Hey Joey, this was my console as you know.. for those not in the know. This was located in a locked cabinet in a unused part of the building at work but has been kept in a dry place.. i stopped this going to landfill about 3 years ago but has been left in the man drawer at my house ever since. I was going to look at it at some point but never got around to it. I wasnt aware of any water damage but i understand that this is leakage from the caps and not water. Good luck in fixing this.. i do hope to see it work again.. thanks again for looking at it. 👊
Many of the GG’s I’ve fixed had corroded vias on the left side of the board near leaking caps. Test continuity from front to back on the sketchy looking ones. This will also fix no image issues. Additionally, sometimes the backlight circuit loses its ground from corrosion, you have to run a jumper to help it out. Happy to help troubleshoot!
Im a service technician working on flue gas anaylsers that get to suck up some nasty gasses like h2s hydrogen sulfide, i get to see some really gnarly corrosion thanks to the environments the analysers go through and yet the damage does not compare to this handheld, some of them pads looks absolutely ruined, not just tanished but fully tainted by corrosion, as those are electrolytic caps im gonna hazard the guess one has popped spraying the handheld with its juices, hence why everything is plastered in a layer of it. Cus if it was water dam you'd see ectoplasm everywhere it dried out, especially on the ic legs. I love this series so far keep up the amazing vids joey!
I wonder if you could answer a quick question with regards to an FGA? I sent my FGA in for it's first service and I got back a massive bill. Which I found to be to be absolute bull and massively exploited? The bill was way beyond what I would expect for a brand new device, which had be treated with the utmost respect. Absolute crow CON. Is this the excepted norm in the industry?
Fishy caps - welcome to the retro world, Joey ;) ... This is totally common on older machines with leaked electrolytic caps. You can also sometimes smell it, if you take a dose of the inside air of a device with your nose, so you know it's replacing time. Did that on flea market and the seller looked at me, if I'm crazy
I know you want to keep the authenticity of the device but this is a perfect opportunity for a restomod! I've seen vids where people have modified with an upgraded modern screen and also added in lithium power packs that can recharge from the ac port! Could make for an interesting miniseries 😉
I’ve worked on a few of these and I was waiting for Joey to get that smell lol. It’s from the fluid from the caps. They’re very easy to work on. As stated on the video. 99% of the problems with these are caps. I dont even bother doing diagnoses until I’ve recapped them. And after the recapping they always just work.
I have had a similar gg issue where there was resistance in the wires to the battery terminals (the black wires that connect the batteries in series. It was still showing nine volts, but did not have enough current) that I only worked out after plugging it in with my known good gg power supply. Best of luck in solving it!
I have a gamegear that needs a full recap on all the boards but I cant solder or am able to afford a soldering iron and everything else needed to learn and get it done but looking at the board none of the caps look like they are bulging at all. I am really enjoying the Joey learns series so far.
Nice one, recaped two Game Gears myself. One I couldn't save (yet). The other is getting a LCD update soon. Thanks for diving into old school tech once in a while.
Looking at the amount of electrolyte corrosion from the capacitors I would say there is a fair chance you have a broken trace or 2, it's a slow process toning out the traces but probably worth a look. Great series keep up the great work.
Thing with old Sega stuff is with caps, its a case of do one, do all and I recently recapped a Mega Drive 2 despite the caps being bulge and leak free, it was a machine from the 80's and them caps were way past their best so I did them all and the MD is running beautifully once I worked out the cobblers in connecting it to the flat screen which had a hidden behind a metal plate scart socket and a MD to Scart cost me a few quid and now its running lovely :D
Luke over at Retrosix has a brilliant wiki for all retro consoles and full board schematics. He does a clean power and cleaned screen which would be a great upgrade
You arent the only ome that gets odd faults. The first 2 i got didnt work after a recap. First one wouldnt play games and narrowed it down to a corroded via under ome of the chips. The other was that 101K inductior near that difficult cap had gone. Mega satisfying when you finally fix them though. Ive hadthofew good ones since then though.
Follow traces with the caps u replaced. Make sure they are going where they need. I’ve had some bad traces around those caps especially when they go bad
I was thinking the transformer that almost fell off might be an issue. It steps the voltage up for the backlight. Whenever I removed the screen and upgraded it, i removed those. But my led worked. You can open the console up and use a flash light on the back of the screen to see of the lcd is working, that would help narrow the issue
I watched some GameGear repair videos before, what I know from some of them is that you can't test the GameGear without an game inserted, otherwise the Display doesn't show anything. I dont remember if even the power led doesn't turn on too without game inserted. greetings from Germany ;)
Check the board vias where the corrosion was they might be corroded trough and not making a connection to the other side and that fish smell is the capacitors electrolite being evaporated by your iron
Have you tested the Light emitting diode Err-LED to see if it tests like a diode and dependent on yo multimeter the far-Err-Sucker may light up if it is a working Light Emitting Diode, Err-LED if she be knackered, replacing it will have yo light indicator working again as I suspect she is truly far-Err-knackered. Do you have the high voltage rails for yo backlight? and have you installed a easily damaged undamaged working back light?
Hey, Joey, have you replaced all the capacitors of the power board (the small board linked to the power button)? I have repaired mine that was completely dead by replacing all capacitors of the console (including from the small power board). Mine works great now. With the SMD caps the values are little bit different from the original one a play a role on the contract (have you turned the contrast wheel of the console) ?
-- Spoiler Saver Working on a Game Gear today. Nice! It seems to work, but there clearly is an issue with the screen or the backlight. I'd like to see more.
Just fixed one of these with bad corrosion. vref pin from asic to power board broken trace stopped red light boot. aswell as a bunch of other pads I had to repair If it has sound no backlight worse case replace the screen for a lcd mod
Love the videos and the way you show your passion and knowledge😊 But I don’t like the fact that you’re making it look like gambling related thing… It is the same like I would make videos about me going to play to a casino 🎰 🎲🎲 ♥️♣️♦️ ♠️
I don't have a GameGear or I'd take some measurements and post on the Discord; Maybe someone with a working one can take a plethora diode measurements on their known good device and you'll have something to compare against?
My game gear has the same issue. And I already think it’s the caps, not sure how fucked the boards are by now. Umm try the contrast dial real quick and see if you get anything. If that doesn’t work then the screen could be dead.
Fixed dozens of these and I can smell the electrolytics from here. 🤮 You should have cleaned that board properly before starting to diag anything, it's absolutely gopping.
You say that you don't want to lose the authenticity of the device, when you use it you'll want to swap it. The console is great, but that screen is atrocious.
I love the fact that you have separated your videos and branched out into learning more, but you didn't learn anything if somebody told you to just replace random parts. If you don't know why you are replacing them or are able to prove that they need to be replaced, then you've learned nothing! Shotgunning parts isn't learning, nor does it help anybody watching your videos. I understand that you don't know anything about these systems, but just replacing random parts isn't helping you or anybody else.
Hey Joey, this was my console as you know.. for those not in the know. This was located in a locked cabinet in a unused part of the building at work but has been kept in a dry place.. i stopped this going to landfill about 3 years ago but has been left in the man drawer at my house ever since. I was going to look at it at some point but never got around to it.
I wasnt aware of any water damage but i understand that this is leakage from the caps and not water.
Good luck in fixing this.. i do hope to see it work again.. thanks again for looking at it. 👊
I won’t give up on it Carl! Thank you for sending it, hopefully we’ll get it on the next video!
This series is even more fun for me than the profit or loss. I'm loving the challenge!
RVNR is such a cool guy, he helped me with information and parts for a yellow light PS3
Many of the GG’s I’ve fixed had corroded vias on the left side of the board near leaking caps. Test continuity from front to back on the sketchy looking ones. This will also fix no image issues. Additionally, sometimes the backlight circuit loses its ground from corrosion, you have to run a jumper to help it out. Happy to help troubleshoot!
Thoroughly enjoyed this one, Joey! Your learning series was a genius idea!
Thank you pal :)
Retro stuff is the best. Keep up the good work!
Im a service technician working on flue gas anaylsers that get to suck up some nasty gasses like h2s hydrogen sulfide, i get to see some really gnarly corrosion thanks to the environments the analysers go through and yet the damage does not compare to this handheld, some of them pads looks absolutely ruined, not just tanished but fully tainted by corrosion, as those are electrolytic caps im gonna hazard the guess one has popped spraying the handheld with its juices, hence why everything is plastered in a layer of it.
Cus if it was water dam you'd see ectoplasm everywhere it dried out, especially on the ic legs.
I love this series so far keep up the amazing vids joey!
I wonder if you could answer a quick question with regards to an FGA? I sent my FGA in for it's first service and I got back a massive bill. Which I found to be to be absolute bull and massively exploited? The bill was way beyond what I would expect for a brand new device, which had be treated with the utmost respect. Absolute crow CON. Is this the excepted norm in the industry?
Wonder if you were to shine a light behind the sceen if you could see the game joey? And it's just the back light not working?
The power LED isn‘t working either.
it needs a recap hopefully its not to far gone and the caps dont always dome they just leak out the bottom and become dried out
Fishy caps - welcome to the retro world, Joey ;) ... This is totally common on older machines with leaked electrolytic caps.
You can also sometimes smell it, if you take a dose of the inside air of a device with your nose, so you know it's replacing time. Did that on flea market and the seller looked at me, if I'm crazy
I love how you share it on stream and get actual help
Mate I need more videos to watch while I fall asleep at night, please Joey I’m begging you !!
I know you want to keep the authenticity of the device but this is a perfect opportunity for a restomod! I've seen vids where people have modified with an upgraded modern screen and also added in lithium power packs that can recharge from the ac port! Could make for an interesting miniseries 😉
Progress!! I've repaired a lot of game gears and have never had a fault like that before.
I’ve worked on a few of these and I was waiting for Joey to get that smell lol. It’s from the fluid from the caps. They’re very easy to work on. As stated on the video. 99% of the problems with these are caps. I dont even bother doing diagnoses until I’ve recapped them. And after the recapping they always just work.
Good job, keep pushing, you'll get it ❤
I have had a similar gg issue where there was resistance in the wires to the battery terminals (the black wires that connect the batteries in series. It was still showing nine volts, but did not have enough current) that I only worked out after plugging it in with my known good gg power supply. Best of luck in solving it!
Did you remember to turn the contrast up there's a dial on one of the sides of the console🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
I'm just stating where you were 5 years ago, it seems! And damn it's so much more difficult than I imagined.
I have a gamegear that needs a full recap on all the boards but I cant solder or am able to afford a soldering iron and everything else needed to learn and get it done but looking at the board none of the caps look like they are bulging at all. I am really enjoying the Joey learns series so far.
Nice one, recaped two Game Gears myself. One I couldn't save (yet). The other is getting a LCD update soon.
Thanks for diving into old school tech once in a while.
No worries, glad you enjoyed it :)
Looking at the amount of electrolyte corrosion from the capacitors I would say there is a fair chance you have a broken trace or 2, it's a slow process toning out the traces but probably worth a look.
Great series keep up the great work.
did you check to see if the LED has blown? if it has, and shares the same line as the Screen, it wont work. (sorry if i missed that on the video!)
Check the brightness wheel. Might be all the way down.
would that affect the power LED?
That doesn’t affect the backlight, only the contrast of the screen itself
Niice! Glad to see your new video!
22:28 the second 3 pin component you soldered might have had solder bridge underneath it
Have you turned up the brightness button on the screen
Thing with old Sega stuff is with caps, its a case of do one, do all and I recently recapped a Mega Drive 2 despite the caps being bulge and leak free, it was a machine from the 80's and them caps were way past their best so I did them all and the MD is running beautifully once I worked out the cobblers in connecting it to the flat screen which had a hidden behind a metal plate scart socket and a MD to Scart cost me a few quid and now its running lovely :D
the smell of fish means that there is electrolit on the board from the caps :))) (you should bath it in some vinegear and wash it with distiled water)
Luke over at Retrosix has a brilliant wiki for all retro consoles and full board schematics. He does a clean power and cleaned screen which would be a great upgrade
You arent the only ome that gets odd faults. The first 2 i got didnt work after a recap. First one wouldnt play games and narrowed it down to a corroded via under ome of the chips. The other was that 101K inductior near that difficult cap had gone. Mega satisfying when you finally fix them though.
Ive hadthofew good ones since then though.
Follow traces with the caps u replaced. Make sure they are going where they need. I’ve had some bad traces around those caps especially when they go bad
Check for rotten vias, super common with the leaky caps. Worst case, you can transplant the ASIC to a new SYF board PCB.
Joey, resistors and capacitors should be desoldered from the board to measure. While measuring on the board you may get wrong results.
Great point! Thank you :)
YES
I was thinking the transformer that almost fell off might be an issue. It steps the voltage up for the backlight. Whenever I removed the screen and upgraded it, i removed those. But my led worked. You can open the console up and use a flash light on the back of the screen to see of the lcd is working, that would help narrow the issue
banger intro
I've fixed so many monitors and TV's over the years by replacing capacitors :)
I watched some GameGear repair videos before, what I know from some of them is that you can't test the GameGear without an game inserted, otherwise the Display doesn't show anything. I dont remember if even the power led doesn't turn on too without game inserted. greetings from Germany ;)
Hope to see more Apple tech in the future! MacBooks especially
24:54 what did it say 😮?
Would be nice if you could go through how and where you buy caps, smds and more.
I’m guessing you adjusted the brightness wheel to check it isn’t turned right down?
Could the power LED have blown maybe?
Check the board vias where the corrosion was they might be corroded trough and not making a connection to the other side and that fish smell is the capacitors electrolite being evaporated by your iron
i wana see you learn the pain of repairing the ipod nanos you could make a series where you go from the first to the last gen
Have you tested the Light emitting diode Err-LED to see if it tests like a diode and dependent on yo multimeter the far-Err-Sucker may light up
if it is a working Light Emitting Diode, Err-LED if she be knackered, replacing it will have yo light indicator working again as I suspect she is truly
far-Err-knackered. Do you have the high voltage rails for yo backlight? and have you installed a easily damaged undamaged working back light?
Did you remember to make sure you got the correct cap kit because there's two versions of the game gear in the UK🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Did you actually try adjusting the brightness control when on? When down full the screen will be black
Yes :) apparently the contrast wheel is strictly for the LCD also and doesn’t effect the backlight
Hey, Joey, have you replaced all the capacitors of the power board (the small board linked to the power button)? I have repaired mine that was completely dead by replacing all capacitors of the console (including from the small power board). Mine works great now. With the SMD caps the values are little bit different from the original one a play a role on the contract (have you turned the contrast wheel of the console) ?
Hi, often the problem is to pass the rotten print trace to the other side of the board. I have already repaired three of mine
Joey, what kind of watch do you wear? I love the look of it but can't find it anywhere.
Saber Learns by Watching Joey Learns after Saber Learned by watching Joey Learn in the livestreams
Yepp
I'd be willing to get it's a damaged trace somewhere on the main board.
Lets get fixing
--
Spoiler Saver
Working on a Game Gear today. Nice! It seems to work, but there clearly is an issue with the screen or the backlight. I'd like to see more.
Ok that might sounds stupid but regarding the LED, have you checked it? Is it even working?
Just fixed one of these with bad corrosion. vref pin from asic to power board broken trace stopped red light boot. aswell as a bunch of other pads I had to repair
If it has sound no backlight worse case replace the screen for a lcd mod
I am not really sure if you can replace an electrolytic cap with an smd one.
🐠🐟 "FISH" 🐟🐠
lol the fish smell is normal when recapping game gears; that's the smell of residual electrolytic fluid that leaked from the caps.
You're near the finish line!
the blue round one is not a cap, it is a mov
Super random but you should try and repair a easypress 2 ! There’s lots with error codes all over RUclips but no fix
Early in the video but must comment, can somebody clip Joey doing SEGAA 😂
hi has anyone got any idea whats happened to the 2nd series ? are we going back in time ?
just needs a recap
Love the videos and the way you show your passion and knowledge😊
But I don’t like the fact that you’re making it look like gambling related thing… It is the same like I would make videos about me going to play to a casino 🎰 🎲🎲 ♥️♣️♦️ ♠️
I don't have a GameGear or I'd take some measurements and post on the Discord; Maybe someone with a working one can take a plethora diode measurements on their known good device and you'll have something to compare against?
LED is burned out and acts as a RP diode for the screen :P
Juuuuust kidding!
check the LED. its booting and load the game.
I'm sure you need a game in the game gear for it to show up on screen
My game gear has the same issue. And I already think it’s the caps, not sure how fucked the boards are by now.
Umm try the contrast dial real quick and see if you get anything. If that doesn’t work then the screen could be dead.
You used hot air on the board and it blowed the fuses
Those little smd capps look so out of place on that old board
Give a shout out to My Mate Vince i Tink he has done two off those..
Has anyone tried increasing the brightness?
Never mind 😂
The suspense is killing us....whats next? :)
Nice Job, but better recap with Electrolitic capacitors ( panasonic etc made in Japan with low ESR ) i have a video in my channel same as you :)
upgrade the screen at this point!
A most fishy Game Gear
EXTREMELY!
Joey. Please bro. Get a real fire extinguisher, that thing wont do jack if you actually need it.
Attempt 22 of asking Joey for his Fluke Multimeter
the smd caps are bad
Fixed dozens of these and I can smell the electrolytics from here. 🤮
You should have cleaned that board properly before starting to diag anything, it's absolutely gopping.
replace the screen with a modern version, the originals are not very good anyway
GameGear is Ass 6 batteries for the loss.
You say that you don't want to lose the authenticity of the device, when you use it you'll want to swap it. The console is great, but that screen is atrocious.
I love the fact that you have separated your videos and branched out into learning more, but you didn't learn anything if somebody told you to just replace random parts.
If you don't know why you are replacing them or are able to prove that they need to be replaced, then you've learned nothing!
Shotgunning parts isn't learning, nor does it help anybody watching your videos.
I understand that you don't know anything about these systems, but just replacing random parts isn't helping you or anybody else.
Lol L and R. Lol standby voltage. You've been working on modern stuff too long
That is disgusting ,it looks like a cat pissed on it .
@Joey - i would like to send you some devices - free! Can you contact me somehow?