Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot? No boil

The place for all discussion on gaming hardware
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot? No boil

Post by Issac Zachary »

I decided to try to recap my NTSC USA SNES SNS-CPU-GPM-01 by myself. I'm not an expert solderer by any means, but feel I know what I'm doing (at least enough to get me into trouble.)

So I soldered 7 out of 9. after every couple of capacitors I would try it out and see if it was still working. It worked fine every time until the last two capacitors I soldered, C62 (2.2uf 50v) and C73 (47uf 16v). I still haven't even touched C57 (220uf 6.3v)
C59 (220uf 6.3v).

I bought them off of Digikey and did my best to get exactly the same capacitors. I'm pretty sure I soldered them down correctly.

What happens now is when I turn on the SNES I sometimes get a logo screen for a game, but it won't go on past that. No sound either.

Is this something that I should try to trouble shoot myself or take to a professional?
Last edited by Issac Zachary on Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:59 pm, edited 4 times in total.
User avatar
TooBeaucoup
Posts: 398
Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:31 am

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by TooBeaucoup »

Do you still have the two original caps you took out? Try putting those two originals back and seeing if it works again. That said, the best idea is to buy full cap kits from console5.com as those caps are all tested and tailored to work with each console. The problem with sourcing your own caps is there's more to worry about than just capacitance and voltage. There's tolerance, temperature thresholds, ripple current, etc... So if you don't have everything as close to the original, you can experience abnormal operation.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

TooBeaucoup wrote:Do you still have the two original caps you took out? Try putting those two originals back and seeing if it works again. That said, the best idea is to buy full cap kits from console5.com as those caps are all tested and tailored to work with each console. The problem with sourcing your own caps is there's more to worry about than just capacitance and voltage. There's tolerance, temperature thresholds, ripple current, etc... So if you don't have everything as close to the original, you can experience abnormal operation.
Thanks! I might try Console5's caps. The two caps I took out are toast though now (destroyed when I took them out since I couldn't desolder them very easily), so I can't try those.

Update though...

So I did find a solder bridge on C73 (47uf 16v) to a nearby board hole. After removing the extra solder the console did start up and start playing... but then it would stop playing sound and then stop all together I've tried several games and it does the same. It won't start back up until I've let it set for a while. I get the feeling I might have fried a chip or something. This console worked perfectly fine before.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

So I went ahead and ordered new capacitors from Console5.

The sad thing is that my Super Nintendo does start and play games. It's only after a few minutes does it start to glitch or just goes to a black screen. So even though I had tested it after every couple capacitors I replaced, I didn't run it for several minutes each time. So who knows when this problem arose, it could have happed with the first cap.

I am going to thouroughly clean under the cartridge slot. I didn't know that was removeable. Maybe there's some of my flux under there that I need to clean up.
User avatar
TooBeaucoup
Posts: 398
Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:31 am

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by TooBeaucoup »

Yeah, the cart slot comes off. I'd give everything a good cleaning, make sure there's no bridges and that caps are all installed with the correct polarity, etc... you'll just have to triple check everything while you're putting them all in. Of course, there's the chance you fried something, it happens. I'd be embarrassed to admit how much gear I broke when I first started dipping my toes into soldering.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

I see working Super Famicom consoles for $50.00. From what I understand they can play all NTSC games, so I could swap the mother board and have an SNES again.

Would getting one now in case I need a motherboard swap be a good idea?

It seems the cheapest, safe route for the worse case scenario. These things seem to just keep going up in price and I'm afraid that by the time I try to fix this one and don't get it done I'll have to buy a +$200 used SNES to replace it.
User avatar
TooBeaucoup
Posts: 398
Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:31 am

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by TooBeaucoup »

A Japanese Super Famicom will play U.S. NTSC games, but you'll need an adapter because the Super Famicom slots are too small, obviously. The problem is, those adapters are typically harder to find and more expensive than adapters for U.S. consoles to play Super Famicom games. Of course, you could play your U.S. games in the Super Famicom if you leave the top off of your Super Famicom console, but who wants to do that... You're probably just better off getting an NTSC SNES. Looking at ebay, it seems you can find those for anywhere from $60-$80 if you search around. Probably just less of a hassle to get a U.S. one.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

TooBeaucoup wrote:A Japanese Super Famicom will play U.S. NTSC games, but you'll need an adapter because the Super Famicom slots are too small, obviously. The problem is, those adapters are typically harder to find and more expensive than adapters for U.S. consoles to play Super Famicom games. Of course, you could play your U.S. games in the Super Famicom if you leave the top off of your Super Famicom console, but who wants to do that... You're probably just better off getting an NTSC SNES. Looking at ebay, it seems you can find those for anywhere from $60-$80 if you search around. Probably just less of a hassle to get a U.S. one.
Oh Ok! Thanks!

I was thinking that I could just swap the SFC motherboard into my SNES and call it a day. But then again, it sounds like it's not so simple.
tongshadow
Posts: 613
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2017 5:11 pm

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by tongshadow »

Probably a lifted solder pad, happens a lot after recap jobs.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

tongshadow wrote:Probably a lifted solder pad, happens a lot after recap jobs.
Yipes! How would I know?

I guess if I try to recap it again with the Console5 capacitor kit I'll know.
  • My technique was to twist the surface mount caps back and forth until they snapped off.
  • Then I desoldered the remaining "feet" leads, pulling them off simply with the tip of the soldering iron by twisting it when all the solder looked molten. I didn't notice any lifted solder pads.
  • Next I used a wick with flux to take off the old solder.
  • Then I added more flux and a little more solder, but not a lot
  • I would dip the next capacitor in flux and possition it the way it's printed on the board to match the same polarity of the previous capacitor.
  • Holding the capacitors down firmly I would stick the solderining iron tip in and press on the little part of the "foot" that was sticking out.
  • Once that foot seemed soldered I would do the same to the other.
  • Then I came back in and added just a little more solder on the end to make sure it was good a soldered (which made that bridge).
I used 300°C for the big chissel tip for adding solder to the pads and 330°C for the small pointed tip for soldering the feet.

I'll look again, but I don't see any more solder bridges.

When I noticed the solder bridge I tested it with my multimeter and noticed that there was no resistance between the solder lead/pad and the end of the trace where it ended at a nearby chip. When I soaked up some of the solder off the bridge with the wick I then tested with my multimeter and didn't get any continuity between the two traces anymore.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

tongshadow wrote:Probably a lifted solder pad, happens a lot after recap jobs.
Ah yes! I can always (try) to follow the traces and see if the pad to the end of the trace is continuous or if there's a break in the circuit.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

Ok. So the rabbit hole keeps getting more misterious.

The joint I had thought there was a solder bridge to a nearby trace, apparenty ARE the on the same trace. (I guess I need to check my multimeter skills because they are definitely conneted still, bridge or no bridge.)

Image

As you can see the hole on the right is where there was a bridge. But the bridge wasn't a bridge since it didn't actually bridge anything new. Oddly, by trying to take off a little of the extra solder it seemed to have made it play a little longer before crashing.

I checked for lifted (open circuit) pads. But all the pads/solder joints seem to connect to something. Some of them I couldn't find a direct end of a trace but always got some sort of resistance in the hundreds of ohms or a little over 1,000 somewhere else on the board. But unless the solder is so little it's causing a major resistance I think it's most likely running through some resitor or other and I just can't find a direct connection since I haven't found a schematic of this board.

Looking at it again I see the solder might be touching the case of the capacitor... Maybe that's the problem?
User avatar
TooBeaucoup
Posts: 398
Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:31 am

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by TooBeaucoup »

Yeah, that cap and trace looks ok. It's pretty obvious when you pull one up. I think it'd be pretty obvious when you're looking at any of them.
jd213
Posts: 412
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 9:03 am
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by jd213 »

I think a SFC motherboard only differs from a SNES one in that it has a different connector for the AC adapter (and one which is much more common, same one as the NES/FC/PCE/MD1 and a bunch of other stuff, maybe NOA changed the SNES one just to make things harder for clone makers, or maybe they just didn't want dumb Americans thinking everything was compatible between the NES/SNES, but ended up making the SNES less convenient than the SFC).

I've found untested (but turned out to be working) SFCs for as low as 300 yen at places like Hard Off (never came across a 1-chip though). Would send you one at cost but the shipping would probably make it not worth it.

Have you tried the SNES burn-in test rom? Might give you some clues where the problem is. There's also repair channels on YouTube that go over common problems, PunkNDisorderlyGamer in particular does a lot of SFC/SNES videos:
https://www.youtube.com/c/PunkNDisorderlyGamer/
Last edited by jd213 on Thu Aug 05, 2021 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

jd213 wrote:I think a SFC motherboard only differs from a SNES one in that it has a different connector for the AC adapter (and one which is much more common, same one as the NES/FC/PCE/MD1 and a bunch of other stuff, maybe NOA changed the SNES one just to make things harder for clone makers, or maybe they just didn't want dumb Americans thinking everything was compatible same between the NES/SNES, but ended up making the SNES less convenient than the SFC).

I've found untested (but turned out to be working) SFCs for as low as 300 yen at places like Hard Off (never came across a 1-chip though). Would send you one at cost but the shipping would probably make it not worth it.
My SNES isn't a 1-chip which is I why I stick to S-Video using it. So any motherboard revision is going to be just as good (or better if I were to luck into a 1 Chip)

I've cleaned everything I could with alcohol and a tooth brush, but haven't had time to test it.

I still think it's weird that moving off a little solder that wasn't bridging anything made it go from not starting any game except maybe the title image briefly to starting up most games and running for several minutes until it either crashes or the sound stops and then a minute later it crashes.
jd213 wrote:Have you tried the SNES burn-in test rom? Might give you some clues where the problem is.

I'd need a rom cart for that I do believe. But if I get one I'll check it out.
jd213 wrote:There's also repair channels on YouTube that go over common problems, PunkNDisorderlyGamer in particular does a lot of SFC/SNES videos:
https://www.youtube.com/c/PunkNDisorderlyGamer/
Awesome! Thanks! I'll look into his/her channel.

I'll continue to try to fix this motherboard. If by chance I can't fix it and I can't find a cheap Motherboard replacement I might try to see if I can turn it into a MiSTer case. My ol' SNES is going to be a wedding present for a close relative since I got a MiSTer myself. But I was going to get a Retro Tink for her to go along with it. If I need a rom cart to fix it, plus possibly a motherboard anyway, and on top of that a RetroTink, I might as well as buy a DE10-nano and stick it in there instead.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SOLVED! (i hope)SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble sh

Post by Issac Zachary »

So I finally got time to test out my SNES after I cleaned it the other day! And after an hour and a half with three games, Super Mario World, Metroid 3 and Star Fox, and it worked flawlessly!

I guess the lesson is to clean, clean, clean after soldering.

I do now have a bunch of capacitors from Console5 now that I apparently don't need. The good news is I can now solder those last two through-hole capacitors since the ones I got were too tall.

Image
jd213
Posts: 412
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 9:03 am
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: SOLVED! (i hope)SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble sh

Post by jd213 »

Good to hear, hope it was at least a learning experience. Recapping cheap junk bin Super Famicoms is one thing, but dunno if I'd feel comfortable doing the same to a SNES.

Wish I had saved my SNES from my childhood, gave it away to Goodwill years ago when I though it was worthless. Most of the plastic had turned piss yellow and it had the jailbar in the middle of the screen since the 90's (even called the Nintendo counselors about it, but they weren't much help), and I have plenty of other options for playing SNES games nowadays, but you never miss such things until they're gone, I guess. At least I still have one of the controllers.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: SOLVED! (i hope)SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble sh

Post by Issac Zachary »

jd213 wrote:Wish I had saved my SNES from my childhood, gave it away to Goodwill years ago when I though it was worthless.
I wish my parents hadn't given away our Radio Shack Color Computer 2, nor our 286 IBM, nor our Atari 7800.

I wish my younger brothers hadn't sold our NES to buy a PlayStation, nor sold the PlayStation to buy a Gambe Cube, nor had sold the Game Cube.

I wish I had a SNES growing up, as well as a Sega Genesis and an N64 just like many of my friends did. I also loved playing the Atari 2600 with Grandma and on my Grandpa's 486 PC with Windows 3.1.
jd213 wrote:Good to hear, hope it was at least a learning experience
It sure has been!

Update!

I got the last two capacitors in and also soldered in the big C67 capacitor that was missing (it seems some have them and some don't but it seems that there's no reason not to have it.)

I would like to replace the power supply capacitor and the capacitors in the carts (I've only done the one in Star Fox), but I'm headed off to visit the family tomorrow, 600 miles away, and would like to take this to my niece, so I might just take my soldering tools with me and finish there or do it some other year.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

So the console sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. I'm going to get another cap kit from Console5 and try it one more time.

If I don't get it working I'm temped to just give up and stuff a De10-Nano in there and call it a day, although if someone knows of a good SNES repair person I would rather send it to someone who can either fix it or use it for parts.

:cry:
User avatar
ShootTheCore
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2017 12:20 am

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by ShootTheCore »

A few thoughts:

1) NEVER twist off surface mount caps! It's very likely that you'll damage a trace or tear a pad off with it - especially if the cap is old and has leaked corrosive electrolytic fluid out onto the board underneath.
Ideally, you'll want to purchase a cheap hot air station, use it to heat up the solder joints on the SMD cap, and then the cap will easily slide off the pads. You can see an example starting at 6:45 here (although the whole video is well worth watching for a tutorial on recap work)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe0DvzKMNe4

2) You should check the solder joint on each cap and make sure it reads continuity to whatever component on the board it's connected to. You should see a skinny metal trace line leading out from each cap solder joint to another part - either on the top or bottom of the PCB. Use a multimeter (buy a cheap one if you don't have one already) set to Continuity, and touch one probe of the meter to the cap solder joint, and the other probe of the meter to the component on the other end of the trace - the meter should beep to show continuity. If the meter doesn't beep, inspect the trace for breaks. You can make sure the meter is set right by touching the probes directly together - the meter should beep when you do so.

If you do find a break in the trace, you can repair it by soldering in a new patch wire between the cap and the connected component.

3) If your SNES still freezes or crashes intermittently after installing the Console5 cap kit and verifying continuity on all cap traces, you may have a power delivery problem with the AC adapter. Purchase a fresh Triad AC adapter from the list of recommendations here and give it a try.
http://www.firebrandx.com/triads.html
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

ShootTheCore wrote:A few thoughts:

1) NEVER twist off surface mount caps! It's very likely that you'll damage a trace or tear a pad off with it - especially if the cap is old and has leaked corrosive electrolytic fluid out onto the board underneath.
Ideally, you'll want to purchase a cheap hot air station, use it to heat up the solder joints on the SMD cap, and then the cap will easily slide off the pads. You can see an example starting at 6:45 here (although the whole video is well worth watching for a tutorial on recap work)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe0DvzKMNe4

2) You should check the solder joint on each cap and make sure it reads continuity to whatever component on the board it's connected to. You should see a skinny metal trace line leading out from each cap solder joint to another part - either on the top or bottom of the PCB. Use a multimeter (buy a cheap one if you don't have one already) set to Continuity, and touch one probe of the meter to the cap solder joint, and the other probe of the meter to the component on the other end of the trace - the meter should beep to show continuity. If the meter doesn't beep, inspect the trace for breaks. You can make sure the meter is set right by touching the probes directly together - the meter should beep when you do so.

If you do find a break in the trace, you can repair it by soldering in a new patch wire between the cap and the connected component.

3) If your SNES still freezes or crashes intermittently after installing the Console5 cap kit and verifying continuity on all cap traces, you may have a power delivery problem with the AC adapter. Purchase a fresh Triad AC adapter from the list of recommendations here and give it a try.
http://www.firebrandx.com/triads.html
I could do number 2 again, but in my tests every cap pole did lead to somewhere on the board.

I get 10.5V from the PSU with the console running, using almost a half an amp. The open voltage is over 12V when the SNES isn't running. The spec is 10V of course.

I also replaced the voltage regulator but that didn't help.

The odd thing is after several minutes of trying carts it eventually starts working, sometimes, and keeps working just fine after that. Then I leave it for a few days and come back and it won't start up again, or displays something but doesn't play or sound the game.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

I finally got a chance to look at the video. I will order a cheap hot air rework station to remove the surface mount capacitors.

I'll take a lot of pictures or even do a video and link it to here. Maybe I'm missing something completely.

All I know is the SNES worked before redoing the capacitors the first time. Hopefully It's just a wrong capacitor or few that I installed by trying to source them myself.
User avatar
ShootTheCore
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2017 12:20 am

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by ShootTheCore »

Yeah, hopefully the fresh cap kit from Console5 is all you need.

As far as power goes, your supply might be reading the correct peak voltages at the time you sample it, but it may be fluctuating over time. The stock Nintendo AC adapter also has electrolytic filter caps in it that age out and cause power fluctuations to proceed through to the console rather than be filtered. A brief power slump can cause the console to freeze.

The Triad unit is a modern, high-quality supply and I recommend trying one for any intermittent console malfunction. Give it a try if the Console5 kit doesn't solve your issues.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

ShootTheCore wrote:Yeah, hopefully the fresh cap kit from Console5 is all you need.

As far as power goes, your supply might be reading the correct peak voltages at the time you sample it, but it may be fluctuating over time. The stock Nintendo AC adapter also has electrolytic filter caps in it that age out and cause power fluctuations to proceed through to the console rather than be filtered. A brief power slump can cause the console to freeze.

The Triad unit is a modern, high-quality supply and I recommend trying one for any intermittent console malfunction. Give it a try if the Console5 kit doesn't solve your issues.
I also had changed the large electrolytic cap in the AC adapter. But the console worked fine before the cap replacement, I replaced all the caps on the console and started having these problems. Then I replaced the cap in the AC adapter, purchased from Console5 and still had the problems.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

I finally got around to purchasing a hot air rework station. I ended up paying almost $45 dollars! (Darn COVID shortages!)

When I get it in I'll desolder everything and try to document it all. Hopefully I don't have damaged traces, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there I guess.
User avatar
NewSchoolBoxer
Posts: 369
Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2019 2:53 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by NewSchoolBoxer »

Sorry late to the party. Console5 is a respectable vendor and all but how many capacitors are they giving you for $4.95 + $4.49 shipping? If they're 15 cents each or less then cool but you absolutely don't need their chosen tested caps when you have basic electronics knowledge. Match exact capacitance value, type for type so electrolytic for electrolytic, get the same rated voltage or higher and don't reverse the polarity (!) on polarized caps.

Proactively replacing all the capacitors is a reasonable thing to do but if you can internet tutorial your way though using an ESR meter then you can only replace the ones that actually need replacing. ESR meters aren't cheap. Highest brand name one is arguably the AnaTek Blue that I see US Walmart selling for $90. If you ever mess with CRT maintenance then it's worth the money.

When the console stops working after a short amount of time, could be the $1 7805 voltage regulator is near death or worse the GPU or PPU chip, but in your case it definitely sounds like cold solder joint or solder bridge like you're saying. Hot air rework station is good idea.

I bought a 1-chip Super Famicom from Yahoo Japan + proxy bidder earlier this year for I think $65 total. Ironically RGB video quality looks the same as my 2-chip. Definitely the smart move to get them for half price or even less compared to North American models. If you haven't bought yet, may as well wait for after December 25 for obvious reasons. I combined shipping on a few cheap games. Can buy empty plastic shells or swap NA and Japanese PCBs inside the carts to play on console. Except I think NA Doom won't fit.

As for powering SFC, I disagree with plugging a 100V device into a 120V American outlet even though it would technically work. Can use any American (or European if in Europe...) AC to 9V DC center negative barrel plug of 5.5mm x 2.1mm. I use a 2.5mm to 2.1mm adapter for other barrel supply I have. ShootTheCore brings up valid point that a 25-30 year old AC adapter can fail and need replacement.

Otherwise, swapping the motherboards sounds possible but may as well fix the one you have a buy a backup console.
User avatar
TooBeaucoup
Posts: 398
Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:31 am

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by TooBeaucoup »

NewSchoolBoxer wrote:Sorry late to the party. Console5 is a respectable vendor and all but how many capacitors are they giving you for $4.95 + $4.49 shipping? If they're 15 cents each or less then cool but you absolutely don't need their chosen tested caps when you have basic electronics knowledge. Match exact capacitance value, type for type so electrolytic for electrolytic, get the same rated voltage or higher and don't reverse the polarity (!) on polarized caps.

Proactively replacing all the capacitors is a reasonable thing to do but if you can internet tutorial your way though using an ESR meter then you can only replace the ones that actually need replacing. ESR meters aren't cheap. Highest brand name one is arguably the AnaTek Blue that I see US Walmart selling for $90. If you ever mess with CRT maintenance then it's worth the money.

When the console stops working after a short amount of time, could be the $1 7805 voltage regulator is near death or worse the GPU or PPU chip, but in your case it definitely sounds like cold solder joint or solder bridge like you're saying. Hot air rework station is good idea.

I bought a 1-chip Super Famicom from Yahoo Japan + proxy bidder earlier this year for I think $65 total. Ironically RGB video quality looks the same as my 2-chip. Definitely the smart move to get them for half price or even less compared to North American models. If you haven't bought yet, may as well wait for after December 25 for obvious reasons. I combined shipping on a few cheap games. Can buy empty plastic shells or swap NA and Japanese PCBs inside the carts to play on console. Except I think NA Doom won't fit.

As for powering SFC, I disagree with plugging a 100V device into a 120V American outlet even though it would technically work. Can use any American (or European if in Europe...) AC to 9V DC center negative barrel plug of 5.5mm x 2.1mm. I use a 2.5mm to 2.1mm adapter for other barrel supply I have. ShootTheCore brings up valid point that a 25-30 year old AC adapter can fail and need replacement.

Otherwise, swapping the motherboards sounds possible but may as well fix the one you have a buy a backup console.
Depends on the cap kit you order. Some only contain a few caps as that's all a particular job calls for. Other kits, they'll actually send a large set to cover multiple motherboard revisions. I ordered two kits for my Sega Saturn boards and when I was finished replacing all of the caps, I had about 10 extras for each kit. Same with my Sega Genesis cap kit, I probably had a dozen extra caps.

That said, you can certainly piece together your own kit if you want to take the extra time. However, that's not always a perfect way to do it either. Last year, I was getting wavy interference on my Sega Saturn and I knew the power supply caps were bad. Console5 was out of stock of their PSU kits at the time, so I ordered my own caps from Mouser and matched up the values. After I replaced the old caps with my Mouser caps, I still had wavy lines, despite matching up the voltage and uF ratings on every cap. When Console5 got their kits back in stock, I ordered one, swapped out my Mouser caps and the wavy lines were gone. Somewhere in my set of Mouser caps was a cap that my Saturn didn't like for whatever reason. Whether it was ripple current, operating temp, tolerance rating, etc... There's a lot of variables for caps other than voltage and uF, so in that case, yeah you pay a few bucks extra for the Console5 kits, but they are all caps that have been tried and tested for each application. It certainly can save a headache. I wasted some good time and money after shipping on my Mouser caps and they didn't fix my problem anyway.

You also get 5% off your cap kit order when you purchase $25 or more from Console5. So I usually just order a few at a time and it ends up being a wash in my opinion, versus taking the time to piece out kits on your own. My Sega Genesis had over 30 capacitors in it of varying physical sizes and specs. I can't even imagine having to sit on Mouser or Digikey and go one by one picking out each and adding to a cart.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

I've actually bought two cap kits from Console 5, one to try to replace just a few of the caps, and the other to now try to do all the caps at once. They don't come with extra caps. My first set of caps was from Digikey by just matching size, shape, capacitance and voltage.

I was almost about to try the hot air rework station today and re-re-recap the thing. Maybe this weekend I'll get around to it. I would like to get it done some time soon though to get this SNES to my niece as a wedding gift. Good thing I still have some time. I can use the MiSTer now for all my own SNES needs.
User avatar
NewSchoolBoxer
Posts: 369
Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2019 2:53 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by NewSchoolBoxer »

TooBeaucoup wrote: Depends on the cap kit you order. Some only contain a few caps as that's all a particular job calls for. Other kits, they'll actually send a large set to cover multiple motherboard revisions. I ordered two kits for my Sega Saturn boards and when I was finished replacing all of the caps, I had about 10 extras for each kit. Same with my Sega Genesis cap kit, I probably had a dozen extra caps.

That said, you can certainly piece together your own kit if you want to take the extra time. However, that's not always a perfect way to do it either. Last year, I was getting wavy interference on my Sega Saturn and I knew the power supply caps were bad. Console5 was out of stock of their PSU kits at the time, so I ordered my own caps from Mouser and matched up the values. After I replaced the old caps with my Mouser caps, I still had wavy lines, despite matching up the voltage and uF ratings on every cap. When Console5 got their kits back in stock, I ordered one, swapped out my Mouser caps and the wavy lines were gone. Somewhere in my set of Mouser caps was a cap that my Saturn didn't like for whatever reason. Whether it was ripple current, operating temp, tolerance rating, etc... There's a lot of variables for caps other than voltage and uF, so in that case, yeah you pay a few bucks extra for the Console5 kits, but they are all caps that have been tried and tested for each application. It certainly can save a headache. I wasted some good time and money after shipping on my Mouser caps and they didn't fix my problem anyway.

You also get 5% off your cap kit order when you purchase $25 or more from Console5. So I usually just order a few at a time and it ends up being a wash in my opinion, versus taking the time to piece out kits on your own. My Sega Genesis had over 30 capacitors in it of varying physical sizes and specs. I can't even imagine having to sit on Mouser or Digikey and go one by one picking out each and adding to a cart.
Thanks for the valuable insight. Before you replied, I wanted to respond about how big a scam buying a capacitor kit is when they don't even specify the quantity you're buying. Like it's some grab bag of what they have sitting around. I'll give them a pass on not confirming they use an authorized distributor when they aren't semi-anonymous internet poster like me lol. SNES contains over 100 caps, curious how many they spot for $5 + shipping. That would be pretty tight to have links to click to add console cap bundles to Mouser or Digikey shopping cart.

Oh they do specify the vendors sort of kind of:

Console5 kits are created by referencing actual production hardware, not from schematics or service manuals. We provide high-quality caps from well known, well established manufacturers, such as Panasonic, Nichicon, Rubycon, and UCC. Our kits meet - and frequently exceed - OEM requirements, in both voltage and temperature ratings.

Referencing actual production hardware, anyone with basic electronics knowledge can open up two different model consoles and make a list of the differences in passive components. I underestimated this market niche to resell capacitors from reputable makers I buy in bulk. Meeting or exceeding voltage and temperature is funny because it's a beginner thing to do. We're not talking OEM car parts.

I'm sorry you bought capacitors that didn't fix the PSU. I'd be so angry. Brand can matter and you're right about many variables at play. My oscilloscope's manufacturer explicitly recommends Vishay K-series ceramic and Panasonic aluminum electrolytic for projects to use with. The 220u they link for instance has $0.24 / $0.117 / $0.07 pricing for 1 / 10 / 100. I can agree saving 1 hour of shopping time is worth $5 to a lot of people. Other brands, I've read good things in retro scene about Nichicon and I've seen seen general hobbyists use Kemet. Not sure who's legit out of Taiwan or China.
Issac Zachary wrote:...I was almost about to try the hot air rework station today and re-re-recap the thing. Maybe this weekend I'll get around to it. I would like to get it done some time soon though to get this SNES to my niece as a wedding gift. Good thing I still have some time. I can use the MiSTer now for all my own SNES needs.
Good luck finishing the recap! I like your taste in gifts. Upward trend on SNES prices the last three years concerns me. People paying $200 on eBay for a bleached console. Nice to preserve what you can.
Issac Zachary
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:54 pm

Re: Not Solved! SNES recap gone wrong. How to trouble shoot?

Post by Issac Zachary »

NewSchoolBoxer wrote:Good luck finishing the recap! I like your taste in gifts. Upward trend on SNES prices the last three years concerns me. People paying $200 on eBay for a bleached console. Nice to preserve what you can.
I hope some day that Nintendo, Sega, Atari and/or third parties will make actual reproduction consoles and games. It's nice to see that kind of happening with the C64.

Personally I'd rather spend $350 on a new SNES, NES or Sega Genesis than on a new Switch. But that's just me.
Post Reply