't say it was fun or easy. My old word of advice if you do, is to be very careful when tightening up the screws inside the top half of the shell. I tightened up one a little too tight and it put to much pressure on the opposite side and i can clearly see a small crack in the plastic enough to annoy me each time i look at it. Oh, and one more tip. There are two wires that run under the touch screen that can be a bear to reattach since they are on short leashes and each and every wire has to be just so and positioned correctly of else it will not power on correctly. i suggest taking pictures of each step along the way for reference.

your thread reminds me that i need to pick up a cheap DSL with a cracked hinge since i have a crystal clear shell i want to install. Enjoy!

[Ivo]

I heard this is kinda a defect in manufacturing.

Mine finally did this after taking care of it for 5 years.

(...)

I hate the floppyness of it

I also took decent care of mine and it eventually got the crack. It is a week point of the structure, I'm not sure in later ones it is actually a defect in manufacturing.

I don't like the floppiness, but as I don't use it daily anyway I never did anything about it (it also happens that I don't actually *hate* it).

If you don't want to do a shell replacement, like the OP intends to do, there are some "ghetto" fixes I think. I remember seeing on youtube someone putting a thick rubber band on a cracked hinge DS lite in such a way that it will close fully, and when open the lid will hold at a degree that is more or less where it used to hold when there was no crack on the hinge.

Ivo.

[gtmtnbiker]

Thanks for the tips. I did order a shell from DealExtreme a few weeks ago. Just waiting for it to come in.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I would buy a defective DS Lite and use the shell from that. It's solid and it should feel better/last longer than a knockoff. You can have two colors too, my sister's has a pink and black parts. It looks pretty good.