kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Ok so I recently picked up a Sega game gear and I heard alot about the caps going bad on them. Well I ended up replacing all the caps on the main,sound and the power boards. And everything works but the sound. It dose however make a constant clicking sounds when you turn the volume up. Is there any idea what it could be? I've already ruled out it's something on the main board cuz when I switched the power supply and the sound board to another game gear it all worked fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Well, because you have 2 or more Game Gears, the problem will be a little bit easier to find. I'm not clear as to how you ruled in/out the main board. Did you move the newly recapped power and audio boards to another GG and then everything was fine or did you move other, currently working, power and audio boards to the new recapped main board? The clicks when you turn the volume wheel either up or down mean that there's probably some dirt, corrosion, or oxidation in the volume pot. This is common and some DeoxIT or other electrical cleaning solution will help with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 Well I did both, I swapped the sound board over a know good one from a working system and it still didn't work And also put the one in the good system from the bad one and it works. So that's how I know its something on the main motherboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 So the Game Gear (recapped) that doesn't have sound - has never had working sound (even when you put a known working sound board in). And, your recapped sound board, when put into another game gear, works fine. Is that correct? What about the headphones port, do you hear any audio? It could be that the speaker is not working 100%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 Yes that's correct and the headphone jack dose the same just clicks constantly. But if you listen really close you can just barely make out the sound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Ok, so if both working and non working sound boards produce the same problem, then you're right it's probably the main board that's the problem. Low sound has usually been an electrolytic capacitor issue, but it may be one of the ceramic SMD caps. The clicking is interesting. Are the clicks regular? That is, do they sound like they are 1 second apart (or 1/2 second or anything regular)? If they are regular and not random, that sounds like a capacitor wave (charging and discharging) and the clicks you hear are when the capacitor is probably at full charge and releasing... I'd also wonder if the "clicks" are just the audio at full volume for a fraction of a second. That would make it harder to tell if the clicks are random because if it's what I'm describing, you would hear the clicks during normal game audio, but not when the game has no audio or low audio. One thing I'd definitely do is to reflow the solder joints on the main board connector cable (that goes to the audio board) ... just to rule that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 Yah like it clikes like every second regularly and it will be louder when the volume is turned up the whole ways and quiet when you turn it down. One thing I do remember is the one ceramic disc cap by the little transformer on the main board had a little corrosion on it so could it have gone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 It could be. Usually, these circuit boards have the components near the system they are controlling. So, the sound stuff would be near the sound connection, and the video stuff would be around the screen, etc... (when possible). If the clicking is regular, then it really does look like a bad cap or solder joint (not one you replaced unless you see some issue). Corrosion is caused by many things but for the electrolytic capacitors, it's obviously the fluid. Ceramic caps shouldn't have corrosion around them, but may have some form of oxidation. I don't think the ceramic cap is bad, but it could be. I'd start by reflowing any cap that looks bad and even the ones that look good. Cold solder joints do not always look bad from the outside. Sometimes they look perfectly fine, but have internal cracks, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 (edited) Ok I'll have to look around I got 2 more I can take parts from if it was the cap I can replace it. Edited June 20, 2020 by kevincondrick@gmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 But what's the SMD caps look like and where are they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 (edited) The SMD caps are usually light brown, beige, terracotta colors. The SMD resistors are black and have numbers on them (but it seems like the caps are what you need to look at). Pics attached. The pictures are from a VA1 twin ASIC Game Gear, yours might be different. But that's the general idea. They are all labeled with C##, like C79, C25, etc... Edited June 20, 2020 by gamegrid2084 clarification Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 (edited) So what you suggest is to take them off one by one and test every time or do you think that they might just be shorting out ? Like could I test it with a multi meter Edited June 20, 2020 by kevincondrick@gmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 (edited) No, that would be way too time consuming. It'd be cheaper to get a new broken Game Gear and recap that one. I'm suggesting reflowing the solder joints on the SMD caps near the sound board. If you send me a picture of your current main board that is not working (and a close up of the sound area like my pic), I can tell you where to start. Not all those caps have anything to do with sound, but some do. Plus, many of the SMD ceramic caps are less than 1nF. So, unless you have a really good multimeter that can measure in the pF range, it would do you no good. Edited June 20, 2020 by gamegrid2084 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 Alright I'll send a picture later thanks for the help ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 Alright this is what I got Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 (edited) Thanks for the image. I can see that this is a VA1 single ASIC board. I see the caps that you have replaced, but did you do anything else on the board (like with the other, smaller components)? It appears that someone has had a go at this board before (which could make this a lot more difficult). I put arrows on your image showing what looks to be someone tinkering with this GG before. First, there is a blob of solder on C35 (the top arrow). That capacitor has nothing to do with sound, it helps control the d-pad "right" direction. Second, one side of both R10 and R11 look to be shorted together (bottom arrow). R10 and R11 are supposed to be shorted on that side, but this does not look like factory soldering. Those are only 2 examples of what looks like someone else tinkering with this board. The other image is one of my similar boards. It's not recapped, but you can see where the components are very aligned and look to be soldered by the factory and not otherwise touched. For all we know, the previous person had the same problem and was trying to fix it. Having said that, nothing stands out as obviously bad on the board. In this case, I would test everything (check the resistors, components, voltages, and connections near the small IC4, the one with the numbers 358 on it, lower right of your image). I'm not sure if the clicking is the only problem or just an additional problem, but one thing at a time... I put 4 red dots on 4 capacitors of which I would reflow the solder connections. Working back from the sound board connector, those are the first 4 caps that the Left and Right channels interact with. It's unlikely that this will do anything, but it's good to be sure of certain things as you work back from the sound board connector. The website console5.com has good Sega Game Gear schematics to go by if you want to really get into tracking the problem down. Edited June 21, 2020 by gamegrid2084 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 (edited) I did see those 2 things you pointed out and I know that the 2 resistors were like that from day one but I know the blob of solder was from me from trying to reflow afew components. But so your saying to test every in that area? One other thing is it sound like it's like high frequency sounds when you turn it up like it will get to the point of getting to hi it clicks but yah that's what it sounds like Edited June 21, 2020 by kevincondrick@gmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Well, I would test what I can going back from the sound connector (using the schematics as a guide). Resistors would be easy to check, caps would be too hard because some of them are very low capacitance (pF) and, besides having to remove them to test, most multimeters wouldn't be able to detect their value. In this working-backwards order, I would test and reflow components as I go and then test the GG to see if/what happens. Another reason I think someone may have previously messed with this GG for the exact same reason you are experiencing is that pins 1 & 2 of the little IC4 are intentionally shorted with solder (unless you did this). Again, they should be shorted, but that's not what the factory would do. In any case, the 4 capacitors I marked before are the first in line to be checked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 Alright yah it was like that when I got it. So reflow them and check them do you know the ratings of any of them ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Yeah, everything you need to know is in the service manual at console5.com: https://console5.com/wiki/File:Service_Manual_-_Game_Gear_VA1.pdf Specifically for those 4 caps, they are all 1uF 16V. But you'd have to remove them to properly test them. With broken Game Gears so cheap, I'd get another broken one before I started removing SMDs to test them. I'd trace, reflow components, and check resistor values, but beyond that I'd make it a parts unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 Alright thanks and I already have a downer borad so maybe I'll do that when I get home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 23, 2020 Author Share Posted June 23, 2020 Ok well I swapped out all these caps didn't do the best job at it but itsl should have done something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 23, 2020 Author Share Posted June 23, 2020 I did however test after I took each out I took #1out and it seams like it didn't do the clicking anymore. Then I tryed a game but it still had no sound. So then I replaced it with one from another gg and it went back to the same result as before. So then I replaced #2 and tested it when it was out I tryed it but the clicking was there but it seamed to do it like 3 or 4 times real fast then stop. But then I put in another one from that other gg and back to the original.... So something to do with that circuit? Any more ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamegrid2084 Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Well, like I said, I probably would get a broken Game Gear before swapping out SMDs. Just use the main board from a broken one and move your new caps to that one and use this GG main board as a parts board. I can't tell exactly from the picture, but it looks like the soldering near #1 and your new cap are all shorting together. At this point, i would probably suggest not trying to transfer or replace any more SMDs. If you'd like, I'd be happy to take a look at the board. Message me if you're interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincondrick@gmail.com Posted June 23, 2020 Author Share Posted June 23, 2020 Ok I mean the one I took the parts from was already recaped and it didn't work some idk I'm not really havein any luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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