Game Boy Color audio refurbishment + IPS LCD mod

After waiting for a good 4 weeks or so, I got the LG IPS panel that I ordered. Hot damn! This GameBoy needed some love. The speaker volume was terribly low, and of course.. You can’t see the screen unless you’re under a lamp!

Replace this capacitor.

I wanted to start with addressing the volume issue. Our beloved GBC has a capacitor in the audio circuit that slowly goes bad and fries the voice coil of the speaker down the line. If the speaker is already inaudible, then you’re going to need to replace the speaker too. It’s likely bad.

For this one I replaced the 4v 100uf capacitor with another of the same capacitance rating and slightly higher voltage. I used a 6.3v 100uf I had handy. It worked like a charm.

Next, I started trimming the case for the IPS LCD install. I didn’t photograph this stage very well. I’ll do another writeup when I do the next one. I just cleanly cut it away with some nice sharp flush cutters.

Needless to say, the results are impressive and staggering. The image quality is phenomenal.

This is a photo taken with my cell phone. If you look closely, each pixel of the Gameboys image is quadrupled on the IPS panel. This isn’t really noticeable in person..it is sharp though!

There’s a a small caveat I noticed.. The audio from headphone jack now has a bit of a hum or buzz; more noticeable when you use a power hungry device like an EverDrive. I’ll look into that at a later time. I’m not trying to get audio samples from this.

It takes about 4 weeks to get the parts in on a per-diem order. At the time of this writing I can get the kits for about $35 plus installation.

If you’re interested in having this kit installed for you, feel free to Contact me here!