DS Daily: Near-death experiences

by Chris Greenhough { Jun 26th 2008 at 8:00AM }

After spilling half a bottle of Coke across my DS earlier this week, this blogger immediately feared the worst. I need not have fretted, however. History has shown that Nintendo makes some pretty hardy, um, hardware, and after a frantic mopping and drying operation involving half the towels in the house and a hairdryer, the console functions perfectly. The R button is slightly sticky, but nothing major. It was a close call, mind you -- I very nearly had an excuse to buy one of the new red DS Lites! Bah.

What's the worst you've put your DS through, only for the tough little blighter to keep on going?

Tags: accident, damage, dsd, fall

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

morfeatire @ Jun 26th 2008 8:21AM

My DS flew from my open backpack as I threw it on my back... It flew about 6ft high and hit the marble ground. Didn't even made a scratch. It took me some seconds to gather courage to pick it up and test... I guess you could take classic DS and Game Cubes to any war, anyday.

Omatic @ Jun 26th 2008 8:29AM

Well this was actually with my Game Boy Advance, but I think this falls in the same category regardless:

I had pocketed my GBA at a friend's pool party early on, and was challenged to a race t0 the pool (which would include jumping in). I was so intent on winning the race that I forgot to take out my GBA, so it ended up submerged totally underwater with me. I realized seconds after jumping in, and made a mad dash / swim for the ladder.

Anyway, after some shaking and baking (under the sun), the unit worked perfectly, the only problem being some dried chlorine under the screen's plastic. Unfortunately, my Megaman Battle Network 2 game never worked again.

Jamar @ Jun 26th 2008 8:32AM

Dropped my DS onto a hardwood floor. Hinge broke, but that was fixed with a bit of superglue. Then that came apart (how? no clue) and I reglued it, but somehow ended up breaking the shoulder buttons. That was when I decided to get a new one- the iQue version, since I was in China. The shoulder buttons mysteriously failed and I had to pay to get that fixed (Nintendo really needs to step things up here in China- their customer service here is awful). I'm buying a Japanese DS next time.

Nigeria @ Jun 26th 2008 8:35AM

Back home, there was a certain chicken that would waddle into my Grandad's house, find my DS Phat, and peck away at the screen. I always chased it away, but it kept coming back. This was over a two week period. The DS survived , though, without any serious damage.

yourfaceisanadvert.com @ Jun 26th 2008 9:10AM

There was a fatefull camping trip which ended with the hinges on my ds being destroyed beyond repair. Stupid sleeping in the car. STUPID beach for being so scary.

LocalToast @ Jun 26th 2008 9:58AM

I'm pretty guilty when it comes to this story... I opened up my DS Lite just to look at it. I've opened it tons of times and know where/how everything fits.

When I was closing it, I didn't pay attention to the orientation of the power switch. So it snapped off. Now I can't play it anymore until I shell out $75 to get it fixed.

My Phat has a faulty L button and messed-up touch screen, and it has many scars from numerous drops. It's never broken (except for a hinge crack).

John B. @ Jun 26th 2008 10:10AM

My friend bought his first DS (phat) from a store that offered complete insurance on big electronic purchases. He asked them a bunch of questions and it turns out they really had nothing in their policy about whether or not the damage was user-inflicted. He took this opportunity to beat the living hell from his DS. He pitched it at a tree, ran it over with a car, left it out in the rain, beat it against things. It eventually broke, but it took quite the beating. Oh, and then he took it to the store and got a replacement for free.

Phantom @ Jun 26th 2008 10:40AM

Lol , I remember back when i was little , my parents bought me a GBA , I dropped that thing SO MANY TIMES , I would drop it on the pavement like every other day when I was walking from the car to the house , while playing the GBA . I should go take a few pics and put them up here , show you guys all the scracthes .

Bt now I'm much older , and i have a DS Lite that I bought for myself with my own cash and all , so I take mush better care of it , it's in perfect condition as far as i know.

Linka @ Jun 26th 2008 11:03AM

Numerous drops, the sound going funky temporarily (while I was in one dungeon in Phantom Hourglass, so I wasn't exactly keen on resetting the system), and my touch screen breaking?

It still works perfectly, despite the mysterious scratches on the top of the casing. Makes me sorta sad; I'd love an excuse to upgrade to a cobalt black DS Lite.

iruka @ Jun 26th 2008 11:58AM

Dropped my DS twice... once on new year's eve and another one when I lost to my friend in tetris. it was an accident... i didn't mean to drop it. but I guess all those stresses added up and the hinge has a crack on the right side.. :(

Kia @ Jun 26th 2008 1:50PM

I ran over mine with my car. I didn't realize that it fell out of my purse as I was getting into the car. It was a pretty good excuse to buy the sexy red/black DS, though.

miruki @ Jun 26th 2008 1:58PM

One week after buying my DS my stupid boyfriend spilled a half filled glass of water on it... well, that does not sound very terrifying, but he spilled it while we were asleep (why did he have to put his glass of water next to my shiny new DS! O_O) Ehh.. anyways, when we woke up I noticed that the bedside table was a little wet.. and my bf noticed all the water in his glass was gone. I turned really pale and took a closer look at the DS, it was slighty wet on the bottom side.. but after I thoroughly dried it everything seemed fine. I turned it on and it worked. Initially. But after some days suddenly the upper screen would turn black. Restarting would make it work again at first.. but that one time it wouldn't start. Well.. I tried plugging in the charger, but even the led wouldn't lit up anymore.....

So we went to the store where I bought it, of course I didn't mention the little water spilling incident, I just said "HO MY GOD MY DS WON'T GO ON ANY LONGER!" and tolde the store clerk about the charging issue too. He was very puzzled and checked it again, he tried it with another charger too.. but well, I somehow expected it wouldn't work. So he grabbed a sealed package with a new shiny DS and gave that one to me, without asking any further questions. (I still love that guy to death, I was expecting him to ask tons of stuff or tell me he had to send it in or anything, but nooo, he just gave me a new one.. awesome!)

Now I carefully put my DS somewhere where no liquid will ever touch it!

117 @ Jun 26th 2008 7:02PM

I was on an end of the school year to 6 flags, and took my DS with me for the rife and lines. It worked well, and apart for a few marks from some of the more violent rides, it came out fine. Then we went on the Raging Bull, the tallest ride in the park. As you would expect, the lines were fairly long, so I pulled out my DS to play. It passed the time, but I lost track of where we were in line, and before I knew it I was hastily stuffing it in my pocket to get on. What I had forgotten to do was put it in my zipped up pocket so that it wouldn't fall out. However, I hadn't realized this, pulled down my harness, ready to go. The raging bull has a way of faking you out. You go off a drop, expecting it to be the huge main one, but it's only a short one, just enough time to get you to think "What's happened?" before it drops you for real. It was on this small drop that I realized just where my DS was. My hands already being in the air, I struggled against the force of the drop to push my hand into my pocket to hold my DS still. I could feel it coming out, but I caught it in time, and kept one hand there for the rest of the ride. It may not of been that badly damaged, and it still works, but it was definitely the closest I've come to losing my DS.

Inanimate @ Jun 26th 2008 8:06PM

I somehow got a liquid in MY DS. Like you.

Except, sadly, mine DID die.

Luckily, i sent it to Nintendo and they gave me a new one.

But this new ones screen is funky, and I have to press to the left of what I want to touch.

Matdredalia @ Jun 26th 2008 11:28PM

To be honest, I consider my DS Lite my first born child, and am mortified of something terrible happening to it. I have literally had nightmares about accidentally taking it into the shower or dropping it in a lake.

However, I baby it to no end, and thankfully, the worst "near death" was when my hubby spilled a cup of water on the desk, but thankfully only a few drops got onto my Lite. After that, I kept my Lite in it's case, no-matter-what.

SmileyDude @ Jun 27th 2008 8:47AM

"What's the worst you've put your DS through, only for the tough little blighter to keep on going?"

Ouendan, Elite Beat Agents, and Ouendan 2 -- seriously, my screen got scratches all over the place because of the amount of time I spent on those games. But, it still keeps working.

habble @ Jun 27th 2008 11:39AM

Before I begin, My DS has a Guard Mask in it (a third party case protector)

I was about to play an arcade game. As I was about to store the DS in my bag, I accidentally lost hold of it and flew about 4 feet from the ground. The bottom of the guard mask was disassembled and my FFCC game was spit out of the slot, but I tried the DS, and thankfully, there was no damage.

I thought my LCD would be messed up, or the game data would be deleted (since the DS was just in sleep mode), but whew, close call.

pikelet @ Jun 27th 2008 10:11PM

My brother's DS Lite survived a house fire. It works fine, it's just a bit smoky and melted in spots. I don't think the GBA filler cartridge comes out anymore..

(bad phone camera photos ahoy)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/virtute/IMG_2193.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/virtute/IMG_2194.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/virtute/IMG_2195.jpg

matt @ Jun 30th 2008 3:30AM

My friend was trying to hit his little brother with a pvc pipe but missed and hit my gba then he hid it and didn't tell me for a couple of days the screen filled with ink stuff

Gato @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:55AM

Once, when I saw my brother hitting the touch-screen so hard it could be heard to the room next door, I went to yell at him. I took away the DS from him and told him that he'd never do that again. When I was just getting to the point it just slipped from my hand onto the hard stone floor. I was so shocked I dropped the coffee I was holding in the other hand on the DS.
The DS is working perfectly fine, but the coffee mug never saw daylight again.

kirbydode @ Jul 7th 2008 3:24PM

Mine was horrible but my ds survived

Me and my friend were on top of a large bridge playing with our DS lites when i accidentally dropped my ds of the high bride ( thank god there was no water!) it was like 20 feet long my friend grabbed my ankle as i flew down for my DS i grabbed it just in time for my friend to pull me back up , then i put it in my case and then in my big bag and we went back to the pizza parlor to have some pizza.