Game Gear Cap Kit

Ever since I got my Game Gear a while back, I noticed the screen was unusually bad. It had noticeable problems with the video. The sound was ok though. I had heard something about Game Gear's suffering from bad capacitors before, but I didn't find out until later which video problems are caused by bad caps.

So I got myself a GG cap kit from consoleworld.co.uk and am going to install it soon enough. Wish me luck! :)

Also feel free to talk about your Game Gear, or if you've successfully fixed your Game Gear.

My game gear has a weird motherboard, so before I can fix it I have to go over to SMSpower and post pictures of it to see what other caps I should get for it. I should stop being lazy and do that today!

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9387

My GG is clearly a Model 2, since it has the TMSS screen. Hopefully it has a more common board. :)

The Game Gear screen(mine at least) is terribly hard to look at, if you hold it like you would a modern console like a DS/GBA SP the colors look inverted. The only way you can see the colors properly is to hold the system literally horizontally, 90 degrees! Even when you hold it uncomfortably like that the screen is still hard to look at, it's very faded and has a yellow tint to it. I am greatly disappointed with my Game Gear, why couldn't it have an option to turn of the backlight, like the Atari Lynx...

consoleworld.co.uk is a placeholder spam-ish site, could you link to the exact page? I've been looking for a pre-assembled game gear capacitor kit for a while seeing as buying individual caps is both expensive and a PITA to find and match so that they will fit.

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Originally Posted by 17daysolderthannes

consoleworld.co.uk is a placeholder spam-ish site, could you link to the exact page? I've been looking for a pre-assembled game gear capacitor kit for a while seeing as buying individual caps is both expensive and a PITA to find and match so that they will fit.

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The website was written wrong. It's actually "console-world.co.uk". Here's the kit page: http://clearance.console-world.co.uk...roducts_id=158

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Originally Posted by chessage

The website was written wrong. It's actually "console-world.co.uk". Here's the kit page: http://clearance.console-world.co.uk...roducts_id=158

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Wow thats just what I need, thanks alot!

How do you install that?

Crap, I can't believe I got the link wrong. Sorry 17days. :[

Cheesage covered the situation though. I highly recommend buying from console-world.co.uk.

I didn't manage to try fixing my GG, I had company over. Maybe tomorrow! :)

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Originally Posted by Nick16

How do you install that?

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One at a time:D

I have done HEAPS of these thiings and detest them, the smell is awful.

I have some small pliers that I use to "pop" the old cap off the board and then use methylated spirits on a cotton bud to clean as much of the yellow-green muck off as I can. Then strategically place each cap and solder in place.

While you are at it, replace the sound board ones. The power supply caps are generally ok.

I have also modified a dead screened GG (black stripe down the middle) to be less portable. It has the cart slot moved so it is now a top loader, 2 control ports fitted, all the screen items removed and has standard (composite) AV out. I have modifed it using the Sega Master System pause trick so that I can use my modified control pad so that it operates the start button. I am more than happy with the way it plays;)

just write down all the cap values, order what you need... then open the GG up, and this is the procedure :

*Look for a cap
*pull it off
*try cleaning up the surroundings with some alcohol and cotton sticks (as it will smell when you touch it with soldering iron)
*get new cap, have it there with right polarity, solder in
*repeat until all caps(all but power ones, those are ok as said before) are replaced.

one at time... :P

Oh yeah, the guide I have says to just pull up the caps as you heat the pads. You can only heat one pad at a time, yet there's two pins on every cap. So how do you remove the caps properly? Or do you just clip them and solder the new cap in place.

Now, if you can just pull caps off the board, do the pins on the new cap go through holes or do the legs sit on top of the board? Dumb questions I know, I just don't wanna wreck my Game Gear. :(

The caps are all surface mounted... only danger with just pulling off is chance of ripping off the solder pad also, but I've yet to experience it...

hmmm, will this kit work on all revisions of game gears? I have 2 and both could probably use a refurb. I've been meaning to do it forever, but couldn't find a good place to track down the capacitors.

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Originally Posted by TmEE

The caps are all surface mounted... only danger with just pulling off is chance of ripping off the solder pad also, but I've yet to experience it...

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Soooooooo... Does this mean I should bend the ends of the legs on the caps a tiny bit so there's more for the solder to contact?

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Originally Posted by 17daysolderthannes

hmmm, will this kit work on all revisions of game gears? I have 2 and both could probably use a refurb. I've been meaning to do it forever, but couldn't find a good place to track down the capacitors.

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The guide for my cap kit (still talking about the console-world one here) says it works with both. I think it says the Model 2 board needs one less capacitor than the model 1. However, if you count up all the caps on both sides of the board on the screen/button side of the GG, there isn't enough caps to do them all. I'm thinking I'll replace the ones that have leaked, as well as every other one I have a replacement for, then for any caps I can't cover I'll try to locate them. I think console-world can cover you if you need any extra caps or if you're clearly missing some from the included chart.

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Originally Posted by Guntz

Soooooooo... Does this mean I should bend the ends of the legs on the caps a tiny bit so there's more for the solder to contact?

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the stock caps usually leave their legs behind when you try to pull them off... then you either sodler the pins off or pull them off also... in case of soldering, you'll smell rotting fish... its very unpleasant... so when you have the cap off with its pins also, you solder a new one in, just see if you have polarity correct, there's a + marking for positive pin on the board.

Wait, so is it the stuff that caps leak that smells horrible when exposed to high heat or is it the caps themselves?

only when things are heated

Well, now that I've been properly informed (more than the guide did sadly), I think this task will be extremely easy. :)

Save for the chance of burning... Electrolyte stuff...

That kit should come with a peg for your nose.......

Okay, so I've replaced all the caps in my GG with every cap in my kit and... My Game Gear doesn't work. http://www.atariage.com/forums/publi...icon_angry.gif

I turn it on, stays on for a second, then shuts off. The picture appears fine so I think all the caps are properly installed, yes? What did I do wrong? :[

Oh yeah, if I burned the board, would it not turn on?

Hmm, I've made some headway in my problem.

I did some checking around, reflowing joints, making sure stuff didn't touch. I even replaced one new capacitor with an old one that I thought was fishy (I soldered it with my iron set to 30W. I might have burned it). Things still didn't work right, so I played with the contrast dial.

Low and behold, if I turn down the contrast dial, it stays on. But if I turn it up really high, the unit shuts off. What exactly does this mean? I'm thinking the circuit starts forcing more power and gets the ability to jump a short in the line somewhere that either I couldn't fix very well or I'm not aware of.

But hurray! My Game Gear still has life! :)

Oh yeah, the screen still has vertical ghosting lines. DAMNIT!

that ghosting is normal for those shitty screens...

as for the turn on/off problem, are you sure that you have all caps connected with right polarity ? perhaps one is in the wrong way...... Turning off means overcurrent in GGs.

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Originally Posted by TmEE

that ghosting is normal for those shitty screens...

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That's good to hear... Sort of. :D

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as for the turn on/off problem, are you sure that you have all caps connected with right polarity ? perhaps one is in the wrong way...... Turning off means overcurrent in GGs.

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Quite sure. I went over all of them before I first tested. The only one I'm not sure of is the big fat '100' cap near the power board plug near the video circuit. I forgot which side of it was positive...

on my GG boards, right side pin is positive

Thanks for all the help TMEE. :D

I've let my GG sit around, played with occasionally and it seems to be functioning good. Just now I turned the contrast all the way up for at least 10 seconds and it didn't shut off. Usually it would shut off within a few seconds of being at high contrast. I think the surgery was a success!

Do caps need to be 'broken' in first? Sorta like a pair of shoes, until they get comfy.

Hi everyone

I have just recapped my GG and within reason it has gone pretty well.

Only issue I have left now is that I have a 3 vertical lines on the left side of the screen. I can not remember if these were the before the recapping or not, but I would assume they were.

It is different from the horizontal lines issue which I have seen a number of times. please see the attached picture of my issue.



Attachment 9981

Attachment 9982

Any thoughts on the cause and what I could do to fix this?

Thanks

Alastair

It's probably the ribbon cable not making connection there. You can try to heat up the part where the ribbon cable connects to the screen to reflow the solder, that works well on Gameboys but I dunno about Game Gears. I know that screen is a hell of a thing to replace and most modders will tell you to just get a new system.

Alternatively, might be a good time to think screen replacement.

Thanks Gohan for the response.

I had a look at a few of the game boy fix. Most just seem to use a solding iron along the ribbon cable. I was wondering if it would be more effective to unstick the cable, clean up the connection points, apply some fresh solder & then stick it down again. Or is that too risky? Any thoughts?