Slim PSP Screen won't display anything but psp still works

Draconis · 08-05-2008, 01:36 AM

Bought this one off ebay to see if I could salvage it or use it for parts.

Didn't know if it had OFW or CFW on it but I used my MMS and Pandora on it.
Nothing was ever displayed on the screen however the ms and wifi light went on like crazy like their suppose to. So after that's done I put in a normal battery and hear the psp boot sound. Then I can hear the menu being accessed.
Even put in GTA and heard that music play.
Nothing appears to be wrong with the screen aside from scratches.

Any hardmodders know of something besides replacing the screen?

Again I get no display but otherwise seems like its fully functional
I see the backlight is coming on though.

d[^_^]b_psp · 08-05-2008, 01:38 AM

does it seem like it has been opened before? maybe the person you bought it from opened it and messed with the LCD ribbon.

Draconis · 08-05-2008, 01:40 AM

Doesn't appear to be tampered with at all just used heavily.
Scratches and such.

d[^_^]b_psp · 08-05-2008, 01:42 AM

hmmm, maybe he dropped it and something happened? not to sure what it could be. did you try pressing the brightness button? sometimes i press that button and my screen turns on when this happens to me, but its never been too serious

Draconis · 08-05-2008, 01:45 AM

Afraid it's not as simple as that. When I say nothing I mean no backlight or anything.

EDIT: I just turned off all the lights and now I see that the backlight does come on but the screen remains black and you can hear the menu being accessed.

d[^_^]b_psp · 08-05-2008, 01:47 AM

then i think it may be something to do with that LCD screen. not sure if the previous owner messed with the ribbon or anything. but as you said in your first post, you know its working so you will be able to part it out

Draconis · 08-05-2008, 03:00 AM

Just used my composite cables, my other slim and sound clicks to get it to display on my tv. so it's indeed running 3.90m33 now and everything else is functional.

Just trying to figure out what to do with it now...

Leek · 08-05-2008, 04:34 AM

How much you buy it for, and where? New LCD screen costs $60, btw

TheLastCuban · 08-05-2008, 04:41 AM

Did you take into consideration that it may be bricked?

Switchblades · 08-05-2008, 04:42 AM

My best bet is your LCD screen is fucked. Blacklight is a physical aspect, not soft.

Intergalactic Captain · 08-05-2008, 09:19 AM

Take it apart and check - Slims are easier to take apart without destroying the warranty stickers than fats - Very good chance that someone pieced together a pile of parts if you bought it on ebay...I've been screwed my fair share of times on that one...

Once you've got the faceplate off, hold it at around a 45 degree angle under a bright light - If you can see an image, your backlight (more likely the backlight fuse) is shot. If you can't, reseat the cables and try again...If there's still nothing, it's more than likely your screen - I must add, though, that one of my fats tricked me like this - Turned out that the screen was fine and the it was the screen driver IC that was shot, though this is a pretty rare occurrance.

cecil1knight · 08-05-2008, 09:28 AM

you should take it apart and make sure the LCD ribbons are in all the way.

Draconis · 08-05-2008, 12:09 PM

Left charging overnight. I go to turn it on and bam I'm at the XMB and everything displays fine!

Then I turn it off and back on again...and I'm back to the same problem where the LCD itself doesn't display any images.
Unlike CRTs that go bad it doesn't need to warm up so I'm wondering if theres a short or something.

Captain, you seem to have the most electrical knowledge, what may cause the screen to do this?

Intergalactic Captain · 08-05-2008, 02:57 PM

Well, you better hope it's a loose cable...Otherwise, it's a popped solder ball falling victim to thermal flex - Imagine your psp motherboard. On it sit the various chips that serve its functions - These chips aren't attached by pins, rather by hundreds of tiny balls of solder. As you can probably imagine, the chips are generally more rigid than your motherboard...As the motherboard warms up from use, the motherboard flexes a tiny bit in various directions - If a solder ball is popped and in an area victim to flex, it will lose it's connection to the motherboard...If this is an important pin, you'll see a problem...

I only suggest this as you said that it was fine when you pulled it off the charger (ie, it was sitting there unused and relatively cold for some period of time), but on the next shot the screen would not work (ie, it may have warmed up and "flexed" a solder ball off the board)...This is a very common problem with modern electronics, some famous examples are the loose GPU's on G3 iBooks, Thinkpad T40's, and Xbox 360's - Blame the environmentalists...Lead-based solder could handle motherboard flex, but the federally-mandated replacements are too rigid and brittle for it.

...Before you do anything, pop it open and check everything. It's pretty easy to take the faceplate off and check the connections - There's no real way to know without popping it open and taking a look. I'm betting on a loose cable (considering it IS from ebay), but loose chips are also a real possibility.

Master15 · 08-05-2008, 03:13 PM

Check to see if the wifi works. If it dosen't there is a chance that all the problems could have been caused by a viris. For some strange reason PSPs can act very funny if they were zap by a virus. For example your psp can never finish an update regardles if it's a OFW update or a CFW update. Another is your umd reader trying to push past the little part that spins the umd disk wich makes a crunching noise