Repairing broken PCB traces and vias with jumper wires.
6 repair logs
+17 photosSuccessful repairSega — Game Gear
This Japanese Sega Game Gear went through a lot: a full IPS LCD mod with speaker upgrade, FM sound module and glass lens, then a trip to the floor courtesy of a curious one-year-old that tore the flex cables. A clock-line bodge wire and a barely-surviving TP10 pad later, everything was restored.
+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.
+16 photosSuccessful repairSega — Mega-CD 2
Dead Sega Mega-CD 2 that turned out to have a single blown fuse. Fuse replaced, region-free BIOS installed, then fully recapped in a follow-up session. Also tidied up some interesting factory bodge cap placements along the way.
+4 photosSuccessful repairTrace repair on an N64 Rumble Pak that had suffered from leaking batteries. Short job, satisfying result.
+24 photosSuccessful repairSNK — 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.
+12 photosSega — Game Gear
The first Game Gear, bought in 2020 as working and arriving with a black screen: it powered on and did nothing else. The solder had gone dull, which was the capacitors leaking rather than anyone's bad workmanship. A recap brought the picture back, but it was done with a RetroSix ceramic cap kit, a mistake corrected years later. Audio stayed dead until a break in continuity between two capacitors on the audio board was bridged with a snipped capacitor leg. It was later fitted with rechargeable cells charged over USB-C, and a Syf audio board with improved grounding. In 2025 the ceramics finally came out for proper electrolytics, and both of those mods moved across to an IPS-screen unit so this one could go back to stock.
