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

Myrddin · 01-04-2011 10:57pm

NAh the thicker wire won't make any odds in this case, & I wouldn't worry about failure here either. I had a stab at repairing a Puck Man for Andrew & couldn't for the life of me get it to power on even

My list of modding fatalities includes x2 PS2's, x1 Xbox, x2 Dreamcasts, x1 Megadrive 2...and one or two others if I think really hard. Thats how you learn though, & the mistakes I made in the past won't be repeated so nothings truly wasted.

Myrddin · 04-04-2011 8:06pm

I done a cap kit on Andrews AMiga 500 this evening, the one with the hairy battery on the ram card

I didn't document it, as to be honest, its removal of a cap & replace with a cap ad infinitum, there's nothing to document.

I did however grab a few snaps of the battery fixing procedure. CosMos offers a battery, a holder & a little diode for €2.50 which is a grand little hassle saver if you don't have the bits lying around.

As you can see, this thing wasn't going to hold out much longer. It'd eventually have leaked all over the ram board, & possibly have spread to the mainboard depending on the angle it was stored at.

The battery & holder are the same types I used for SNES & MD cart replacements. It means in future, when the battery expires, you can just pop it out & replace without any fuss.

Sorted

Repair document here - http://cosmosamiga.blogspot.com/2010/02/pile-a500.html

I'll hit the Amiga 600 tomorrow.

Andrew76 · 04-04-2011 8:23pm

Excellent stuff dude, thanks a mil. Almost looks like I was trying to smuggle something dubious about inside my migs. :pac:

Myrddin · 04-04-2011 8:51pm

Andrew76 wrote: »

Excellent stuff dude, thanks a mil. Almost looks like I was trying to smuggle something dubious about inside my migs. :pac:

Actually since doing the battery change, I've been full of energy

Myrddin · 05-04-2011 8:03pm

Just finished the cap kit on Andrews Amiga 600...which is labelled as an Amiga 300 on the motherboard (I think I read somewhere that Amiga actually meant to market the 600 as a budget 500, but instead made an absolute mess of pricing & had to market it with a superior number to 'justify' the higher price).

That's the last Amiga cap kit I'll be doing, I'm no longer offering the service of cap kits on them. For the time it takes to do them, there's no way to justifiably charge for the job so I won't be doing them anymore

o1s1n · 05-04-2011 8:12pm

Until my caps need to be changed in 20 years time, right?

Right????

I'll pay you 1 million future space monies! (although going the way we are, I'm sure that will be about €10)

Myrddin · 05-04-2011 8:46pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Until my caps need to be changed in 20 years time, right?

Right????

I'll pay you 1 million future space monies! (although going the way we are, I'm sure that will be about €10)

I may come out of cap retirement for a cool €1 Million

but until then, I'm finished with Migs dude.

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 05-04-2011 9:11pm

Amigakit offer the service for any future needs-

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=932&currency=EUR

20 years time more likely the surface mounted chips be dead

Myrddin · 05-04-2011 10:14pm

Aaliyah Steep Cowhide wrote: »

Amigakit offer the service for any future needs-

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=932

20 years time more likely the surface mounted chips be dead

£31 plus initial postage? Works out @ about €50 or so. Now I see where I'm going wrong with my pricing :rolleyes:

Anyway, amigakit can take the reigns from here on out

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 05-04-2011 10:24pm

Soz put in uk link,mistake,euro here-

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=932&currency=EUR

Myrddin · 05-04-2011 10:27pm

Aaliyah Steep Cowhide wrote: »

Soz put in uk link,mistake,euro here-

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=932&currency=EUR

Yeah & you've to cover initial postage correct? I don't know about you, but I 'd be sending an Amiga mobo registered post...so it's gonna be €50 all day long I'd say. Bit dearer than my €20, but all good things etc etc.

alpahaeagle · 06-04-2011 9:25am

Damn and I was going to ask you to do my caps on my mig 1200 .....Blast !!!!:p

Myrddin · 06-04-2011 9:34am

alpahaeagle wrote: »

Damn and I was going to ask you to do my caps on my mig 1200 .....Blast !!!!:p

If you can beat o1s1n's offer of a million euro then your on

alpahaeagle · 06-04-2011 9:40am

I would but I left my winning loto ticket in the draw at tesco's...:p

o1s1n · 28-07-2011 4:25pm

The speakers going is the first step on the Gamegear's road to disaster.

The screen will get harder to see (if it's not already)

then eventually the headphone speakers will go too.

I had all that happen in the course of a week!

Optimus Prime · 28-07-2011 4:29pm

Mine was gone like that when i got it, no sound very hard to see the screen. I bought caps off rewind bits and EnterNow changed them all for me, works perfect again!

Optimus Prime · 28-07-2011 6:26pm

yeh id say so, i think there are 8-9 caps for the screen and 5 for the sound.

docentore · 04-08-2011 3:08pm

anyone has expierence with DC with no sound/picture? Got one, nut bloody thing won't display or play a sound for me.
Things checked so far:
* rf cable (works with other DC)
* gd-rom
* psu
* conotroller board.

There was a bit of corrosion on the board, but I took care of that. Also strange thing, when turned on vmu beeps but there is n display on it, discs are spinning though.

safetyboy · 04-08-2011 3:14pm

I had one like that you have to take the PSU board out and bent the pins to make it connect better again

http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/sega/dc-reset.htm

docentore · 04-08-2011 3:34pm

safetyboy wrote: »

I had one like that you have to take the PSU board out and bent the pins to make it connect better again

http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/sega/dc-reset.htm

thanks, that was actually my first try to fix it. All currents (3.3, 5 and 12V) are present on the board, at least around power connector.
Strange thing is that very rarely it gives me blank screen, but mostly no signal. I'm waiting for RGB cable, will see if that helps, if not time to look for new mobo or console with broken gd-rom

o1s1n · 10-08-2011 8:55pm

Ah bloody hell, took my Vectrex out of storage to give it a whirl. Booted it up - noticed the bottom off the boot logo was slanted. 'oh no!!!'

Raster type lines and dots display perfectly.So things like YASI play fine.

However all my vector lines seem off centre. Some games vectors are just totally garbled. Asteroids for example, the ship lines aren't connecting. The enemies are garbled messes. Star Trek looks a mess.

If anyone knows how to fix this give me a shout. I know there are adjustment pots inside the back, but I'd say they're for height/width etc rather than vectors themselves.

Hope the damn thing isn't buggered beyond repair

Edit - found some info on the pots.

Just checked the details regarding screen alignment...
There are five potentiometers in total which can be adjusted, three on
the logic board and two on the analogue board.

"Logic" board - PCB located at base of Vectrex
Pot. R302 - diagonol picture alignment
Pot. R333, R335 vector alignment/slant

"Analogue" board - vertical positioned PCB

Pot R401. - X size
Pot R408. - Y Size

'Pot. R333, R335 vector alignment/slant' sounds promising. That seems to be what's off.

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 10-08-2011 9:48pm

Site has the troubleshooting+service manuals-
http://www.playvectrex.com/shoptalk_f.htm

sparkthatbled · 15-08-2011 5:25pm

Anyone know about Saturns? I got one today off ebay and it wont read the games or audio cds. The disc spins, though it seems to be scuffing off the bottom of the disc tray and i can't see anything obviously wrong. I don't know if the scuffing is stopping it reading or if the laser is worn out but i just get to a cd player screen which has all the play/pause/skip etc buttons frozen out. Any help appreciated.

Myrddin · 15-08-2011 6:10pm

sparkthatbled wrote: »

Anyone know about Saturns? I got one today off ebay and it wont read the games or audio cds. The disc spins, though it seems to be scuffing off the bottom of the disc tray and i can't see anything obviously wrong. I don't know if the scuffing is stopping it reading or if the laser is worn out but i just get to a cd player screen which has all the play/pause/skip etc buttons frozen out. Any help appreciated.

If the buttons are greyed out on the cd player screen, the Saturn can't read/identify the disc. Is it actually scuffing, or is it the noise of the laser tracking that makes it seem like its scuffing?

sparkthatbled · 15-08-2011 6:16pm

It was actually scuffing, i stopped it from scuffing by cutting out a little paper donut and popping it under the disc but it still wont read and yeah, the buttons are greyed out.

Myrddin · 15-08-2011 6:20pm

sparkthatbled wrote: »

It was actually scuffing, i stopped it from scuffing by cutting out a little paper donut and popping it under the disc but it still wont read and yeah, the buttons are greyed out.

Well firstly the cd tray is obviously misaligned, either by impact or someone fluting about with it trying to fix it previously. If there's nothing obviously wrong upside, you should take the top off the Saturn & check around the spindle etc if there's anything wrong.

I'd alert the seller though, Saturns arn't rare enough that you can't find perfectly good working ones. A full refund would seem to be in order, as I said though, provided there's nothing obviously wrong with a good visial inspection. Don't say your taking the top off it, its six screws & there's no seal so its perfectly ok if your just going to have a look (ie to save yourself the trouble of mailing it back/paypal claims etc).

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 15-08-2011 6:27pm

Exactly,a lot where used for swap tricks,i was in the same situation and emailed seller and was sent out new unit at no extra cost,if it was advertised in the listing as working you have your ammo there.

sparkthatbled · 15-08-2011 7:07pm

Its not really worth my while sending it back because it was only £15 (excl postage) and i doubt i'll get reimbursed the £20 postage and whatever it costs me to send it back. I'll be out a fair bit of cash and he'll have his saturn back.

I read the scuffing is something that happens from people pushing down too hard when popping a game in and it just adds up over time. Seems the issue is with the laser. Anyone know if a replacement would be cheap enough to buy or easy enough to install?

IMPORTANT QUESTION: If the laser is broken, is this something that can be caused during shipping or is the "tested 100% working" just crap? If it could be caused in transit it may well have been, considering GLS delivered it :rolleyes:

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 15-08-2011 7:19pm

i doubt the lasers is broken,units are fairly robust,try a lens cleaner or even try clean with soft lint cloth,replacement lasers can be found on a search,or keep an eye on adverts for another saturn.

Myrddin · 15-08-2011 7:25pm

I've seen a few Saturns in my day with burned out lasers (alphaeagle knows what I mean

). They're no different to any laser based console, but geesehoward is right...if your not gonna bother sending it back, try get the spindle raised again & clean the lens with cleaner.

I'd hassle the seller though, he may agree to rebate at least part of the sale price under threat of a PayPal claim (as it will freeze his account). Fair is fair I say.

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

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