Game Gear Repair
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BareKnuckleRoo
- Posts: 6733
- Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:01 am
- Location: Southern Ontario
Game Gear Repair
I just tried out my old Game Gear today I've had in storage, only to find it's busted. There's no sound coming out of the unit's speakers, and the screen's symptoms are hinting at the capacitors being faulty (the knob goes from useless to barely visible at an angle). How easy would it be to fix one of these? How expensive would finding replacement parts be, and how precise of a soldering job needs to be done here? I assume the sound issue is also related to faulty capacitors, or is there something else I'd need to replace on there?
Re: Game Gear Repair
Capacitors cost next to nothing, just do a search on ebay, and the sound symptom you describe is very typical for dying capacitors as documented on many, many other systems and handhelds.
As for ease of replacement, that depends entirely on how easy the Game Gear is to assemble and disassemble to get to the capacitors. Soldering precision is mostly moot for capacitors. You just heat the solder at the legs, pull them them out one leg at the time, then clean up the remaining solder around the holes with a pump and insert the new capacitor. Then you just apply some new solder to the legs where they touch the hole and cut the excess leg length off. Nothing to it for through hole capacitors. For SMD type capacitors things get a bit more tricky.
One big potential problem to look out for is making sure the capacitors you bought are not too big for the cramped insides of the game gear. You might discover that you cannot close the cover if you do not do your fitting correctly.
Pay attention to capacitor sizes when purchasing. Bear in mind that capacitors of the same voltage and micro-farad rating come in various sizes so there is that to look out for as well.
Try and stick to the smallest size for what you need. Capacitors with higher voltage rating tend to be bigger, so try to limit your search to capacitors with voltage ratings close to what you are replacing.
Some places sell cap replacement kits for various systems at a premium, so that might be a way to get the right kind and size without the hassle.
As for ease of replacement, that depends entirely on how easy the Game Gear is to assemble and disassemble to get to the capacitors. Soldering precision is mostly moot for capacitors. You just heat the solder at the legs, pull them them out one leg at the time, then clean up the remaining solder around the holes with a pump and insert the new capacitor. Then you just apply some new solder to the legs where they touch the hole and cut the excess leg length off. Nothing to it for through hole capacitors. For SMD type capacitors things get a bit more tricky.
One big potential problem to look out for is making sure the capacitors you bought are not too big for the cramped insides of the game gear. You might discover that you cannot close the cover if you do not do your fitting correctly.
Pay attention to capacitor sizes when purchasing. Bear in mind that capacitors of the same voltage and micro-farad rating come in various sizes so there is that to look out for as well.
Try and stick to the smallest size for what you need. Capacitors with higher voltage rating tend to be bigger, so try to limit your search to capacitors with voltage ratings close to what you are replacing.
Some places sell cap replacement kits for various systems at a premium, so that might be a way to get the right kind and size without the hassle.