PAL Megadrive repair

roast

Hiya all,

I have an old Mega Drive 2 that I've had for quite a while.
Unfortunately, theres an issue with it.

The console will boot (sometimes) but will freeze after a certain amount of time. Usually 10 seconds. Rarely, I can use it for maybe 2 minutes before it freezes.

So, I disassembled it and had a look at the board. There was one leaky 10uf cap on the board, which I desoldered and replaced with a new cap. It didn't resolve the problem unfortunately.
All other components seem to be okay. Theres no corrosion on the board whatsoever and it seems to be in fairly good condition. I also realigned all of the cartridge slot pins, to no avail.

Can anyone assist? I'm stumped by this one!

Cheers,
Mick.

Myrddin

roast wrote: »

Hiya all,

I have an old Mega Drive 2 that I've had for quite a while.
Unfortunately, theres an issue with it.

The console will boot (sometimes) but will freeze after a certain amount of time. Usually 10 seconds. Rarely, I can use it for maybe 2 minutes before it freezes.

So, I disassembled it and had a look at the board. There was one leaky 10uf cap on the board, which I desoldered and replaced with a new cap. It didn't resolve the problem unfortunately.
All other components seem to be okay. Theres no corrosion on the board whatsoever and it seems to be in fairly good condition. I also realigned all of the cartridge slot pins, to no avail.

Can anyone assist? I'm stumped by this one!

Cheers,
Mick.

Very rare anything goes wrong with MD's etc. If you've had one leaky cap, its possible there are a few dry ones that don't show any visible signs. To repair, you'd probably be replacing any caps you can see. (Tbh it's hardly worth the hassle given their cost).

roast

EnterNow wrote: »

Very rare anything goes wrong with MD's etc. If you've had one leaky cap, its possible there are a few dry ones that don't show any visible signs. To repair, you'd probably be replacing any caps you can see. (Tbh it's hardly worth the hassle given their cost).

Ah cool. I didn't know that could happen to caps too.
I might give that a shot anyway. I wouldn't consider it a hassle really, I guess it'd keep me outta trouble for a while.
Any other suggestions?

Myrddin

roast wrote: »

Ah cool. I didn't know that could happen to caps too.
I might give that a shot anyway. I wouldn't consider it a hassle really, I guess it'd keep me outta trouble for a while.
Any other suggestions?

Clean all the cart socket pins thouroughly, & your game cart connectors. ctually try that before replacing any more caps.

roast

So I cleaned all the socket pins, and also the connectors on all my game carts. Issue still persists on every game I have unfortunately.

Popped into Maplins during the week, and picked up all the capacitors I'll need to finish this.

Just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions before I continue with replacing the caps? (Looking at you, EnterNow, you're the guru. )

Cheers,
Mick.

Myrddin

roast wrote: »

So I cleaned all the socket pins, and also the connectors on all my game carts. Issue still persists on every game I have unfortunately.

Popped into Maplins during the week, and picked up all the capacitors I'll need to finish this.

Just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions before I continue with replacing the caps? (Looking at you, EnterNow, you're the guru. )

Cheers,
Mick.

The only thing that comes to mind is a dry cap or something, I've never heard of this prob with an MD before.If the caps don't fix it, it's likely a bad ic or something & not worth any further diagnosis.

roast

That was pretty much my assumption after I replaced the leaky cap... I thought it would have been a shot IC.

I'll give it a whirl for the hell of it. If anything, its an excuse to practice my soldering. They're going for dirt cheap anyway, as you mentioned yourself.

Cheers for the assist. I'll post back when I'm done.

-Mick.