Gameboy Advance SP Screen Swap Troubles

StanJr · July 26, 2019

I have a much cherished pearl blue SP that recent broke (the ribbon on the LCD screen snapped, don't ask). I have another SP laying around (black) I keep for spare parts and thought this was a perfect opportunity to just swap the screens and be back in business. I managed to successfully swap the screens with no issue (I watched a how-to video that actually was informative), but the swapped screen has extremely poor video quality. It looks like the brightness has been turned WAY up and everything is washed out. There are also bars around the screen (top and bottom) that were not there before. Some of the sprites don't look like they fully render, but I think maybe they are just washed out too. (see pic)

So the question is, was the replacement screen just a POS also or did I muck something up in the swap? The ribbon is securely inserted into the jack on the board, so I feel like it's making good connection. Could something else be wrong? I was pretty careful in the swap so I don't think I did any damage, but it's always possible. The swapped screen is one of the newer backlight screens, but people upgrade their old front lit screens all the time with no issue, so I don't think it's a compatibility issue.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I've had this pearl blue baby since the beginning and I would hate to lose it. Sadly replacement screens cost as much as another used SP, so if I have to replace part I'll just have to replace all...