Repair/Mod Thread

[Anonymous No.5360057]

Repair and mod thread. Consider contributing to http://www.gametechwiki.com/w/index.php/Main_Page .

[Anonymous No.5360165]

I've got a V10 Saturn (trap board) with a cracked laser. What should I replace it with?

Also what's the cheapest Supergun I could/should buy?

[Anonymous No.5360451]

>>5360057
Got a PS1 with a mod chip but it seems to have trouble reading CD-R's. These CD-R's are really old though. Would buying a new stack improve my read and load times?

[Anonymous No.5360819]

>>5360165
>What should I replace it with?
a laser
>>5360451
yes

[Anonymous No.5360997]

>>5360451
Yeah and buying a better quality brand will help too. Cleaning the laser might help.

[Anonymous No.5361256]

My N64 will randomly throw a shit fit and start resetting itself several times in rapid succession. Messing with the cables and Expansion Pak had no effect, so it looks like it's a problem with the board inside. Any idea what the issue could be and/or how I could go about fixing it?

This particular console was my first (inb4 "zoomer") so I'm willing to put forth extra effort into repairing it rather than replacing it.

[Anonymous No.5361261]

>>5361256
Bad power supply. Recap or replace.

[Anonymous No.5361265]

>>5360451
>These CD-R's are really old though.

That's actually a plus, I don't think it has to do with how old they are, but of course they have to be well kept. New CD media doesn't mesh well usually with PS1s, you get stuff like muted XA tracks.

[Anonymous No.5361268]

>>5361256
Try cleaning the reset switch. It's the black and white one in the bottom right corner.

[Anonymous No.5361330]

>>5361265
Go to /v/ if you just want to make shit up and waste a post

[Anonymous No.5361340]

>>5361256
Do this
>>5361268

Had the same problem with a disgusting N64 I got cheap at a flea market. Every screw was rusted and it looked like it was underwater, but this fixed the issue.

[Anonymous No.5362304]

>>5361265
>>5360997
>>5360819
Did all of that and now it seems that it's reading disks fine. Found some HP brand dicks vs some 15 year old Radio Shack CD-Rs.

[Anonymous No.5362372]

>>5362304
I ended up replacing the laser on mine; haven't fully calibrated the laser potentiometer yet but it's still working well. Might be worth a try if issues persist

[Anonymous No.5363262]

>>5361265
>New CD media doesn't mesh well usually with PS1s
yeah, no.

[Anonymous No.5363285]

>>5361268
I'll never get over how small the 64's mobo is.

[Anonymous No.5363689]

I found cheap super famicom where I live. Console unit only. Since moding pal console is not worth it I have two questions.
Will my rgb cable will work?
Will my pal controllers work?
I know I need new power supply.

[Anonymous No.5363727]

>>5363689
PAL and NTSC use different SCART cables for SNES, so you'll probably need a new cable. Controllers are region-free IIRC

[Anonymous No.5363758]

Working on s-video for my Genesis. This is only my second time nodding a console, but it’s already going very smoothly. I have a question though: will soldering the leads on the circuit components directly to the encoder chip cause interference (since they’re so close to each other and the chip)? I was just gonna cover up the exposed wiring with tape, but I might try to add some extra wire to space the components out a little more if noise could be an issue

[Anonymous No.5363761]

>>5363727
Damn it's getting expensive quickly. So basically need new scart cable and new female scart to bnc, right? Maybe hard modding my pal console is not a bad idea. Can someone post link to that British site, that have that ine pcb with crystal clocks that I need to solder to back of the motherboard. It was something like 26 pounds, don't remember the name of this contraption.

Also n64 question. Is it normal for no mercy to freeze randomly when expansion pack is inserted?

[Anonymous No.5363783]

>>5363761
No Mercy is kind of a glitchy game; my copy was unable to save, which is a known problem. I haven't had any problems with freezing though (unless while saving)

[Anonymous No.5363847]

>>5363758
IIRC, the Genesis video encoder has interference built-in due to one of the RGB lines running too close to some other signal. You'll be getting jailbars and ringing no matter what you do installing a cable. If you wanna improve the video quality while hooking up s-video, think about pulling RGB from the 315-5313 and running it through a CXA1645, CXA2075, AD724, or AD725.

[Anonymous No.5366960]

Semi-related: I'm getting a "cue sheet error" from Imgburn when burning DC games, which I don't remember being the case on my last Windows install. What's going on?

[Anonymous No.5366971]

>>5366960
You have the Imgburn Dreamcast .cdi and .nrg drivers?

[Anonymous No.5366985]

>>5366960
What's in the cue sheet?
I seem to recall a lot of ripping programs being faggots and putting whole paths into their cue files.

[Anonymous No.5367016]

>>5366971
I have the .cdi but I don't know anything about .nrg.

>>5366985
I've tried ripping a couple games that are just .cdi and .gdi files so I haven't looked at the cue sheets.

[Anonymous No.5367027]

>>5367016
You're sure you have the drivers for it?

[Anonymous No.5367031]

>>5367027
Here's my directory in case I'm missing anything.

[Anonymous No.5367063]

>>5367031
Hmm, that looks good. Might be a bad .cdi, there's more than a few floating around. Which games? I might be able to find some alternates for you.

[Anonymous No.5367069]

>>5367063
Thanks. It's Border Down and Propeller Arena.

[Anonymous No.5367135]

>>5367069
Alright, my DC isn't hooked up right now so I can't test, but this copy of Border Down burnt without issues in Imgburn.
https://edgeemu.net/download.php?id=61980
And this copy of Propeller Arena seems to be just fine for Imgburn as well.
https://mega.nz/sitetransfer!W1syMTE5ODQzOTM3LC0yMDcwMjI2OTQ0LDEzNDU2MTkwNzksLTY0ODE0MTQ1MF0sIlhYM0VnZDVyMmJwVndFa01sUDJiZlRGR1RIZDVOR2xaVjJkRm5XUnY3OVlidlo3Wm1jdGJseXZMMmciLCIhdkpGVkRMU0shZ0g1S01QMGJ6dE9pcEhCMzc5NDJuWjFlazRGRTU1cTJSUF9LdVdVOWEyYyIsMCxudWxsXQ==#!vJFVDLSK!gH5KMP0bztOipHB37942nZ1ek4FE55q2RP_KuWU9a2c
At least I didn't get any errors from Imgburn about .cue files when burning either one.

[Anonymous No.5367190]

>>5367135
Hmm, even at different disc speeds my burn is getting stuck at 10% when synchronizing the cache. Would sending you my log help?

[Anonymous No.5367193]

>>5367190
Which turned into the cue sheet error, of course.

[Anonymous No.5367208]

>>5367190
Sounds like your discs or burner has issues. Shit works fine on my craptop with generic DVD/CD burner. Try a different stack of CDs or a different burner.

[Anonymous No.5368084]

>>5366960
check the cue-sheet? lol.

[Anonymous No.5368786]

>got a PSOne with modchip
>troubles reading burned discs
>tried different disc brands and no improvement
>cleaned the laser, still nothing
>decide to lower the laser resistance
>it now reads my discs 9 times out of 10 but sound is skipping.
>raising it back again makes my disks stop working.

I don't know what to do anymore.

[Anonymous No.5368787]

>>5368786
What kind of modchip did you get?
You might be able to replace the laser if it gets that bad.

[Anonymous No.5368837]

>>5368787
I got the scph-102 for PAL region.
The chip works fine I guess otherwise it wouldn't read discs at all, so it can only be the laser, can you recommend me a certain one I should get or should I just get one off eBay and hope for the best?

[Anonymous No.5368972]

>>5368837
Pretty much every PSX laser left out there is gonna be the same cheap chinese shit. Some place called totalconsole claims to have some Sony OEM laser assemblies for sale, for $60. At that price it would be cheaper to buy another working PSX and transfer the modchip over.

[Anonymous No.5368989]

>>5368972
Well that blows, I'll get a Chinese knockoff and hope for the best.

Somewhat on the same topic, I have a modded fat ps2 with a 320 gb IDE HDD in it,and I want to replace it with a sata drive, are the Chinese sata network adapters any good and do I need to buy certain harddrives for it?

I know ps2 is not retro but considering I can use it for psx games maybe I'll get a pass.

[Anonymous No.5369685]

modded my snes jr for rgb
in my opinion, paying for any of the extra video amp PCBs would be quite unnecessary
mod was barely past medium difficulty anyway

[Anonymous No.5369846]

>>5369685
It's completely unnecessary, but it is a bit cleaner, especially if you're doing S-Video at the same time.

[Anonymous No.5370652]

>>5369685
dejitter-mod should be done, if it applies to the jr.

>>5368837
they all work in all ps1-models, the only difference is the plastic-cover and the cable, both can be reused from the existing laser afaik.

[Anonymous No.5371164]

>>5370652
>they all work in all ps1-models
Well, time to buy one.
Thanks.

[Anonymous No.5372932]

>$5 for "broken" DC complete with a controller +vmu and a couple games
>boots but no controllers work
>fusible resistor on the controller board has gone open circuit
>replace with PMC and swap out the clock battery while in at it for under $2
Wew $7 Dreamcast

[Anonymous No.5373686]

>>5363758
Was wondering how you could be "working on" a mod that takes less time than taking a picture. Then zoomed the picture and it was clear in all its cringeworthy glory. But to answer your question, soldering the parts directly to the chip would reduce potential interference although it's retarded in so many other ways.

[Anonymous No.5373701]

Hey guys, it’s >>5363758 again. I finished the circuit yesterday, but when I boot up a game, it just shows the colors running up and down the screen. I’m guessing this is a problem with the luma circuit, since there’s no light or sync in the picture. Here’s what I think sources of the problem could be:

-Transistor
I’m using a C945 transistor, with the leftmost pin (emitter) going to the luma jack, the middle pin (collector) going to pin 2 (+5v) on the voltage regulator, and the right most pin (base) going to pin 16 on the video encoder (luma). Maybe I fried the transistor when I was working on it? It took a long time to make some of the more annoying wire to wire connections

-Video encoder
Again, I’m pretty sure I have the right pins. Chromo on 15 and luma on 16. There doesn’t appear to be any bridging. Again, maybe I fried this while working on it? Doesn’t seem to be any cosmetic damage though

-S-video jack
The solder connection on the luma wire actually broke off, but that shouldn’t be an issue as long as the wire is touching the pin. I grounded both wires to the metal plate running along the back of the circuit board; different guides say to use the negative legs of some capacitors, but I figured this should be ok. I haven’t looked close enough but again it doesn’t look like there’s any bridging. When I touch the luma wire directly to the pin on the s-video jack, I noticed that the screen flashes white for a second. Idk if that helps indicate the problem at all

Any thoughts? I’m gonna work on it tomorrow and see if anything changes, but hopefully you guys can push me in the right direction. Let me know if there’s any other info I can provide. I’m still a beginning modder so I know there’s much to learn!

[Anonymous No.5373738]

>>5373686
I'm trying my best ;__;

The electrical tape gore only gets worse. I need to plan the wiring better; like I said, I'm trash at soldering, so my thoughts are primarily "get it working" instead of "get it working well". I'm open to criticism if it's constructive

[Anonymous No.5374063]

>>5373738
>>5373701
Might I suggest taking it all out and using a bread board to see where the problem might be? That way you're able to swap components easily.

Then if I was you I'd go ahead and make the same circuit on a prototyping board to make it nice and neat when you install it.

[Anonymous No.5374083]

>>5373738
>>5374063 makes some good points. If you suck at soldering you really don't want to be doing a lot of that directly on an IC soldered to the mobo using think inflexible leads. But I'd rather see pics of a fucked up console with broken pins and bridged shit so carry on.

[Anonymous No.5374104]

>>5374063
>>5373738
also if you can't tap onto the legs you could always tap onto the underside of the chip for the signals. At least temporarily to find out what is wrong.

[Anonymous No.5374109]

>>5374063
>>5374083
I don’t really need to take it all apart to find out the specific problem; if one of the circuit components is bad, I can just order a new kit and rebuild. I moreso wanted to know if you guys saw any issues with the circuit as I described. In the future though, it probably would be a better idea to build on a breadboard first before actually soldering in the console. A prototyping board would definitely help with connecting the smaller components too. Thanks!

[Anonymous No.5374116]

>>5374104
What do you mean by this? Like, literally just tapping the pins?

[Anonymous No.5374121]

>>5374116
as in if soldering the wires to the legs of the chip is to hard from the top, you can solder to the bottom of the chip on the other side of the board. It's easier to solder to the chips solder joints on the flip side, but I wouldn't leave the mod like that because in general with modding you want the wires to be as short as possible.

It's just for testing purposes really.

[Anonymous No.5375528]

>>5360057
Just bought an RGB SCART for my N64/gamecube, quick question, why does it keep forcing my tv's aspect ratio back from 4:3 to 16:9? It happens when i choose 60hz from the menu too, i have to force my TV to display 4:3 every time i turn the gamecube off. Is it the fucking cable? Does this always happen? Any other PALfags got scart?

It has been pointed out that its likely a pin that is forcing the aspect ratio to 16:9 how do i identify it and is it safe to pull out/remove?

[Anonymous No.5375591]

>>5375528
It's pin 8. 5-8V on that pin signals 16:9, 10-12V signals 4:3. You can disconnect pin 8 entirely if you want, but it will disable automatic input switching with some displays.

[Anonymous No.5375642]

>>5375591
Sorry which one? And how do i remove it without fucking up the entire scart?

[Anonymous No.5375650]

>>5375642
>can't even be bothered to google SCART pinout
I feel sorry for the guy trying to spoonfeed you.

[Anonymous No.5375667]

>>5375650
Just googled. Fuck that, i will just press one button on my remote.

[Anonymous No.5377019]

>>5375667
>>5375642
>doesn't know how to take apart a SCART-plug
Wow.
It's as easy as opening a jar of peanut-butter, I'm sure you're familiar with that procedure.

[Anonymous No.5377196]

>>5363727
Controller-wise NTSC SNES/SFC are region free but PAL SNES is region locked for controllers. Also some PAL games are region locked and would only play in a PAL console, even when using an adapter.

[Anonymous No.5377201]

>>5377196
>>5363727
https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=controls:snes_con_region_fix

[Anonymous No.5377257]

My NES is having some issues reading games. Songs in my games are having missing/glitchy instrumentation at times, and I have to take the cartridge in and out multiple times for the game to work. When the games do work there's little ripples in the screen that pop in and out as well. The games I've been trying I know 100% have nothing wrong with them. I haven't modified my pin connector or disabled the lock out chip. Thinking about doing the meme thing to do and boiling my pin connector, and pulling each of the individual pins out slightly with a bent sewing needle or something. Just hoping it's not a problem with the V Ram chip.

[Anonymous No.5377270]

>>5377257
k