Your stylus is gone and the touch screen is a fight

94MER / Repair Guides / Handhelds

Handhelds · Symptom guide

The stylus has vanished down the back of the sofa and the touch screen is genuinely awkward to use with a fingertip.

These are resistive touch screens, which need a small hard point rather than a fingertip. Menus mis-tap and handwriting input becomes a fight without one. The stylus is also the first thing to go missing on any used handheld.

Do these first. They cost nothing.

Check this before you buy anything

  1. Check the holder on the console itself

    People buy replacements for a stylus that is sitting in the slot on the side or the back.

  2. Identify your exact model before ordering

    This is where the money gets wasted. A 3DS, a 3DS XL, a New 3DS XL and a 2DS all look similar and none of their styluses interchange. The model number is printed on the back of the console.

  3. Clean the touch screen

    A grimy screen feels unresponsive and is often mistaken for a stylus problem.

If every one of those comes back clean, now it is worth buying a part.

If that did not fix it, here is the part

Original DS StylusOriginal DS Stylus$2.49DS Lite StylusDS Lite Stylus$2.49Nintendo DSi StylusNintendo DSi Stylus$2.49Nintendo 3DS StylusNintendo 3DS Stylus$2.49Nintendo 3DS XL StylusNintendo 3DS XL Stylus$2.49New Nintendo 3DS XL StylusNew Nintendo 3DS XL Stylus$2.49Nintendo 2DS StylusNintendo 2DS Stylus$2.49Wii U GamePad StylusWii U GamePad Stylus$2.49

Before you order

Eight different styluses for eight different consoles. Check the model number on the back of your console before ordering.

What this is not

If the touch screen does not respond anywhere, or responds in the wrong place, a new stylus will not help. That is a digitiser or calibration fault.

Related faults

It only runs on the charger, or it will not charge at all

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