The 3DS is a fan-favourite system, but we also see many come in after people attempt repairs themselves, often causing additional avoidable damage. Today, we’re going to walk through a complete disassembly and transfer into this fresh white shell while pointing out some of the common issues and trouble spots we encounter along the way. .
Starting simple, we remove the back cover, battery, and any game or SD card from the system. Removing all the back screws reveals the first component commonly damaged during at-home repairs: the bumper cables in the rear shell are connected to the motherboard by fragile ribbon cables!
Next, we remove all the screws from both boards and unplug all the various components. There’s a few different types of connectors here, be sure not to mix up the friction locks (red) that DO NOT open and the other latch connectors (blue). If the friction port is pried open, or the latch breaks off, we need to replace the port
With everything removed and unscrewed you’d think we could remove the board, but not quite! Two more cables connect on the bottom of the board, and if these fragile cables are damaged it can require an expensive screen replacement on top of any existing issues.
With the boards removed, we’re almost at the bottom screen. A few tabs to unclip, and the bottom LCD, digitizer, and NFC reader can all be removed. For bottom-screen or touchscreen issues, this is where we could replace the faulty component and begin reassembly. For now, we’ll set everything aside to install into the new shell.
Time for everyone’s favourite, the top screen!
We remove the four rubber stoppers and the screws hidden beneath them, then slide the back cover off its clips to expose the top screen assembly.
At the right angle, we can now push the hinge into the top screen compartment and carefully feed the fragile ribbon cables through the slot to detach the top half of the system
Remember those super fragile “if it tears at all you need a new screen” cables? We’re now going to tightly wind them together to feed them through the hinge so we can remove the screen assembly.
Remember those super fragile “if it tears at all you need a new screen” cables? We’re now going to tightly wind them together to feed them through the hinge so we can remove the screen assembly.
With that done, we now have our top screen, camera, and 3D/speaker cables ready to transfer into the new shell.
Now we can start building into our new shell. The screen is easy to remember, but there’s also lots of little bits like the LED diffusers and, of course, the buttons to move over
Next, We’ll move our top screen assembly into the new shell (don’t forget the camera lenses and sliders!), and use heat to soften the adhesive to remove the old black screen lense and replace it with the new matching white one.
Then, once again, we’ll be wrapping up those very delicate cables and running them out of the hinge.
They then are routed back through their slot on the bottom frame, and we push the hinge piece back through to connect the two halves together.
We can’t forget the back of the system, the bumper assemblies need moved into the new shell as well
We’re almost at the finish line now. The boards can be reinstalled, screwed back into place, and all the various cables reconnected.
Finally, we can complete the reassembly, and we’ll test the system features to make sure everything is working as expected.
And we’re done! 3DS repairs are extremely delicate, and the internals can be damaged very easily, but we’re always happy to help return a beloved system looking better than ever. If your 3DS needs repairs or a shell replacement, our team has the tools and experience to handle these delicate systems safely
