Written 5/1/2009
The Game Boy LCD is often prone to failure, with this failure manifesting itself as blank or dim vertical lines. This is a result of how the LCD is manufactured - a thick, brown flat cable with contacts is adhered to the LCD's bottom edge where there are matching contacts. This is how vertical data reaches the LCD itself. Over time, this adhesive goes dry and the contact it is suppose to help maintain goes sour, resulting in a blank line.
While this simple construction is prone to these issues, it is also easy to fix as a result! Simply re-flowing, or melting the adhesive, will let it settle back into its correct position. By running a hot soldering iron over the brown cable (which won't melt, so don't worry), one can fix it in a matter of minutes. A little bit of solder on the top can help simply to allow for better surface contact.
Here's a video of me doing it:
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