You’ve probably dropped it. Or maybe you just noticed that annoying "drift" where Mario starts walking off a cliff for absolutely no reason. It happens to the best of us because, honestly, the Nintendo Switch is a weirdly complex piece of engineering shoved into a tiny plastic frame. Most people just see a screen and some buttons. But if you actually crack one open—which I don't recommend unless you have a steady hand and a death wish for your warranty—you’ll find a dense forest of ribbon cables, heat pipes, and proprietary chips.
The Switch is basically a tablet that thinks it’s a home console. It’s a hybrid. It’s also a fragile little beast. Knowing the parts of a Nintendo Switch isn't just for tech nerds or repair shops anymore; it’s survival for anyone who doesn't want to spend another $300 because a $5 charging port pin got bent.
The Brains and the Heat
At the dead center of the console sits the Tegra X1 processor. This is the heart of the machine. It’s an NVIDIA chip, and frankly, it’s getting a bit long in the tooth by 2026 standards, but it’s what makes The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild possible on a handheld.
But here’s the thing: chips get hot.
If you look at the top of your Switch, you’ll see a vent. Underneath that vent is a tiny, high-RPM fan and a copper heat pipe. This pipe contains a minuscule amount of liquid that evaporates and condenses to pull heat away from the Tegra chip. If your Switch sounds like a jet engine taking off, that fan is either clogged with cat hair or the thermal paste has dried into a crusty, useless powder. I’ve seen consoles warp—literally bend—because the cooling system failed and the plastic couldn't handle the internal temperatures.
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Those Infamous Joy-Cons
We have to talk about the Joy-Cons. They are arguably the most innovative and most frustrating parts of a Nintendo Switch. Inside these tiny plastic shells, there’s more tech than there was in an entire GameCube. You’ve got the HD Rumble motors—which use "Linear Resonant Actuators" to simulate the feeling of ice cubes shaking in a glass—and an IR Motion Camera on the right controller that can actually "see" shapes.
Then there’s the joystick.
The "Drift" is caused by the sensor tracks inside the joystick housing wearing down. Every time you move the stick, a small metal brush rubs against a carbon pad. Eventually, that carbon wears away, creates dust, and the electrical signal gets messy. It’s a mechanical failure, not a software bug. Most people end up replacing the entire joystick module, which is held in by a few screws and a very delicate ribbon cable. If you’re doing a DIY fix, be careful with the "ZIF" (Zero Insertion Force) connectors. They’re about as sturdy as a wet cracker.
The Screen: LCD vs. OLED
If you have the standard Switch or the Lite, you’re looking at a 6.2-inch or 5.5-inch LCD. It’s functional. It’s fine. But the OLED model changed the game with a 7-inch "Organic Light Emitting Diode" display.
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The difference isn't just size.
In an LCD, there’s a backlight that stays on, and pixels try to block the light to create "black." They never quite succeed, which is why dark scenes look grayish. With the OLED parts of a Nintendo Switch, each pixel is its own light source. When a pixel is black, it’s literally turned off. This saves a tiny bit of battery life, but mostly it just makes Metroid Dread look incredible. The screen is bonded to the digitizer (the touch-sensing layer), so if you crack the glass, you’re usually replacing the whole assembly.
The Hidden Skeleton
Underneath the back plate, there’s a secondary metal shield. This isn't just for structural integrity. It acts as a heat sink and an EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) shield.
Behind this shield, you’ll find:
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- The Battery: A 4310mAh lithium-ion cell. It’s glued in. Why? Because Nintendo hates us. Replacing it requires a lot of prying and a bit of prayer that you don't puncture the casing.
- The Game Card Slot: This is a modular component. It also houses the 3.5mm headphone jack. If your Switch stops reading cartridges, you can usually swap this entire daughterboard out without soldering.
- The MicroSD Reader: Interestingly, this is often a separate "pop-on" part. If your storage stops working, it might just be that the connector inside has wiggled loose.
Power and Docking
The USB-C port at the bottom is the most overworked part of the entire system. It handles power, but it also handles video output via a protocol called DisplayPort Alt Mode. Inside the Switch, a chip called the M92T36 manages the power delivery. This chip is the "Achilles' heel" of the console. If you use a cheap, third-party dock that doesn't follow the specific power profiles Nintendo uses, you can fry this chip instantly.
Once the M92T36 is dead, the Switch won't charge or turn on. It’s a "no-power" state that usually requires a professional with a hot-air station to fix.
The Unsung Hero: The Rail System
The rails on the side of the console are actually electronic components. They aren't just pieces of metal for the Joy-Cons to slide onto. They have five tiny pins at the bottom that facilitate the wired connection and charging for the controllers. If your Joy-Cons won't sync when attached, check these pins. Sometimes they get gunked up with lint or a single pin gets pushed out of alignment. A quick clean with 91% isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush usually does the trick.
It’s easy to forget that this thing is a miracle of miniaturization. You’re holding a computer that rivals a 2013-era home console, powered by a battery the size of a granola bar.
Actionable Maintenance Steps
To keep these parts of a Nintendo Switch running for the next five years, you should actually do a few things instead of just letting it rot in a dusty dock.
- Blast the Vents: Use a can of compressed air on the top exhaust vent every few months. Don't let the dust build up, or the Tegra chip will start "thermal throttling," which leads to lag and frame rate drops in games like Pokemon Scarlet.
- Contact Cleaner for Drift: If you have slight joystick drift, don't take it apart yet. Buy a can of "Electrical Contact Cleaner" (WD-40 makes a specialized version, but don't use regular WD-40!). Lift the little rubber skirt under the joystick, spray a tiny amount in, and wiggle it around. It clears the carbon dust and fixes about 70% of drift issues instantly.
- Check the SD Card Reader: If you get "SD Card Removed" errors, don't panic. The reader is held in by one screw under the kickstand. Sometimes just unscrewing the back and re-seating that connector fixes the whole problem.
- Use Official Power Bricks: Avoid "no-name" USB-C chargers from gas stations. The Switch's Power Delivery (PD) spec is slightly non-standard. Stick to the official Nintendo adapter or a high-quality brand like Anker that explicitly supports PD 3.0.
Understanding how these components interact makes it way less scary when something inevitably goes wrong. Most of these pieces are modular, meaning the Switch was actually designed to be repaired—at least more so than a modern iPhone.