In my nes portable, everything is hooked up, it's just that when I power it all on, the screen works for a couple seconds before going a beige color and I can't see anything. The sound and controls still work, but the video only works for a bit. Faulty connection? Too thin of wires?

Curious myself, as this was my issue with my portable before I stopped working on it.

Sounds like the screen you're using isn't getting enough power. What type of screen are you using, and how much power are you putting through it?

Maybe it's a backlight problem.

its neither of those problems. the leds light up fine, sound is perfect, controls great. im using a psone screen and using ben's design from his book and everything WAS working out fine until i got to the case construction part, then the screen stopped working. i dont know, i will charge the batteries more, but i dont really know if that will fix it. also, the color is really faint. it has good colors at start up, but then everything is washed out.

hmm. i charged the battery for a bit, and when i turned it on, the screen worked fine! the colors even seemed to have improved by a bit! i was moving the whole thing around, and the controller wires got detached, and the nes controller board was touching the screen's board and maybe putting pressure on it??? i really dont know, but until it is all 100% assembled again, i dont know what to make of it. does this make sense?

Yep, that makes sense. It is indeed a power issue.

The original NES board + the PS1 screen (even with the LED mod) is a very power hungry setup....I'd say just make sure the batteries are fully charged. ~ Rechargeable batteries tend to put out less current than their non-rechargeable counterparts, so you need to keep them juiced up as much as possible to make up the difference (and to keep up with the power draw).

I am going to test this out soon as well, thanks markus!

thanks guys! question, would it be ok to make my portable gameboy style, with the nes board lying sideways with the game going in sideways? would it be secure enough? because i dont want to have to rewire the controller, id just have it how it normally is.

It does not matter where the cart slot is, what matters is how secure the cart slot is.

Thumbs up on the info. I got my portable working again and the issue was so simple.

well thanks, and good for you! ok yeah, i guess ill make it the way i wanted because it'd be easier to finish up the casing for it.