My DS Lite that I got on the US launch date in June last year got the dreaded hinge crack back in late January. It didn’t bother me much at all, until I saw some pictures of how other people’s DS Lites came apart with what started off as a small hinge crack.
I didn’t want that to happen to mine, so I waited a little bit until after I played all the games I wanted to play to send in my Lite.
It took about 4 days to get my UPS shipping label in the mail. I got my label on a Saturday, so I waited until Monday to ship out my DS. I got it back on Thursday that same week.
What’s even more awesome is that I got a free battery out of it too. Since I shipped them my Lite without a battery (and without the stylus and GBA filler cartridge) and they sent it back with a battery in it.
It has the same serial number as the DS Lite that I sent them and the back is still the same, but I think the insides of it are somehow different. This DS Lite that I have now has a completely different MAC address than the one I sent them (I know because I have the MAC address in my router so that my DS always gets assigned the same IP address each time it connects to my router). So since the hardware is different, I have to reset all of my friend codes. 🙁
Oh well, I’m more than happy with the quick turnaround time, no more hinge crack, and a free battery ($15 value on Nintendo’s online store) and it didn’t cost me a thing to ship it or get it fixed! 😀 And the company that fixed it (a Nintendo authorized third party repair center) says that their work is guaranteed for a year. So if I have any problems with it cracking again, I can just send it back within a year. 😀