GBA SP screen very dark (!!!)

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

mrdarrett@gmail.com - 29 Jun 2007 06:27 GMT

I just bought two used GameBoy Advance SP for the kids; one blue, one
a light teal/blue color.

I noticed that the blue one has a very very dark screen; toggling the
brightness really toggles between NO backlight and a very dim
blacklight.

The teal/blue one's brightness button toggles between bright and very
bright.

I already tried swapping the two batteries, to see if one battery
wasn't holding a charge; same deal. Also, the blue one has lines stay
on for a second or two after powering off; the teal one doesn't.

What gives?

What are my options?

I heard about problems with the regular GBA (not SP), but I didn't
expect this...

Thanks,

Michael

Reply to this Message

Bice - 02 Jul 2007 19:23 GMT

>I just bought two used GameBoy Advance SP for the kids; one blue, one
>a light teal/blue color.
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
>What are my options?

I just encountered this same problem. While on a family vacation,
my mom spent some time playing my daughter's GBA SP and decided
that she wanted one (as a retiree, she's got plenty of time to
kill with video games).

So I took her to a local video game store and she bought a used
SP. The screen looked very dark, and when we tried hitting the
"brightness" button, it got even darker.

So I did a bit of Google research and found this:

http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/652/652641p1.html

Turns out there were two models of Game Boy Advance SP - the
earlier one isn't really "backlit" - it just has a light
around edges of the screen and even at full brightness it
wasn't nearly as bright as the later, true "backlit" version.

You must have gotten one of each. I think the later versions
are a light blue or light pink color.

My only suggestion would be to take the dark one back to the
store where you bought it and see if you can trade in for
another one of the later models.

-- Bob "Bice" Eichler

Reply to this Message

mrdarrett@gmail.com - 03 Jul 2007 00:43 GMT

> >I just bought two used GameBoy Advance SP for the kids; one blue, one
> >a light teal/blue color.
[quoted text clipped - 42 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

Yep, I figured it out too, a few hours after posting my message...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance_SP

"Backlit version

In North America in September 2005, around the time of the Game Boy
Micro's release, Nintendo released an improved version of the Game Boy
Advance SP featuring a backlight instead of the previous version's
frontlight. The brightness can be set to low or high. The box says,
"Now with a BRIGHTER backlit screen!" to distinguish the new model
from the older, frontlit models. In addition, the backlit SP model can
be recognized by the AGS-101 model designation on the bottom of the
unit."

I can't easily return it, since I bought it used for $50. Trying to
re-sell it. Not such a bad deal though... for $50 I got the dim SP
plus two games; one of them was Final Fantasy. I'm keeping the Final
Fantasy, and trying to resell the SP and the other game.

Nintendo REALLY should have called this product something else... SP
II, SP+ or something obvious. Just looking at it, one can't really
tell...

Thanks,

Michael

Reply to this Message