Arcade & Retro Repairs & Mods, all new recipe, with no added MSG...

Alter Egotist

It isn in my possession yet but I was hoping ye could help.

Im being given a megadrive that "isnt working" by a friend. I dont know in what way it is faulty or if it can be fixed but just wondering does any one have a recommendation on usual megadrive faults that i could tackle/look at first when i get it?

Is there a megadrive equivalent issue to the 72 pin connector?

Is there a battery that could need replacing.

Sory bout vague description of problem, will update with more infor when i receive it (hopefully tomorrow or else monday)

Al.

o1s1n

To be honest there's usually nothing wrong with them and people just can't figure out how to tune them in with the rf cable.

My best advice? Buy an RGB scart cable for it. You just plug it into the console and you have instant picture.

Just make sure you buy the correct one. The Megadrive I and II have different sized AV ports.

If it's not powering on then you probably just need a new PSU.

Myrddin

Ok guys, time for another repair log. Normally my threads go in the Console Modding forum, but this is more a repair than a mod so I'm gonna post it here.

The operation is on o1s1n's Amiga 1200, which developed some problems relating to the sound & colour end of things. o1s1n being much more up on Amiga's than me did the homework on this one, and surmised it was a capacitor issue, which affects quite a number of people. And if it doesn't affect you, wait for it :D

Amiga parts are getting rare & hard to find these days, especially pcb components etc. Luckily I managed to stumble across a guy in France who goes by the name CosMos, who offered a very cpmpetetive price for a complete capacitor kit. His blog is in French, but you can translate it easily via Google. So many thanks to Cosmos, it saved a hell of a lot of guessing & messing about trying to find the correct values etc.

Ok to begin, we take one Amiga 1200 with dodgey caps



Obviously it needs to be stripped down to the pcb, I won't show the whole process but here's one shot.



A few of you were asking elsewhere about the CF Hdd installation, well here it is in reverse. It simply plugs out/in via a mini-ide connector.



And unplugged



There are four of these larger traditional type caps, and the rest are surface mount. These were a little tricky as they are soldered on both the topside & underside of the motherboard. Ideally a vacumn solder pump should be used on these to remove enough solder to allow the new caps to pass through the motherboard with ease.



Out with the old...



And in with the new.



The rest of the kit consists of fifteen surface mount caps, seen here



Desoldered



Replacement happily soldered in place.



Crunch time, will it work? Of course it did!



I then stupidly loaded this with my 8 year old son in the room, damn you o1s1n, as if not having an Amiga was bad enough - I now have to listen to "Can we get an Amiga?!?!"



And that's that. I've left it on & used it for about an hour now, and it hasn't missed a beat. Colours & sound are perfect for me so all seems well. Hopefully you get many more years fun out of it now o1s1n! Thanks again to CosMos for his services, and patience with me lol.

o1s1n

Hah! I was wondering why you were texting me about the mouse. Had my fingers crossed I'd be seeing such a post soon.

You are an absolute legend. Thank you! The colours in the picture look perfect!

Alter Egotist

Does anyone know will it damage a Nes by playing the games with the loading bay not closed? i.e. i got a nes to fix and i now seem to be able to play the games without closing sping mechanism. If i do close it games dont generally work, just get a grey screen same as when no game present.

Hope ye can help.

Al

Myrddin

Alter Egotist wrote: »

Does anyone know will it damage a Nes by playing the games with the loading bay not closed? i.e. i got a nes to fix and i now seem to be able to play the games without closing sping mechanism. If i do close it games dont generally work, just get a grey screen same as when no game present.

Hope ye can help.

Al

Are you referring to the lid that you open in order to put a cart in? Or the spring mechanism that holds the carts in place? If it's just the lid, it bears no impact on anything to do with carts so I've no idea how that could be.

Optimus Prime

My games worked when the spring was down, but i recently changed the 72pin and they only work when up now, I just need to loosen the screws that hold the spring thing in place but havent got around to it yet. You might be able to easily fix it just by loosening the screws.

Alter Egotist

ya i replaced the 62 pin aswell. Will give that a go. thanks.

On another note. any ideas why a megadrive game would load the first bit of txt re liscence etc and then screen go blank?

is it a connection problem or a problem with game. Megadrive tunes in and power light stays on so persume its not the megadrive itself.

Al.

Andrew76

Alter Egotist wrote: »

On another note. any ideas why a megadrive game would load the first bit of txt re liscence etc and then screen go blank?

is it a connection problem or a problem with game. Megadrive tunes in and power light stays on so persume its not the megadrive itself.
Al.

Wouldn't be a region lock issue would it? Are both console and cart the same region? I know you can get a message saying the cart is only designed for certain regions etc but is it always the case you see that message?

Alter Egotist

i havent a clue. Never had a megadrive growing up (was nintendo through n through......still am). Cant find any region info printed on cart. Inherited this from someone who had it in their attic and remembered i collected "old nintendos". Didnt wanna look a gift horse in the mouth so took it anyway.

o1s1n

Alter Egotist wrote: »

On another note. any ideas why a megadrive game would load the first bit of txt re liscence etc and then screen go blank?

is it a connection problem or a problem with game. Megadrive tunes in and power light stays on so persume its not the megadrive itself.

Al.

Sounds like there's some dirt in there. If the console is booting up and showing the licensing screen the then console is okay. I'd imagine it's a dirty cart. Give the connector on the cart a clean with some Q tips. Or if you can get the case open one of those crumbly school rubbers.

Alter Egotist

Trying to fix a german NES I acquired online. Does anyone know if the console constantly blinks and shows static on screen when turned on (as aposed to grey or orange screen (orange is typical of the Australia Nes) ) does that definately mean the 72 pin connector needs to be replaced or is it possible I have further graphics issues? Was there a separate graphics chip back then and could it be injured

Myrddin

Alter Egotist wrote: »

Trying to fix a german NES I acquired online. Does anyone know if the console constantly blinks and shows static on screen when turned on (as appsed to grey or orange screen (orange is typical of the Australia Nes) ) does that definately mean the 72 pin connector needs to be replaced or is it possible I have further graphics issues? Was there a separate graphics chip back then and could it be injured

70% of any NES problems I've had over the years are down to the 72pin connector. The other 30% is down to dirty cart connectors. Those machines, usually, are bulletproof otherwise.

Hygro

What about arcade cabinet and PCB repairs? I've got a 6 button cabinet in which all of the buttons do not work, so no point in plaing Street Fighter, plus a Double Dragon jamma pcb which I can only play single dragon on cos there's a problem with the board, which has player 2 constantly walking into the top right hand corner.

Myrddin

Hygro wrote: »

What about arcade cabinet and PCB repairs? I've got a 6 button cabinet in which all of the buttons do not work, so no point in plaing Street Fighter, plus a Double Dragon jamma pcb which I can only play single dragon on cos there's a problem with the board, which has player 2 constantly walking into the top right hand corner.

Very odd that none of the buttons in your cab are working, I wonder if there's a break in the jamma loom somewhere. Possibly even a block connector extension is disconnected? It's likely something simple, as eash button has it's own switch & seperate wire running to the pcb (jamma plug).

Regards the pcb, look for bent pins shorting on each other etc.

Hygro

Sorry, should have made it more clear. Most of the buttons do work, there are a few that do not

With regards the pcb board I've no experience with fixing these, or cabinet wiring (no electrical knowledge) , I'm only good at the games, not repairing them

Myrddin

Hygro wrote: »

Sorry, should have made it more clear. Most of the buttons do work, there are a few that do not

With regards the pcb board I've no experience with fixing these, or cabinet wiring (no electrical knowledge) , I'm only good at the games, not repairing them

Ah, that makes more sense. In that case it's likely either you have some bad microswitches or broken connections (wires broken away from switches). Quite fixable

o1s1n

I thought my Megadrive 2 was broken last night. Was disconnecting scarts, reconnecting scarts, trying other consoles to see if the tv was broken. It really had me baffled. There was no picture and really low quality sound.

After about 20 minutes I figured it out - the 32X wasn't plugged in. I am a fool! I don't think it's the first time that's happened either.

Augmerson

My Laptop was acting up a bit - overheating, so bought a can of compressed air, also an external fan, in town today. Decided to test the can of compressed air out on my PS2, the fan on the back was so dust covered it looked like a relic off the Titantic. Worked very well, despite my initial freakout when the can blew liquid drops out first, these quickly dry. The fan is as good as it possibly can be now.

o1s1n

Have you ever thought something seemed like it would be a quick fix and then turned out to be a nightmare? The below is a lot longer than it needed to be..but it was a pain and I feel like ranting

This evening I was going through some stuff and found my original Megadrive pad. It's the one that came with my high definition graphics model 1. Unfortunately that console broke within the year, but I held onto the pad.

It has a white start button and red ABC buttons..rather than the usual ones you see over here that have a red start button and white ABC buttons. I'm also pretty sure the cable is longer too.

Anyway, I plugged it in and it had a lot of issues. The B button worked as if it was new. I remembered that I changed that a few years ago. Everything else was knackared though - the ABC buttons required a lot of force. Up and down wouldn't work at all.

Right, I thought..this controller has a hell of a lot of nostalgia attached to it - it must be fixed to work like new.

The buttons can be put aside for a moment as the main issue was the D pad. I have a crap load of Megadrive pads..really really loads. So I thought it was just going to be a matter of switching the D pad rubber out. I tried another pad rubber and it had the same issue - ****e, must be the PCB. Here's where I ran into even more trouble. See all of my other multiple pads are the ones with red start buttons. I though the button colour was the only difference - apparantly not. The PCB in the controller is a different shape.

Then I remembered I had a Generation 1 NTSC Sega Genesis pad - again, different shaped PCB. But success! The button rubber under the D pad in this is much thicker than the PAL one. So I tried this with the original PAL PCB and it worked perfectly. Seems the PCB was fine, just as the PAL D pad rubber is thinner, they seem to go quicker.

Sadly, a thicker D pad rubber meant the controller wouldn't screw closed. So back to the start .

After some head scratching, I figured out that another issue was actually causing the D pad problem. The D pad plastic has some little pins coming out of it that I hadn't originally paid any notice to as the D pad was still in the controller shell - I only took the rubber out. I noticed that they were a little bent out of shape. Straightened them back out and it worked! yay. Thank **** for that!

Now, on to the buttons.

Unfortunately unlike the Snes, Megadrive pad buttons did not last the test of time..I'm sure you're all familiar with this. A handy fix is to open it up and switch the start button rubber for whatever main button you use on the pad (I usually use . As people don't press the start button nearly as much as all the others, the rubber is in good condition.

This lets you play most games, but obviously it would be nice to have all the buttons working perfectly.

Loads of pads = loads of start button rubbers - 'this'll be an easy fix!'

Lots of them worked, but you had to still apply a tiny bit more force than a normal button push. This wasn't good enough!

What followed was me sitting there for an hour, surrounded by open pad and their rubbers, replacing one button at a time and jumping in Sonic.

Eventually I actually managed to find 4 button rubbers that worked like they were new. Couldn't believe it!

So anyway, just though I'd ramble. In the end, I now have my original pad with a perfect D pad and perfect buttons. I usually use one of the smaller 6 button pads (and everyone should really use these, the buttons are great) but it's nice to have this up to scratch again.

Anyway, TLDR version -

• Megadrive 1 & 2 pads have different shaped PCBs..they're not compatible.

(I'm just talking about the physical shape here, electronically it would all be the same)

• The controller shells aren't compatible either. You can't screw a MD 1 pad top half to a MD 2 pad bottom, even though they look identical as the screw holes are in different places to accommodate the different PCBs.

• Sega Genesis pads have a better rubber under the D pad. In the long run, it means that if you want the classic 'Batman' shaped pad, you're probably better off getting a Genesis one. You'll have to replace the button rubbers like I did above...but at least you won't have all that D pad hassle ****e.

• If you're fixing pads, the only things that are compatible between the different types is the button rubbers. And it's a lot harder to find ones that are up to a good standard than I had originally thought. The D pad rubber is also the same for the two different PAL pads.

I've been using those style of controllers so long in a broken state that I just assume that's how they always were...when in fact when they were new they were very responsive. In the end, you should just get one of the later, small 6 button pads. But if you do want to fix an original, then heed the above.

Oh and another thing, use a decent screwdriver! the screws in a good few of the pads were rusted and crumbly. After all that above opening and closing it was inevitable that they would be stripped a bit.

Optimus Prime

was messing around with megadrive pads last week too, i bought a megadrive off adverts with 3 controls, you should have seen the state of them. 1 was ok just filthy dirty, the other was covered and i mean covered in stickers, it actually had one of those old transformer stickers from years ago that changes colour when you heat it with your finger!

anyways took them apart and managed to clean two of them, got all the stickers off (well the girlfriend did!) and they look brand new, one of them has 3 extra buttons, small, over the top of the normal ones and says S-b or something on it instead of "SEGA".

Unfortunatly the third controller didnt survive.. Get this, the guy, prob when he was younger, had painted the controller in Tip ex, it was white! not just the case but the buttons, pad everything.. tried to remove it with some scrubbing but it was beyond saving, tried nail remover on it as a last resort but it just took the black paint off the controller too. kept all the rubber bits, buttons and the board and just threw out the case.

o1s1n

keithgeo wrote: »

anyways took them apart and managed to clean two of them, got all the stickers off (well the girlfriend did!) and they look brand new, one of them has 3 extra buttons, small, over the top of the normal ones and says S-b or something on it instead of "SEGA".

Sounds like a third party controller. Does it look like the official Sega 6 button pad ?



Everyone should be using a pad like this. They really lasted and should be 100% functional (within reason). On the other hand the 3 button ones really won't work well today...unless you had the patience and multiple sacraficial controllers like I did above.

keithgeo wrote: »

Unfortunatly the third controller didnt survive.. Get this, the guy, prob when he was younger, had painted the controller in Tip ex, it was white! not just the case but the buttons, pad everything.. tried to remove it with some scrubbing but it was beyond saving, tried nail remover on it as a last resort but it just took the black paint off the controller too. kept all the rubber bits, buttons and the board and just threw out the case.

That's crazy...I wouldn't even try to save that. Hang onto those button rubbers (especially the start one) and use them to fix another pad if it ever comes along

Optimus Prime

Its not the official 6 button pad anyways, it looks exactly like a normal controller except over the buttons abc each one has another button on top, the button is shapped like the start button on the controllers. Instead of SEGA in the middle it has S-B or something i cant remember, i tried google'n it there but cant find a pic of it.

It does look like an official controller but i cant be sure about that now! ill check later on when i got home from work.

o1s1n

Found out something else interesting about Megadrive pads (oh for gods sake, shut up about Megadrive pads! :pac:) Apologies if my descriptions are are a bit confusing, I forgot to take photos yet again.

I thought I'd try out the two pads that were boxed away with that MD2 I was going to sell. They looked pretty newish so I thought there might be some good button rubbers to steal. I'm pretty sure this is a end of life cycle Megadrive 2 as it came with two pads. Something that's not normally standard.

Plugged them in and they were absolutely perfect. Like new. They totally put my other scavanged pad to shame.

So I thought I'd steal the innards and put them in my other original nostalgia (!) pad.

Opened it up, and to my suprise, yet ANOTHER alternative pad. This one is even further removed from all my other ones.

The ABC and start buttons are all the same - button rubbers (The ones that wear out)

The D pad is radically different. There's no rubber here at all. In fact I'm pretty sure that unless you abuse the hell out of these pads, they'll work perfectly forever.

The up, down, left, right direction pad on the other controllers just sat on a rubber underneath it. This then pressed the corresponding sections of the PCB. These rubbers wear out, leaving the controller useless.

On these controllers, the up, down, left, right direction pad has a semi spherical back (Could almost describe it as an analog shape). This fits into a corresponding negative inverted spherical shape in the controller body. There's a piece of plastic on the underside with a screw going through which holds in in place.

So as a result, there's no hard up, down, left right like normal digital. The buttons presses would be, as the PCB only has four sections where it makes contact in these positions, but as far as tactility and use goes, the spherical shape results in much easier street fighter type semi circular motions.

By far, the best 3 button Megadrive pad to get. In fact I tried out my 6 button pad after these and the 3 button one was much more comfortable. So the best Megadrive pad in general!

Optimus Prime

Anyone know what sort of batterys are needed in snes carts to allow game saves? are they easy\hard to replace?

o1s1n

CR2032 batteries are what you need. Buy them on ebay...I don't know if you saw my post about them in another thread here, but Maplin wanted 5.50 each and Peats wanted 3.99 each!

You can just pop the battery off the connector and tape another one back on. I've been doing that years and it's worked grand.

However I have another plan in mind Got some CR2032 battery holders...Enternow is going to solder them into some of my more expensive carts. So I'll just be able to clip batteries in and then out again when they die.

You can do the above with tape, but it would be a hell of a lot nicer if they had proper holders.

Optimus Prime

Cheers, ill get a few of them . I really should start using my soldering iron more, ive only ever used it once. its really handy when it comes to sorting out stuff on old games\consoles. Im going to have a crack at repairing the gamegear i have soon.

EDIT those batterys are only .99 on rewind-bits!

o1s1n

I bought them from this Irish seller -

http://cgi.ebay.ie/MAXELL-CR2032-MICRO-LITHIUM-CELL-BATTERIES-3V-x5-/260719945255?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item3cb41ea627

€6.00 for 15 including free delivery!

The way I replaced snes batteries you don't need a soldering iron at all. In fact I tried to use an iron but it didn't help.

You'd need an iron if you wanted to remove the battery connectors from the pcb. But the way I was saying you remove the battery from the battery connector with a knife and leave them attached to the pcb. Then you just get some masking tape or duct tape or something and tape the new battery to the old connector. When you are testing it out, just throw the cart around a bit (onto a bed, not the floor!) just to make sure the battery is in securely.

Or go the other route and solder in some battery holders. The ones I got are these. Super cheap and from what I've read they'll fit in Snes carts -

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130420461737

These ones are even cheaper but I'm not sure if they'll fit.

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140396427505&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Optimus Prime

Cheers, i just bought 5 of them off the rewindbits site, i needed to get the capacitors for the gamegear anyways. i think ill use the tape method for now!

They have batterys on there with "solder tags" on them

http://www.rewind-bits.co.uk/cr2032-tagged-lithium-cell-game-saves.html

o1s1n

Ah yeah, see the little tag thing there? That's the battery connector I was on about. Rather than remove the battery and the tags from the pcb, only remove the battery from the tags and leave them connected to the pcb.

The tags can get a bit bent out of shape if you're not really slow and careful. Most carts seem to have a thin stamp that breaks easily..but Super Mario World had a bloody massive one. I ended up snapping a tag off the pcb and having to solder it back on again :pac:

dmcdante

Hi All

This is not much of a proplom but might as well see if ye guys know if i can fix it it my xbox sometimes when i press the button to close the disk tray it goes in but comes out again this happens 2 or 3 times before it stays in i thought it might not have been lying down right but i put it on the floor and its the same it still works fine just want to see if there is a way of fixing this
Thanks in advance all

Myrddin

A list so far of my current mods/repairs:

Amiga 1200 Capacitor Replace - Link
Arcade Cabinet Monitor Chassis Removal & Repair - Link

Nintendo NES Region Mod - Link
Nintendo Famicom AV Mod - Link

Super Nintendo Cart Battery Replacement (PAL) - Link
Super Nintendo Cart Battery Replacement (NTSC) - Link
Super Nintendo Region & Display Mod - Link
Super Nintendo Dual Coloured Power LED Mod - Link
Super Nintendo Jap Carts on US SNes - Link
Super Nintendo Game Conversion - Link

Nintendo Gamecube Modchip Install - Link
Nintendo Gamecube Region Mod {NTSC} - Link
Nintendo Wii (info mostly) HBC Mod - Link

Sega Megadrive Cart Battery Replacement - Link
Sega Megadrive 1 Region & Display Mod - Link
Sega Megadrive 2 Region & Display Mod - Link
Sega Megadrive 2 - Loose AC Input Jack Repair - Link
Sega Megadrive 1 Overclock Mod - Link

Sega GameGear Capacitor Change - Link
Sega Mastersystem 2 50/60Hz Mod - Link

Sega Nomad Screen Upgrade & Region Mods - Link
Sega Nomad Battery Box Mod - Link

Sega 32X Region Mod - Link

Sega Saturn 50/60Hz Switch Install - Link
Sega Saturn Modchip Install - Link

Sega Dreamcast Overclock Mod - Link
Sega Dreamcast Region Change Mod - Link
Sega Dreamcast Hybrid Bios - Link

PAL Psu Into NTSC Console [Dreamcast] - Link

Sony PSone Mod Chip Install - Link
Sony Playstation 1 LED replace/change - Link
Sony PSP 1000 Replacement Shell Log - Link
Sony Playstation 2 FcMB Mod (info mostly) - Link
Sony Playstation 3 Custom Firmware Installation (it wasn't me) - Link
Sony Playstation 3 USB Jig Exploit (3.41) - Link

Xbox Softmod - Link
Xbox 360 Jtag & internal SATA hdd mod - Link
Xbox 360 XBR to freeBOOT (jtag only) - Link
Xbox 360 Freestyle Dash Installation - Link
Xbox 360 Dashlaunch Installation - Link
Xbox 360 Freestyle Dash & Dashlaunch Installation v2 - Link

Myrddin

Quick log of some cart's I'm doing for o1s1n. This one is a PAL Snes cart (you know the ones :rolleyes:), and he has done things the absoloute right way by buying the battery holders & brand new batteries.

The supplies



Snes cart & Gamebit to open the cart. You can use other methods to open them, the gamebit saves you burning up pens though



Super Mario World's backside



The business at hand - The dead battery fixed into place.



The old battery holder desoldered & removed.



Now, the new battery holder isn't a direct fit part it seems. So I needed to extend the existing terminals to give me some flexability on where to fit the new holder. Yes, I thought it looks like soldier ants too!



New holder fitted in place, and connected to the existing terminals via the soldier ant wiring.



As near as makes no difference to 3.3v, measured at the cart. I'd like to thank my hand for a special guest appearence here.



New battery just slots into place, very nice indeed.



The new holder is the perfect height for the cart, exact same height as the roms meaning when the cart is closed it will meet the new holder flush & secure it.



As can be seen here



One down, a few more to go



That's it, simple as. If there's any differences in the NTSC cart I'll post another log. Expect one for Megadrive too soon.

o1s1n

Nice work! That really looks the business. The one thing that worried me was finding a holder that was small enough to clear the cart when it's being closed. Fingers crossed the NTSC and Megadrive ones are as straightforward.

By the way, really must get myself one of those wooden dinner trays :pac:

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

By the way, really must get myself one of those wooden dinner trays :pac:

There's literally nothing they can't be used for They're like the MacGyver's of trays :pac:

yrwhu8jxtni06a

Seen a modder putting the battery on the opposite side in this mod-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/astralpancakes/3900072396/in/photostream/

o1s1n

Aiden Cuddly Tariff wrote: »

Seen a modder putting the battery on the opposite side in this mod-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/astralpancakes/3900072396/in/photostream/

Seems he had to put them on the back because he used much bigger battery holders. Should definitely go with those ones I got. They're cheap enough.

yrwhu8jxtni06a

Seemed more practical *no offence to mod almighty*,of course don't forget the polarity and taking pics before take it off,you don't want battery exploding!.

Myrddin

EnterNow wrote: »

There's literally nothing they can't be used for They're like the MacGyver's of trays :pac:

There's nothing really to say which way is any better than the other, I chose my way because when the cart is closed, it meets right up to the battery holder - and secures it in place. The other side has more free space, so in the event of a fall or something, it's more likely to fall out. It's nit picking on my part, but it's just how I am I suppose

yrwhu8jxtni06a

Thought you would would have a FLUKE multi meter being the master :cool:

Myrddin

Aiden Cuddly Tariff wrote: »

Thought you would would have a FLUKE multi meter being the master :cool:

You'd be surprised at some things, my workbench being a breakfast tray and all that

The trusty generic multimeter has never let me down, and in most cases I'm not working with very finite measurements so el cheapo will suffice

Myrddin

In much the same vein as the PAL carts, it's quite simple to replace the battery in the NTSC ones also.

The cart, with a gamebit poised for action



The original battery in place



Original battery holder desoldered



Seeing as the new holder isn't a direct replacement, I needed to extend the battery points on the cart.





Extension wiring cut to lenght, & new holder installed





Perfect fit



That's all folks!

o1s1n

Beautiful!

Although I'm wincing at the sight of seeing my Chrono Trigger cart in pieces...but still, beautiful!

Myrddin

Much the same as the previous SNES cart battery logs, only the MD carts have much less room for positioning the new holder.

As always, a cart with a gamebit poised for action. The MD carts use the larger gamebit, so it's well worth investing in a pair.



Under the hood, the original battery.



Old battery & holder desoldered & removed.



As with the previous carts, these new holders aren't direct replacements. Therefore the terminals on the cart need to be extended for positioning the new holder.



Extension wiring cut to lenght, & new holder in place



The battery just clips into place from now on



Very very little room to spare, maybe other positions would yield more room but for all intents & purposes, this fits, bearly.



Check for 3.3v at the cart before reassembly, & all done.

o1s1n

Feckin hell man, you're a machine! Those photos must be taking you longer than the battery replacements themselves.

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

Feckin hell man, you're a machine! Those photos must be taking you longer than the battery replacements themselves.

I'm at them on & off since 12 today Mostly off

That's it though, all carts done & accounted for. Except Sonic 3 due to that fram method, but your happy enough that's working away so all good. Onto the consoles next

Myrddin

Quick & easy repair. The ac input jack was loose, and obviously the solder had cracked where it's soldered to the mainboard. Strip the console, flip the mobo over & desolder the old solder. Apply new solder, test, enjoy

Optimus Prime

Stupid question on the cart batterys, can you not just slide out the old and slide back in the new to the clip thing?

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Stupid question on the cart batterys, can you not just slide out the old and slide back in the new to the clip thing?

You can prise the old battery out, but you'll never get a secure connection then to a new battery. It's like the connectors are dot punched onto the battery, & once you break te connection, you'll have to use tape etc to secure a new one. Try it if you have an old one, you'll see what I mean.

With the new holders, it's just a matter of sliding out the old battery & replacing it.

Optimus Prime

I bought another gamegear to wreck! the screen works on this one no sound though.