Ghostronics#1: The Mystery of the Dead Game Gear

[GhOsT1321]

In the event that someone finds it interesting, or has something to contribute in my efforts, multitudes of my projects and various ideas will be propagated here and in any applicable forum locations. This is the first installment, feel free to comment anything relevant.

Synopsis: The game gear is a rather old system I remember seeing as a child in the early 90s. Ever since I have seen it I have been interested, but just recently have I dived into repairing them. I currently have 3, one repaired, one likely dead for good, and one being repaired and discussed below. At the time of writing this I do not know what is wrong with the game gear and am in the slow process of diagnosing. Work currently takes up about 50 hours of my time a week and I have additional commitments, so this project may take anywhere from days to weeks to never before it is completed.

The game gear in question died suddenly. The game gear was turned on successfully via the use of AA batteries 3-4 days ago and when trying to turn it on today there was no life signs. Previously it had the following problems: no sound and screen displays random lines. Now it will not power on at all. Voltage was tested and verified to be coming into the power board. The switch is functional and was tested with continuity. Despite this, the switch and AA voltage inputs have corroded solder points and will be re-soldered at a later date as part of the troubleshooting process. Current guesses: loose connection most likely, electrical damage (check fuses?), static shock (unlikely, but this device was improperly handled once so far).

Being an early edition there are a few differences with a more typical game gear format. The center pin of the AC power plug is larger than a standard game gear from a later date, the screen is flat and glass, rather than rounded and plastic, the inside does not have any copper flashing, the battery compartments do not have the rubber shield installed, and in general this device is poorly shielded from RF interference in comparison to later model game gears.

Below is a more modern(circa ~1994) and typical game gear primary motherboard, with modern and quality (panasonic/nichicon)capacitors installed.


This is a complete shot of the dead game gear in question, notice the black plastic.


Left side close up of capacitors in the dead game gear in question.


Right side close up of capacitors in the dead game gear in question.


Closer upper sound and power board of the game gear in question.


Current status (5/17/2016): Work in progress; problem still persists.
UPDATE: Current status (5/24/2016): The game gear now powers on; solved via an unconventional way. You will be surprised how many things I have fixed with cotton swabs and tape.
See the post below for more details
http://disc-ff.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t= ... 133#p71133

[Tornado123]

Do you have all the parts?

[MoneyKidKing]

Do you have all the parts?

There's not much that can happen in terms of "missing parts" for these things, apart from washers/screws. My first guess is a blown capacitor, even with the picture showing them all to appear to be in working order it is still possible for one to be damaged (for situations like this, run your finger over the flat part of the capacitor, if it bulges at all it might be in need of replacing). My second guess would be damaged tracers located on the back side of the board, but those are hard to located and even harder to fix.

[GhOsT1321]

Do you have all the parts?

There's not much that can happen in terms of "missing parts" for these things, apart from washers/screws. My first guess is a blown capacitor, even with the picture showing them all to appear to be in working order it is still possible for one to be damaged (for situations like this, run your finger over the flat part of the capacitor, if it bulges at all it might be in need of replacing). My second guess would be damaged tracers located on the back side of the board, but those are hard to located and even harder to fix.

I do have all of the parts, and then some.
On the note of the capacitors it's a good guess as these things are notorious for bad capacitors, they were hit by the great capacitor plague of the era. Generally speaking, the power board capacitors were not hit by this capacitor plague as they were an alternate capacitor, however, it's entirely possible especially considering how many capacitor problems that these things have.
I'm avoiding replacing capacitors for the moment as I believe that not to be the case. I turned this game gear on yesterday actually to take one last look at the screen problems and film it so that I could show a before and after for when I replaced the capacitors. However, this zero power problem perplexes me. It literally worked the day before, and I would expect a failed capacitor, which has not leaked, to cause stability problems far before it loses all electrical conductivity. The power light no longer comes on, the screen does not flash at all anymore. When I find the time I'll be checking the power wires that run from the power board to the main circuit board for faults.
I do have a spare power board, which I have replaced the capacitors on, but it's a different version with different circuitry. Not being an electrical engineer I cannot tell exactly what this board does. One would assume that even by a different means, it generates the same voltage and amps, but seeing as the ac adapter is a different size on this device and I have found the size often indicative of the power draw, this leaves me weary of using the alternate power board in fear of frying the circuitry.

[Tornado123]

Do you have all the parts?

There's not much that can happen in terms of "missing parts" for these things, apart from washers/screws. My first guess is a blown capacitor, even with the picture showing them all to appear to be in working order it is still possible for one to be damaged (for situations like this, run your finger over the flat part of the capacitor, if it bulges at all it might be in need of replacing). My second guess would be damaged tracers located on the back side of the board, but those are hard to located and even harder to fix.

I do have all of the parts, and then some.
On the note of the capacitors it's a good guess as these things are notorious for bad capacitors, they were hit by the great capacitor plague of the era. Generally speaking, the power board capacitors were not hit by this capacitor plague as they were an alternate capacitor, however, it's entirely possible especially considering how many capacitor problems that these things have.
I'm avoiding replacing capacitors for the moment as I believe that not to be the case. I turned this game gear on yesterday actually to take one last look at the screen problems and film it so that I could show a before and after for when I replaced the capacitors. However, this zero power problem perplexes me. It literally worked the day before, and I would expect a failed capacitor, which has not leaked, to cause stability problems far before it loses all electrical conductivity. The power light no longer comes on, the screen does not flash at all anymore. When I find the time I'll be checking the power wires that run from the power board to the main circuit board for faults.
I do have a spare power board, which I have replaced the capacitors on, but it's a different version with different circuitry. Not being an electrical engineer I cannot tell exactly what this board does. One would assume that even by a different means, it generates the same voltage and amps, but seeing as the ac adapter is a different size on this device and I have found the size often indicative of the power draw, this leaves me weary of using the alternate power board in fear of frying the circuitry.

I got nothing, was gonna say what money said.

[GhOsT1321]

Update 5/24/2016
The problem of the game gear not powering on has been resolved. This problem was caused by me, but derp I never tested the game gear after I applied a "fix" a few days before my initial post.
The problem with the power was: the ac jack decouples the power when an ac jack is inserted with a piece of metal being disconnected. I accidentally bent this piece of metal so that it never connects, and the game gear never powers on. Please see the following pictures:

Power decoupling, look in the picture inside the green box you can see a tiny sliver of black between the two metal plates, these should be touching. It's hard to see and get a picture of but its there


Well, I can't bend the piece of metal into contact because of its location. Hmmm I need something small, non-conductive, and convenient... I know!


Now I can diagnose and repair this game gear. I believe that the problem is bad capacitors, so those will be changed eventually.
Heres how the screen looks without any game inserted. The colors are always random, but this time it was fairly consistent in its vertical sweeping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOsif132wSs

Here is the game gear with a game loaded. Notice how i need to tilt the game gear at an extreme angle to see anything. The important part is that even at this extreme angle i can see somewhat clearly whats going on. This indicates that the screen itself is likely fine, but the capacitors are likely faulty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1lIvMaK1cg