Nintendo's god like DS's hinges...

mikecoulter

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Dec 27, 2008
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Apparently the DS's hinges are so sturdy, so robust that there is no possibility of a design flaw. So god like are these two hinges, that Nintendo refuses to even consider that they could break by mere use. "Pahh!" They say!

Apparently my DS must have encountered physical abuse during my 9-10 months of ownership. Odd, as it lived on my desk the entire time.

If they had their way, I'd be paying just over £50 for the repair, just over HALF of what I paid for the entire unit! If they expect that, I'll just end up buying a faulty DS on eBay and swapping the hinges over.

Anyone got any ideas of how to corner Nintendo into a free fix? Perhaps arrange a boycott? But I know they fail miserably as of recently... =P
 

Takoto

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Mar 25, 2009
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Oh, this happened to mine, and my friends, and my other friend. It's a common problem which Nintendo hate to address. I gave up- at least it still works I say.





My friends and I have the original DS's so yeah. Those things ARE built like bricks...
 

mikecoulter

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Dec 27, 2008
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Takoto said:
Oh, this happened to mine, and my friends, and my other friend. It's a common problem which Nintendo hate to address. I gave up- at least it still works I say.





My friends and I have the original DS's so yeah. Those things ARE built like bricks...
Yeah, it's begun to happen to my friends too. It's as if Nintendo is in denial...
 

Yukinari

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Aug 22, 2009
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My DS hinge dose feel like its about to break, but if it does start to feel shitty, i could just trade it in for a DSi to avoid any problems.
 

hagaya

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Sep 1, 2008
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Nintendo handhelds have had a history of being akin to tanks. There's an old story about a US soldier who had his gameboy (the original gameboy) caught in an explosion. He rummaged through the rubble, and it looked like this:

As the image shows, he got the screen replaced and the F**ker still works.
My DS has survived more than most off-road vehicles, and I'm glad of it.
 

BOBdotEXE

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Nov 17, 2009
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in case of asteroid attack, build a fort of Ds's!!!
The thing, I dislike is the DS light hinged,
Forget dropping, Open and close it enough, and the hinge WILL snap!!
this happened to me and 3 other friends...
 

DoctorMike

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Feb 2, 2008
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I got a release DS Lite White. The hinge cracked. I reported it to the very disgruntled and rude Nintendont rep - see what I did there? - who agreed to replace it. The new one arrived, and has been owned (read pwned) by my 10 year old daughter with no further damage. (I got to keep her DS phat instead, as "Dad, you don't need the bright screen as you never play in the back of the car cos you're always driving and anyway I'm cute and don't want to look crap with an first generation DS and no-one will really laugh at you owning a PINK (YES PINK!) old DS with broken screen, and no I did not spill something on the top screen, that was the babysitter/au pair that you hired last Summer. Oh... can I have a DSi?") and God(dess) I've lost my point and the plot now, being a Dad of three daughters who have secretly resolved to keep me awake forever!

Summary. *****. It was an acknowledged problem. Eventually they will (like my fatherhood) cave and give you a new one.
 

Pimppeter2

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Dec 31, 2008
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No! I too will go into denial about this problem


*Puts fingers in ears and hums the Super Mario theme song*
 

Aura Guardian

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Apr 23, 2008
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I have yet to break the hinges for all 3 DS's I have (Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi). They don't feel like they breaking. Maybe it's because I take good care of them.
 

mikecoulter

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Dec 27, 2008
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Aura Guardian said:
I have yet to break the hinges for all 3 DS's I have (Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi). They don't feel like they breaking. Maybe it's because I take good care of them.
My DS never left my tidy desk, and was played whilst sitting at the desk. The cracks just formed. :/
 

chris11246

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Jul 29, 2009
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My mom stepped on my ds light and broke on of the hinges so i just glued it back togther and it works fine. If i were to sand off the glue carefully you wouldnt even notice either.
 

Aura Guardian

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mikecoulter said:
Aura Guardian said:
I have yet to break the hinges for all 3 DS's I have (Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi). They don't feel like they breaking. Maybe it's because I take good care of them.
My DS never left my tidy desk, and was played whilst sitting at the desk. The cracks just formed. :/
Oh really? Then that's just weird/wrong.
 

Skweebl

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Oct 10, 2008
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My DS hinge broke, but it was because it got hyper-extended, which was my fault, and not really a flaw in the construction. I called Nintendo, and they said they'd fix it for about US$50. It's expensive I suppose, but it beats buying a new one, and the DS -is- a few years old. I couldn't even give them the serial number because I pulled the sticker off when it started to get loose not knowing it was important. =[

I'm borrowing my friend's fat DS for now. It works fine, but I never appreciated how much brighter the screen of the DS Lite was until now. Though, the buttons (particularly the D-Pad) feel a tad more responsive on the fat model...
 

mikecoulter

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Dec 27, 2008
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Aura Guardian said:
mikecoulter said:
Aura Guardian said:
I have yet to break the hinges for all 3 DS's I have (Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi). They don't feel like they breaking. Maybe it's because I take good care of them.
My DS never left my tidy desk, and was played whilst sitting at the desk. The cracks just formed. :/
Oh really? Then that's just weird/wrong.
I'm sure it happened just after I got a PSP.

I think the DS tried to kill itself.
 

KhaineII

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Sep 21, 2009
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This has never happened to me, and I abuse the shit out of that thing.

-Push the screen back farther than it should go.
-Dropped it down the stairs.
-Put it through the dryer.

Nothing broken. Minus a few styluses...

Ew, styluses... styli? God, they both sound horrible. Just read it as the plural of stylus.
 

Signa

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Jul 16, 2008
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I've had several hinges break through no fault of my own. I'm an honest guy, so if there was any behavior that I could possibly conceive being the culprit, I would admit it. Fortunately, a DS shell transplant isn't too expensive, so I just bought a new shell and changed out the whole DS case.
 

Trivun

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Dec 13, 2008
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Never happened to me, and I've had my DS since a few months after it first came out. I have a DS Lite that I won in a competition in a different games magazine. I've played it a lot since then and it's not had any damage whatsoever, and I've dropped it several times in that period (I have a habit of accidentally dropping handheld devices that I own, I had to replace my mobile phone before after I dropped it and te screen cracked. It only cracked because it hit a chip of rock, wheres I'd dropped it repeatedly before then and it never got anything worse than small scratches on the casing. Guess I was just unlucky that time...).
 

Gebi10000

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Aug 14, 2009
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my DSphats hinge broke after 3 years of use and a 2 story drop(it still plays games).Didn't care though, because I bought a DSi 2 weeks beforehand.
 

Cowabungaa

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Strange, my sister's DS' hinges broke a couple of weeks after she bought it, we've been playing with a floppy (but still working) screen ever since. Didn't bother to get it fixed, now she just bought a DSi. Funny thing is, her R4 card doesn't work on the DSi, so the (150 euro's costing) thing has been laying dormant on her desk for 3 months now. I laughed when I found out, like hard.