“Overclocking old Game Boy Advances is great, but what about what I’m playing right now? Can you overclock a Nintendo DS?” After some research, it turns out the answer is “yes”.

 

What you need:

Disassemble your DS
Turn the unit upside down and remove the battery cover and battery

Remove Battery Cover and Battery
Remove the seven screws that hold the back cover on (some are tri-wing, some are Phillips).

Rear Cover Screws

Lift the cover off and set it aside.

Remove the L and R buttons.

Remove the four Phillips screws that hold the PCB in place.

PCB Screws

Disconnect the black antenna wire from the RF module and bend it out of the way.

Detatch the two wide ribbon cables that go to the screens from their connectors. Do this by pulling up on the dark grey latch on the connector. Once the latch has flipped to the “up” position the ribbons should slide right out.

LCD Connectors

Underneath one of the wide ribbons are two smaller ribbon cables. Disconnect these by sliding the dark brown part sideways (away from the connector).

Small LCD Connectors

Remove the PCB from the case and set the case aside.

Remove the existing crystal
There are four tabs on the DS cartridge slot assembly that are soldered to the PCB, holding it in place. Desolder these. The easiest way for me was to use solder wick, but use whatever method works for you.

Desoldering DS Game Cartridge Slot Assembly

Lift up on the slot assembly. It should swing up, the still-connected pins acting like a hinge. Now you should have easy access to the crystal (X1).

Crystal X1

Desolder and remove crystal X1.

Crystal Removed

Solder a wire to one of the pads where the crystal used to be (see picture for which one).

CLK Wire

Lower the slot assembly and solder it back into place.

Route the wire to the other side of the PCB as shown:

CLK Wire Routing

Install the GBAccelerator DS
Use double-sided tape to stick the GBAccelerator DS chip to the front of the board. Try to place it exactly as shown in the picture or you may have trouble putting the case back together.

GBAccelerator DS Chip Placement

Start routing and connecting wires as shown in this diagram:

GBAccelerator DS Wiring Diagram

GBAccelerator DS Connections
GND BT-
V+ VDD3.3
CLK Solder pad where xtal used to be
LED Green
BUTTON P02
BUTTON P08
BUTTON P09

 

When you’re done it should look like this:

Installed

Installed 2

Reassemble your DS
Putting the DS back together is basically the reverse of taking it apart. All your modifications should fit just fine inside the case if you placed everything exactly as shown in the pictures and diagrams. If something doesn’t go back together quite right, don’t force it. Figure out what is pinching or hanging up and move it out of the way.

Testing
Turn on your Nintendo DS. It should boot normally. You probably want to start a game or something so you can see if the mod is actually doing anything.

Press L, R and Select at the same time. The DS should speed up to 1.4x (92mhz), and the LED should now blink every couple seconds.

Press the buttons again. The speed should increase again to 1.8x (116mhz), and the LED should be double-blinking.

Press the buttons again. Now it should be running slower at .66x (44mhz), and the LED should be fading in and out.

One more press of the buttons should bring you back to normal speed (66mhz).

Congratulations! You now have a Nintendo DS that you can overclock any time you want to.

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