Take Your Nintendo DS Lite Completely Apart

1. Use a small phillips head screw driver, small flathead screwdriver, and a tri-wing screwdriver.  You can purchase these tri-wing screwdrivers for fairly cheap, just a few dollars, and they are a must have to fix any of Nintendo's products. 
2. Take your small flat head screwdriver and pry off the 2 small rubber "feet" on the back of your ds lite.  They just have an adhesive on them so they will go back on easy.  Now remove the battery cover with your small phillips screwdriver.  Take the battery out by using the flathead on the right side of the battery and pull that side up.  Place the cover on top of the battery and set aside.  
3. Now starting at the bottom right hand side of your ds lite, remove the 3 screws inside the battery compartment.  I always set the screws on the battery cover I just removed and place them how on there exactly where they will go back in.  On the top right, where one of the rubber "feet" was, remove that screw and place it aside.  Then, right where the ds games go in there is a tiny black tri-wing screw.  Remove that carefully and place next to the other screw you just set aside. (Remember to keep these screws on something flat with edges so you don't lose any of them.  You can place a strip of duct tape upside down so the screws don't roll around if you want.  I always use a paper plate and like I said before, place them exactly in the order of where they would go back in.)  Remove the next screw which is on the top left under where the other rubber "foot" was.  Continue to remove the screw which is visible at the top left hand side.  Lastly, remove the screw in the bottom left hand corner.
4. Now remove the "blank" out of the slot 2 at the bottom of the console.  After that, carefully start to pry the back cover off of your ds lite.  The thing you have to watch out for is the"L" and "R" buttons.  They have a tiny spring that offers the resistance on the buttons.  I use the small flat head screwdriver once I have started the separation and work my way around to release the back cover.  Place the cover to the side and make sure the volume and power buttons are still in their spots.
5. You will now have to remove the "L" and "R" buttons.  Examine how the spring goes in.  Now just grab the button and keep a little pressure on the side of the metal stud.  This will keep the stud from dropping out and the spring from falling out too.  Place aside.
6. There is one screw holding the board to the housing.  Remove it and inspect where the ribbon comes down from the top screen to the board.  Where the ribbon attaches to the board, there will be a white connector with a black clasp on top.  You will have to pry the black clasp up to remove the ribbon.  To do this, use your fingernail to pull the clasp up.  It opens away from the ribbon.  After that, there will be 2 wires(one black, one white) that attach to the board from the upper portion of the ds lite.  Simply use your fingernail again to pop these connectors off the board.  The black wire is ran underneath the ds lite slot 1 card reader.  You have to fish that wire out so it is not underneath the reader anymore.
7. So now the board with the slot 1 card reader and bottom lcd/touchscreen attached should be free from the ds lite housing.  To remove the touchscreen/lcd screen there are 2 connectors on the board.  Once again follow the ribbons to where the connectors are.  One of them is exactly like the one you previously opened.  The other one is very small and it opens towards the ribbon instead of away like the other two.  I carefully use the small flat head screwdriver to open the small one because its hard to fit your fingernail in there to open it.  Very delicately remove the ribbons from the board.  Set the touchscreen/lcd screen aside. (It is actually two screens on top of one another.)  Set the main board aside.
8. The housing body, now separate from the main board, will have two small screws where the hinge is.  Remove these screws, and remove the hinge cover.  The hinge itself can now be taken out by simply pulling on it.  If you have to, you can use a small pair of pliers to get it out but I've never had to.  
9. Next is pulling the black and white wires through the hinge hole on the other side.  That should be fairly easy just watch the ribbon does not get damaged.  After that the ribbon has to come through.  If you look closely, the housing has a slot that runs to the hole.  Use that slot to carefully work the ribbon through to free the bottom portion of the housing.
10. We are finally on to the top screen.  On the side where the screen is located there are 4 "stickers" covering the screw holes.  Remove these "stickers" to reveal the 4 screws.  Remove the 4 screws and set aside.(I always put these pieces on a separate plate.)  Towards the top of the top screen there are to rubber stopper pieces on either side.  These will easily come out with the small flat head screwdriver.  Now just start to pry the pieces apart.  Make sure when you do this you have the screen side down otherwise the speakers and wireless card will fall out.  
11. After separation, you can fish the black and white wires, which, one is the mic and the other is the wireless card.  Place both the wireless card and the mic to the side.  Carefully push the top screen through the housing to free it.  It has an adhesive on it so its a little more difficult then the bottom screen was.  Also be careful as the speakers are attached to the lcd screen too.  Each speaker has some "o" rings on them.  You might want to remove these rings before you take the screen out just be sure to note the order that they lay in the housing.  Once the top screen is free from the housing, you have to roll the ribbon up to work it through the hole in the housing.  There is no slot on this portion so you have to be extremely careful when doing this.  If it's not passing through easily then back it up and roll it tighter.  I have seen plenty of these ribbons get ripped from customers who tried to replace the top screens themselves.  After that you have now successfully removed every component that is not soldered into place on  your ds lite.