Nintendo 2DS XL – Orange light, no blue light, signs of overheating

[Tomylee]

Hi everyone, I have a Nintendo 2DS XL that shows the orange charging light when plugged in, but nothing happens when I press the power button — no blue light, no screen, no sound.

Here's what I've observed:

All ribbon cables are properly connected

Battery is present and in good condition

No reaction even with screens disconnected

There's a visible burn mark / overheating sign on the metal shield, right above the CPU


I’m suspecting an issue with the CPU, PMIC, NAND, or a power line.
If anyone has experienced something similar or has suggestions for further testing, I’d really appreciate your help.

Thanks in advance!

[Agent24]

No idea, but you could start by checking all the power rails to see if they are present and correct.

[Tomylee]

Hi, thanks a lot for your reply! 🙏
This is my first time playing around with a Nintendo 2DS XL, so I want to make sure I understand what I’m doing.

You mentioned checking the main power rails — would you be able to help me figure out exactly which ones I should be testing? If you have any info about their locations, test points, or the expected voltages, that would be super appreciated.

I’ve got the right equipment (multimeter, lab power supply, etc.), I just want to make sure I’m testing the right things in the right places.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Agent24]

The best way to know where the rails are is from a schematic and (hopefully) boardview, if you can even get them, I don't know.

The second way is to identify all the ICs on the board. There will be at least some voltage regulator and a charge controller chip.
When you identify these, you can look up the datasheets and figure out what is supposed to be going on, then start measuring to see if the readings are as expected or not.

It's possible that someone has already done such a thing, and posted the information elsewhere on the internet. So, research would be a good start.

[Agent24]

I also see that these consoles may have some protective fuses on the board, it's possible one of these has failed.

Are you able to get some close up photos of the ICs so the numbers can be read properly? Also some general close ups to see if any fuses may be on the board.

[stj]

if you dont have a clue then checking all the ceramic caps for a short may be a good place to start.

[Agent24]

It looks like the (at a guess) PMIC (Power management IC) is a 93045A4 by Texas Instruments, most likely a custom design for Nintendo since it doesn't show up in their catalogue, so sadly, we can't get a datasheet for it.

This chip possibly generates all the power rails in the device, and might handle battery charging as well.

There are at least four inductors around it on the PCB, so it generates at least 4 different rails using probably buck converters. There may be an internal linear regulator as well for a low current standby rail or such.

The inductor will be connected between an output pin on the IC, and the filtering capacitors on the rail. See the attached diagram for the basic idea. In this case the MOSFET and diode are probably both internal to the IC, but there may be some external diode on one or more rails, depending on the design.

You can measure the voltage from the output of the inductor to ground, or measure for shorts there too. Look at the PCB traces to find out what is where eg: which side of the inductor connects to a capacitor(s).

There may be other power supply ICs on the board also, but this looks like the main one.

[Tomylee]

Hi! I noticed that a component is missing just to the left of the CPU on my Nintendo Switch motherboard. I'm not exactly sure what it's supposed to be, so if anyone has an idea or a reference photo of that area, it would really help me identify the missing part.

Thank you so much for the other replies as well! If replacing and soldering this missing component doesn’t fix the issue, I’ll definitely move forward with the solutions you suggested.

Thanks again!

[Tomylee]

Here

[lotas]

Looks like a tantalum capacitor.

[lotas]

Here's more.

[Agent24]

Hard to tell from the photo if it's missing or wasn't there in the first place, solder seems smooth so probably not knocked off at least, strange

[lotas]

It's hard to tell from the photo, there was originally a tantalum capacitor, someone had unsoldered it before (traces of soldering are visible) and forgot to put it back, apparently diagnostics were being performed on the processor core power supply...

[Tomylee]

Hi everyone, Thanks again for your previous replies.

At first, I thought the missing component to the left of the processor was a TVS protection diode (probably for ESD), but after reviewing some photos and comparing with other boards, it really looks more like a tantalum capacitor.

I have to admit I haven’t seen many tantalum capacitors on this type of board, so I’d really appreciate your input:

Could the missing tantalum capacitor be the reason why the blue light doesn’t turn on at all when powering on the console?

If so, what value should it be? And is there a specific replacement part you’d recommend?


Also, Lotas mentioned that the component might have been removed during a diagnostic on the CPU power supply. Yes — the console did go through a repair shop before me.

If that’s the case, how could someone perform a diagnostic with this component removed?

What kind of diagnostic procedure do you think was followed?


Thanks again for all your help and time — it’s really appreciated!

[lotas]

The resistance of the processor core power supply usually has a low resistance, depends on the processor power (but not short), perhaps the workshop was looking for the culprit, what could short this bus (core power supply), check the resistance with a multimeter, in the place where this tantalum capacitor should be.

[Agent24]

Could the missing tantalum capacitor be the reason why the blue light doesn’t turn on at all when powering on the console?

It could be why. Or it may not.
You would only know if you replace it, and it fixed the problem.

If so, what value should it be? And is there a specific replacement part you’d recommend?

I'm not sure. In the other photo, it seems labelled as ".Js" but I don't know where to decode that.
Hopefully someone else knows...

Also, Lotas mentioned that the component might have been removed during a diagnostic on the CPU power supply. Yes — the console did go through a repair shop before me.

If that’s the case, how could someone perform a diagnostic with this component removed?

What kind of diagnostic procedure do you think was followed?

Likely they are talking about diagnosing in the sense of measuring for voltage, looking for shorts, or even injecting voltage etc
Not a software diagnostic tool, just basic electronics troubleshooting.

A bit useless repair shop if they didn't say what component was removed and why. Maybe it was found to be shorted or otherwise faulty.