My 3DS XL Finally Repaired

One of the most painful moments of being a gamer is when your console / handheld gets damaged, or breaks down. It's even more painful when you lose all your game progress. Imagine all your hard work, gone, down the drain.

The 3DS XL is one of the most common devices where there can be damages. It's because of the design for the unit which Nintendo made.

My 3DS XL had a problem with the housing. It all started around the second week of May 2014, when the first signs of housing damage showed up. Some of the part above the R trigger got chipped off. I just used super glue on that part, and simply ignored the problem, but I was more careful when I close the lid of my unit. I can't show the damage because I have no pictures of this, or I lost them when the hard drive of my previous laptop broke down..

The problem worsened on the release date of Pokemon ORAS, when I, together with friends, went out to buy our copies of Pokemon OR or Pokemon AS. The part of the housing that got chipped off and got glued back, suddenly got lost inside the mall. I have no idea how that happened. When I close the unit, I have to hold the rough edge above the R trigger to close the lid, and it's really uncomfortable because of the somewhat sharp edges.

Around March 2015, when I'm on my internship days, this then happened.

Too much pain as the problem worsens. I can still use the unit normally though.

Around July 2015, days before school opening, the housing finally broke down, one year and two months from the first signs of damage. I had it repaired last September 8. Housing replacement for the lower screen. Here is the current state of the unit.

The housing together with the service cost PHP 1400 (around USD 30). I don't know if the price is right, because we don't have local stores that sell the housing. Housing parts are shipped from other countries, and we have problems with the customs tax. Since I desperately wanted to have my unit repaired, and I missed playing with it, I just spent some of my savings.

Too bad I just can't transfer the skin because it's already two years old, and probably won't stick when I transfer it.

Lesson: Don't lend the unit to anybody who doesn't know how to care for gaming units. Family members are also included. Also, be careful with gadgets. I learned mine the hard way.