Is the DS really this fragile?

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Is the DS really this fragile?

Posted Dec 19th 2007 3:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News

Over at flickr, user yatta has had a most unfortunate incident occur. His DS lite has been busted all to crap. It was only dropped about two feet, he claims, but since it fell right on its hinge, it pretty much exploded. Talk about your weak points for massive damage, eh? Maybe this gentleman could use a handy guide to help him fix it? Or, maybe just the phone number to Nintendo customer service.

Any of you out there have horror stories about broken DSes?

Tags: breaks, damage, disaster, hinge

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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)

12-20-2007 @ 6:41AM

Pointz said...

No way can that happen at two feet? that exact same thing happened in my hands when i was playing sonic rush2. its that click the ds makes when you open it that kind of weakens it. Plus below the power light and just near the R button is the ds' weak point. the silver ds doesn't do that click anymore

12-20-2007 @ 1:00PM

Fraggy4 said...

My sister's DS was left in a bucket of water overnight. The next day, the screen leaked water out of it, and the pixels were all messed up.

12-20-2007 @ 3:31PM

SirSloppyMoose said...

Same thing happened to my lite. I didn't drop it though, just saw a crack slowly grow every time I opened and shut it. I ended up buying a black replacement shell (I got a white at launch) and just replaced the bottom half. So now I have a unique black and white DS.

This was after the same thing happened to a friend. He turned his into Nintendo and they charged him $80 for a new DS since his warrenty was up.

We're both careful with our systems and this was the time I ever had a major problem with a Nintendo system (and I still have two NESes from when I was a kid).

12-20-2007 @ 10:00PM

Eternal Warrior said...

Hmm, mine's proven nigh on bulletproof. I use the alarm feature every morning and we all know what we do to our alarm clocks... I don't necessarily send it flying across the room, but it's experienced its fair share of rough openings and falls to the floor. It's still looks like new.

12-21-2007 @ 1:54AM

yatta said...

So yeah, the damn thing fell just two feet, for real, from a really low coffee table to a wood floor.

I've seen my gf's lite take a lot more abuse than mine and she's never had a problem which is why this was so surprising. I guess it just landed in the worst way possible -- on it's corner.

12-21-2007 @ 3:31AM

JonnyFusion said...

Had the same happen to my DS lite which was purchased on launch day in the UK. Cracks developed over time and then the hinge broke after a year of use. Took it back to Costco and got a new DS.

Years ago we used to get the same problem at work with Compaq laptop hinges cracking then breaking. The problem with the Compaq and now Nintendo hinge design is that you have a metal hinge under tension held by a piece of plastic that is not upto the task. The constant opening and closing the case stresses the plastic causing the cracks and eventual failure. I believe Nintendo have admitted a problem with some early DS hinges and have modified the plastics used on the later models.

12-24-2007 @ 4:48PM

Neo Samurai said...

This EXACT thing has happened to 5 people I know all in the exact same fashion. The DS lite is a like a pretty girl. Very nice looking, with lots of good features, but is also puny and fragile

12-26-2007 @ 12:29PM

ArLuthier said...

My son knocked his original DS off the arm of a chair down onto the CARPET and the right hinge broke... just like the picture (but the it was the fat DS). Everthing still worked, I ended up just making a new hinge out of epoxy and guitar frets. He had the coolest hillbilly edition DS around. :-)

12-27-2007 @ 1:46PM

Danyal Vierheller said...

For a second there, I thought you'd snagged pictures I took of mine. But I didn't even drop it - all I did was open it up, and it cracked. I was really pissed, too, considering I was in the middle of playing Phoenix Wright: T&T.

Used the opportunity to get a Crimson & Black DS, which works fine, but I'll be honest - I'm a tad paranoid now. :P

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