Electrolyte visible on the PCB; corrosion or fishy smell present.
13 repair logs
+34 photosSuccessful repairNEC — PC Engine LT
An epic of strife, perseverance and adaptation.
+15 photosSega — Wondermega
A pig to take apart and put back together, but the end result speaks for itself. Both the Mega Drive and Mega-CD sides are fully operational.
+4 photosSega — Game Gear
Do not recap Game Gears with ceramics
+4 photosNintendo — Game Boy Player
The first time I've actually encountered genuinely leaking capacitors in Game Boy Players. These were memorable for that alone.
+55 photosCould not fixSharp — X68000
A proper exercise in stubbornness. Two rounds of repair, a full recap, FDD surgery, a new oscillator, and still no picture. The X68000 remains on the 'future date' pile.
+135 photosPartial fixSega — Wondermega
An absolute labour of love, or stubbornness, depending on how you look at it. This came from Japan in a sorry state: corrosion, missing components, broken traces and a RAM package with broken legs. The Mega Drive side eventually came back to life, but the Mega-CD side continues to freeze on the BIOS animation, defying everything thrown at it so far.
+40 photosPartial fixSharp — X68000 Pro II
A proper saga. Magic smoke from a reversed capacitor, an accidental probe short, and enough replaced components to fill a parts drawer before a single faulty transistor finally gave the game away. Got it booting and running R-Type, which was a hard earned win. Video output later stopped working, so the story isn't entirely over.
+21 photosSuccessful repair3DO Company — Panasonic FZ-1
This is the unit whose laser went to save its sibling. With the drive dead anyway, a full recap and an ODE installation was the logical conclusion.
+32 photosSuccessful repairSega — Nomad
A Nomad with a broken aftermarket screen, brought back to life.
+15 photosPartial fixSega — Game Gear
Two heavily contaminated 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.
+4 photosSuccessful repairSega — Game Gear
Should have been binned, but wasn't. Required replacing every capacitor and reflowing every solder joint before it became reliable, but it got there.
+6 photosSuccessful repairNEC — PC Engine GT
Every single capacitor on this GT had leaked. A careful removal technique preserved all the pads and it came out the other end clean and happy.
+11 photosSuccessful repairNEC — PC Engine Super CD-ROM2
This one gave me a scare mid-recap when it lost the picture entirely. Turned out to be a resistor knocked off during SMD cap removal; found it sitting on the paper towel and put it back. Also gained a new transport gear and an RGB amp.
