I Bought 23 BROKEN Nintendo Switches - Can I Fix Them and Make Money?

every once in a while I do get a repair and I look at it and I just say nope my name is Steve and I'm about 23 broken Nintendo switches why would I buy 23 broken integer switches you might ask because I make bad decisions just kidding the actual reason is because I'm gonna try and fix them and see if I can make money on them I paid one thousand nine hundred and fifty-five dollars for these 23 broken switches that comes out to 85 dollars each that means in order to break even on this lot I need to fix at least 13 broken switches now without all being said let's get started the first thing I'm going to do is separate out all the switches that have charge ports that are definitely broken I'm gonna be looking down in the port to see if there's any physically broken pins you can see for sure on this port and this port you can see the shiny pins down there so we know these ports need to be replaced this charge board up here doesn't have any of those pins that are broken or bent or anything so that port does not need to be replaced so I'm gonna separate all those out first and then we'll get to diagnosing the rest [Music] so I have 16 that do not have broken charge ports at least from external evaluation and I have seven that do have broken charge ports so we need to get these charge ports replace and then we need to diagnose the rest of these now to diagnose these Nintendo switches that don't have USB C port problems at least that I can see externally I'm gonna be using this power jive test meter I'll leave a link down in the description if you would like to buy one of these for yourself it's an invaluable tool when figuring out what's going on with the rest of these switches and here we go on this first switch we're gonna plug it in and see what the reading is 0.36 but nothing at all on the screen normal even if the battery is totally discharged when you plug it into a good charger and the charge port is good there will be at least a charging icon up on the screen this switch has nothing going on so we'll have to tear it open and see exactly what's going on with this one I'm gonna work on getting the rest of these switches diagnosed and then I'll tell you what I find if you watch my first few videos where I took a whole bunch of switches and tried to fix them you know that I was fairly successful but there was quite a few things that I didn't know how to fix now that I've been fixing switches for quite a while I've learned quite a bit about it and I know much quicker how to diagnose them and how to figure out what's going on and if they're gonna be fixable or not [Music] so I have 14 that have motherboard problems we need to look into further I've got seven that need USB C port replaced and then I've got two that did show the charge symbol that I'm going to charge up and see if they fully charge on their own now I got to get all these repaired I'm hoping for at least thirteen but hopefully a lot more wish me luck [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's pretty much all I have to do to replace their USBC ports on these now I do need to recheck all the pins and make sure they're soldered down all correctly but other than that that's all there is to it now I need to do that six more times and then I'll be done with the USBC ports after that I do need to recheck at these boards and make sure the charge chips and the video chip are all good and don't show any shorts and I'll show you guys that once I get there all seven of those USB C ports have been replaced now I need to check all the charge chips and the video chips to make sure they're all good I'll show you how I do that next what I'm gonna be doing is checking for shorts along with the capacitors of this chip this chip and then I'll flip it over to the video chip on the other side to check and see if these chips are shorted out and need replacing so the first capacitors we're going to check are over here a long beep like that means there is no resistance to ground so this capacitor it has a direct path to ground on this side and does not have that on the other side which is normal for capacitor let's check this one so there's a direct path to ground there and a direct path to ground there so that is a shorted capacitor normally that means this chip is faulty I'm gonna check the others and see what they show that capacitor is also shorted so we have this capacitor shorted and this capacitor shorted this normally indicates that this chip is faulty let's get that replaced and see if it fixes it this is the m92 t 36 chip this chip at least from what I can tell kind of decides whether this is acting as a charger the USB C port or whether it's acting as a video pass-through so this chip is what is responsible for that as far as I can tell so we're gonna replace that I'm gonna put some flux around the chip that is going to be the liquid you see I put on it then I'm going to use hot air to melt the solder so I can remove this chip and put the replacement chip on [Music] [Music] [Music] now that we have that chip replaced I'm going to recheck those capacitors and see if there's any shorts okay that short is gone and that short is gone now that those shorts are gone let's check these capacitors over here we'll check the coil no problems there and no problems with the fuse now let's check the video chip on the other side and this right here is the video chip so let's check this capacitor here and no shorts there [Music] now that I have the USBC port replaced the charge ship replaced and we've tested all the capacitors around each of those chips and found no more shorts uncomfortable plugging in a battery to see what kind of voltage and charge amperage we have and depending on those readings that'll tell us whether this board is working or not so here I have a USB meter that'll tell me in charging amps and volts that's all I need to test to see whether this motherboard is working I have links in the description for all the parts and tools I use for these types of repairs if you would like to buy them for yourself what should happen here is you should see this number go to 0.46 or so and then it should wait a couple seconds and then it just should jump up to well over one volt and with the known good battery let's see what those numbers are point four six let's see if it jumps up to fast charging and there we go now the key here is we do have to try it the other way too because there are some problems that can cause it to charge with this cable in one way but not the other way and there we go so this motherboard itself is fixed we'll need to put it back into the switch it came out of to check everything else on the switch but the motherboard so far has been fixed [Music] [Music] so for number 21 if we go across this capacitor on the video chip you can see that it is shorted that means this video chip is likely faulty so I'm gonna replace that and then we'll see if that takes here that short [Music] and now we'll check that capacitor to see if it's so shorted uh-oh and it is well this is not good news normally when that is still shorted after replacing that that means the main CPU on the board is faulty I'm actually going to take this chip back off and then see if this capacitor is still shorted there is a small chance that this chip is faulty from my supplier so let's take that back off and see if the shorts still there now with the chip removed let's see if that capacitor is still shorted yes yes it is well that's bad news number 21 is not gonna be fixable unfortunately the way this motherboard was designed it's made so for example if some of these charge pins accidentally touched two of the wrong ones that can actually send power directly to the CPU on the motherboard and basically just shorted out so there's no hope of saving this one unfortunately manufacturers designed these types of motherboards not with repair ability in mind because a couple extra fuses on this motherboard would have saved it but that all being said let's move on to the next one and see how that one looks [Music] out of those seven motherboards six of them were fixable one was not now I need to get these installed under the cases we can check the LCD and the other functions and see if these are gonna be fully working Nintendo switches [Music] I have 17 I'll put that together and I was just gonna wait to try them all at once but I gotta try this one first let's see if it works okay most likely all we're gonna get is a charge symbol since the battery so drain but let's see if we get that come on yes there we go we have a charge symbol that's great news that means the display is working now I got to let it get all charged up and then see if it works fully now I got to get all the rest pulled back together and their batteries all charged so I'll see you in a couple hours so far I've fixed those six out of 23 of these broken Nintendo switches we're almost halfway to our goal of getting at least 13 fixed but I've got a whole bunch more here to try and fix so let's see how many of these are fixable now if you remember all of these are switches where the USBC is good but they still don't power on still don't take a charge so I need to get the backs off of all of them and start doing testing on the motherboards and of the back is off I'm gonna disconnect the battery and now we'll test for shorts around these chips like we did with the other repairs [Music] so normally when I find no shorts on any of the capacitors around these I usually just replace the m92 t36 so I'll go ahead and do that and see if this one starts working battery is plugged in let's see what it does point four six good oh but the bad news is that the backlight is not on let me flip it over and see if there's anything on the screen with the backlight not on there basically can't be but yeah yeah that's no good so unfortunately number one isn't fixable let's move on to number two throw number two charges at point two four and no display so let's check those capacitors okay all of the capacitors are not shorted I'm gonna try putting a good battery in this and then see what the charging voltage is 0.46 do we have a light a backlight no well unfortunately number two is also not fixable that's two in a row that's not fixable I've got six that are fixable and so far three that are not hopefully our luck starts turning up we need to get a couple more of these fixed to at least break even but I'd love to see a good profit on it let's move on to number three number three has no charging amps and no display so let's take the back cover off oh there we go that could definitely cause it so I'm gonna get this board out so we can look at the other side and then clean up all this corrosion and see if it works or if we need to replace anything okay I have all the screws out let's get this board out and see what it looks like on the back side oh we're very lucky there is no corrosion at all on the back side this one we might actually get very lucky with obviously we've got a lot of corrosion right here and we've got to see why it's not charging but this could be an easy liquid damage repair I'm gonna clean up all of this corrosion here and then we'll test it and see if we have any other problems [Music] we're gonna start by checking for shorts okay so this come on and I'm not checking for shorts I'm checking to see if there is a path through this is basically just a coil in here so the multimeter should be beeping right now cuz there should be very low resistance and it's not beeping at all so if this is faulty it can definitely cause a no charge problem so that's what I'm suspecting so far everything checks out except for this coil and possibly this chip but with all these capacitors not being shorted I think this chips probably fine so I think we might just have a problem with the coil luckily we've got some extra motherboards that are just junk that we can steal this coil off of so let's get that replaced next and see if that fixes it 24-6 great news let's see if it goes too fast charging yes so we have number three fix that means we fix seven out of twenty three let's move on to the next one number four has point three two and no display let's hope the CPU on this one is good I'm gonna get the back off and see what the motherboard looks like so the indicator was set off oh we got some liquid damage here and liquid damage up there definitely some down here so another motherboard that has to come out I'll get the motherboard out and show you guys what I find let's see how bad the bottom looks the case doesn't have any liquid damage here I did notice even on the card reader there's liquid damage there let's see how this looks you got some liquid here some corrosion over here yeah unfortunately this one is not one that I'd be comfortable selling even if I could fix it so number four I'm gonna call not fixable even though I technically may be able to fix it it's not something I'm comfortable selling to someone else so we have another one that's not fixable let's move on and try out number five okay and let's hope no liquid damage awry no liquid damage okay we got a shorted capacitor here they usually means the video chip on the other side is faulty okay and with the video chip off do we still have a short oh no yes yes we do well unfortunately number five is also not fixable I went from super confident in this lot to well not as confident but I've still got a lot to go I'm still hopeful let's move on to number six and see what happens number six is yet another 0.46 and no display which means shorted CPU and another not fixable let's move on to number seven we finally have another one fixed number seven is fixed hopefully that means good luck for the rest of them let's move number eight Wow so this is not good loo news I just took off the SD card reader look at all of this corrosion already I've still got to get the rest of the screws out but number eight is definitely not looking good and here we go that part is really bad the rest of it well it actually doesn't look too bad so far I have to decide whether it's worth trying to fix we got some more down here so right down here there's a bunch more corrosion let me get you guys zoomed in so we got all this corrosion over here and then we also have a bunch more corrosion down here and then the other side of the board likely has corrosion too I think this is gonna be another one that we just aren't gonna be able to fix permanently that's not one that I would sell to anyone so we're gonna move on to number 10 every once in while I do get a repair and I look at it and I just say nope number 10 is another not fixable and now the non fixable has caught up to the fixable we've got eight fixable eight nine fixable and I've got seven more to try and fix I need to fix five of those to get to the thirteen to break-even so I've only got two to spare and this is not looking so good anymore but you never know wish me luck on number eleven point four six and no backlight no surprise there I guess well let's move on to number thirteen here we go point four six and no backlight now it's important to note right now that I need to fix all five of the rest of the switches in order to just break even on this slot these have not been going so well I did great on the USBC repairs as all those were set fixable except for one but unfortunately these ones have not been great I still have actually I don't have very much oh but you never know let's see what happens with the last three of these and then the other two that show the charge symbol but won't charge up all the way here we go with number fourteen all right here we go this chip has definitely been blown out you can see a mark right there on the chip you can actually even see a mark down here on the back of the case so there's a lot of voltage that went through this so we've got to replace this and then put a small trace wire from this all the way up to this filter we also have to test the filter to make sure that it is good as well and here you can see exactly what I'm talking about up closer this big bubble on this chip means that there's a lot of voltage and heat that went through this thing and then you can even see down here this little pin right here totally burned so we got to get that off put a new one on and then we've got to repair this connection right here on this trace from the filter so we can make sure that we have a good connection from the filter over to the chip and then we also have to test this filter and make sure it wasn't burned out as well [Music] [Music] and here we have our fully repaired motherboard and now we need to test it I already test to make sure there were no other problems with this and there's no problems with the chip that capacitor is now not shorted so I think we're good there now I need to plug in a good battery and our charger and see what the charging amperage is and here we go point four six good will it fast charge yes it will that means this board is fixed so number 14 was fixable we've got four more to try and fix if we can fix them all I'm gonna easily break even on this let's move on to the next switch so number fifteen is not fixable which means we officially can't break even other although there is a one other thing I can do all of these switches right here actually would sell on eBay pretty well it's pretty hard to find a broken switch on eBay for less than $100 I only paid eighty five dollars each for these so I actually could sell them on eBay and probably actually even make a profit on this entire lot so I still want to try and fix these last three as all hope is not lost and it probably actually could still make some money on this lot I have one more that doesn't charge properly but then I also have those two that do show the charge indicator on the screen but just never fully charge up and I've got a great trick for those but I want to check this one out first and then we'll look at those two and guess what more liquid damage so looking at this connector this is definitely a problem right here there's a torn or a corroded trace on this back light connector so that's definitely one of the causes of our no display problem so one thing that's easy to do is just take this motherboard out since I've got so many other switches that are not functioning I can just put this in one of the other housings and see what happens then see if I get a display we have our connector over here all fixed up so that shouldn't be a problem now let's see what readings we get point four six and well even after all that work number sixteen still doesn't work it's got the point four six with no display which means well you know what it means it means the CPU is shorted and number sixteen also isn't fixable I'm super surprised at this lot I can't believe how many are not fixable so far my other salvage lots of Nintendo switches that I bought have turned out way better than this I'll be putting a card up on your screen here just in a minute so you can go check that out if you'd like so then you can see me actually make some money on one of these lots of Nintendo switches I also want to say whenever I do one of these videos I get a ton of people asking if I can fix theirs and how do they send it in and while that is something I used to do I don't actually repair a Nintendo switches as a service anymore but one of the technicians that did work with me as a contractor that I trained how to repair these and basically any of the other game consoles he started his own business called Shane fix I'll put a link down in the description if you would like to contact him about your broken switch or ps4 or Xbox now I'm gonna look at those other two switches that show the charge symbol on the screen but they never go to fast charging and I'll show you a trick for them so this is switch number nine when we plug it in it'll show point four six and it'll turn the backlight on backlight now we have no display now we have fast charging but we still have noticed blood here we go okay I actually don't know what's going on with this one this one's working fine now it even goes to fast charging alrighty then number nine is fixed that one was easy let's move on to the next one I will test number nine off camera more just to make sure that it's fixed I do want to check that charge board and just make sure it's not gummed up or anything sometimes you just gets food or debris logged in there and it makes a faulty connection so that may be what's going on at that one I'll check it more later let's get to the last switch okay now I'll show you what I was gonna show you with the other switch so this one will go to four point four six it'll show the backlight here but all its gonna do is show the charge symbol and no matter how long we leave it on the charger that's the only thing it will do so what seems to be the problem is somehow something happens in here where for whatever reason the switch won't let the battery get charged anymore it basically turns off charging to the batteries so it just charges at this basically forever and never actually gets to fast charging so what I've done is I have this charging board you can actually get these charging boards just stopping off at Amazon for super cheap a couple dollars for a pack of 10 and I've connected it to a connector for the switch battery so what I'm going to do is connect this to this connector and then I will plug this in right here so this board will be charging the battery instead of the motherboard on the switch so there we go we have the charging board running to the battery and charging up the battery now usually this type of charging setup only takes 20 to 30 minutes to actually get the battery charged enough so the switch will actually turn on now every once in a while this doesn't actually work every month small it is actually a bad battery but this charging hack will repair normally about 80% I would guess of this type of charging situation unfortunately I was only able to fix 11 out of these 23 broken Nintendo switch is it hurts me to say that because I'm so much better at fixing these than I used to be but unfortunately the 0.46 and no display is just not something anyone can fix as the CPU is just shorted out and there's no way to repair that now that all being said like I said earlier I can't actually sell these for a decent amount of money so I probably will still get pretty close to breaking even I might even make a little bit of profit off of it if you want to see me actually make money on a lot of salvaged Nintendo switches I'll put a link up on your screen for one of those videos now thank you so much for watching and I hope you have a good one

Channel: TronicsFix

Views: 2,903,913

Rating: 4.8879962 out of 5

Keywords: tronicsfix, tronicsfix nintendo switch, tronicsfix switch, nintendo switch, switch repair, nintendo switch repair, broken switch, electronics repair

Id: Xix7qzbOT6Q

Length: 28min 31sec (1711 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 06 2020