Garbled, scrambled or partially missing display output.
6 repair logs
+4 photosNintendo — Game Boy Player
The first time I've actually encountered genuinely leaking capacitors in Nintendo Game Boy Player (DOL-017) units. These were memorable for that alone.
+21 photosSuccessful repairNintendo — Virtual Boy
Virtual Ribbon 4.0 install on a Nintendo Virtual Boy is trickier than it looks. The mounting jig only screws on one side and won't apply even pressure, so some improvisation is required to get a consistent connection across the LED array. Worth it for a fully working Virtual Boy.
+15 photosPartial fixSega — Game Gear
Two heavily contaminated Sega Game Gears, so badly that components were falling off the boards from the electrolyte. Many hours in, one has a partially defective screen and the other boots and plays audio with no picture. A partial result after a massive effort.
+8 photosSuccessful repairSega — Saturn
A full recap on a three-euro Sega Saturn NTSC-J Model 2 that booted to corrupted, frozen graphics: PSU, motherboard and optical drive all seen to, plus a reflow and a retrobrite.
Sinclair — ZX Spectrum +2
The childhood ZX Spectrum +2 (grey, issue 3) stopped booting properly in 2021 with dead memory. All sixteen 4164 DRAMs were socketed and replaced, then the originals were sorted one at a time in a contended slot to find the bad ones. Recapped along with the PSU, 7805 replaced, the C31 audio bleed mod done, TR4, TR5 and TR7 reversed to correct a factory silkscreen error, and a solder bridge on the ULA cleared. C52 next to the ULA was later swapped for a 100uF radial and 1nF ceramics added across C72 to C79 to knock back the jailbars, and a DivMMC took over from tape loading. Five years on and still running.
SNK — Neo Geo AES
This AES drew sprites incorrectly. Socketing the VRAM ruled out the usual suspect, then a reflow of suspect joints turned the fault into a green debug screen caused by a lost trace between the work RAM ICs. The cartridge connector with the smashed pin was replaced, and the original fault turned out to be a broken connection between the LSPC2 and the VRAM. Recapped with a Console5 kit and given the FirebrandX audio fixes along the way.
