Japan 3DO FZ-1 Power On Issue - Need Help Plz

rancid · October 25, 2022

Hi All,

I have a Japan FZ-1 and the unit has always worked great, but I recently moved and hooked up all my retro consoles and left the 3DO plugged into the power while off. I recently received my ODE and was excited to try it out and hooked everything up, hit the power button and... No lights. I quickly noticed a soft "buzzing" sound coming from the console and thought maybe it was the ODE causing it so I unhooked everything, rebooked up everything and.... Same thing, except this time I tried ejecting my tray with no response and no lights on the unit at all, same sound.

I made a post on Reddit asking if it was possible a bad cap causing this and someone recommended I leave the power button pushed in and unhook the unit from the wall and plug it in with the power button pressed in (as if on state). I tried this and was shocked to see the unit come to life. I tried powering it on normally with the power button off first and pushing it on, the same sound came back with no lights. Unplugged it again from the wall while power was pressed in and it magically works and I was able to play Killing Time for well over an hour. The weird thing is once I have about 10-20 min on it, it will power up every time via the power button without unplugging the unit but if it sits idle, it requires the wall unplug and plug back in.

My question is this - is this a bad cap and I should just go ahead and replace them all with a kit from console5, or is it a failing power supply and I should expect complete failure soon. The weird thing is if it was a cap I would expect there to be a loss in video or audio, popping.. something, but it just seems to "work". If it was a failing power supply I'd expect it to randomly shut off.

Very weird and not sure what my next step is. Appreciate the help in advance!

Edited October 25, 2022 by rancid

Taijigamer · October 30, 2022

Sounds like it could be a cap issue. Try replacing C35 and C36 to start with. They are part of the 5V generation and could cause erratic behaviour when the go bad. They are right next to the regulator heat sink and get overcooked. Any FZ-1 which hasn’t had a recap should at least have these changed as standard.

Also check for any corrosion underneath them as they sometimes leak and cause damage to the pcb. Scrub with 99% IPA before soldering the new caps. If problems still persist after that, we can look at other components on the PSU.