See the everyday life of working a retro modding company. Learn hardware design, mods, software, FPGA, LCDs and more. Discord / discord Wiki retrosix.wiki Instagram / retrosixuk Facebook / retrosixuk Store www.retrosix.c...
Also quick question, how would one repair a completely blown out pad that connects directly to a veer just like the big 100uf at the top left that you showed at 28:30 ? Would you just use a wire and run it to the other side of the board?
also one quick tip on placing SMD capacitors (or any SMD with 2 points) is to preload one side of the pad on the board with clean solder and leave the other pad clean. Then solder the new SMD capacitor on the pad with solder nice and flat, and then solder the other empty pad with solder/flux. Saves you extra work and results in nice and flat caps on the board with minimal amounts of heat on the new caps.
I'm attempting my own recap here on a VA5 version of the Game Gear. I've been making heavy use of the diagrams on the retrosix site, so I'm hoping things will go just fine. Thanks for showing this process off, it's very helpful for a noob like me.
Great video! I just ordered mine from your shop and this will be my first time replacing a GG caps. This will help out greatly! Thanks for all these very informative videos and great camera shots on this one!
Thank you for doing this video. I just finished recapping my game gear today. I bought the kit from retrosix. I'm new to this stuff, but having this on whilst I was attempting the fix was great! My game gear is now back and better than ever! I really hope you continue to make more videos as I have learned a lot watching this one and the others you have made. I plan on buying the screen upgrade and give my game gear the complete overhaul. I did my original gameboy using all of the retrosix gear. I love it! I went with the gameboo case. Again, thank you very much for this video.
Probably the best video on recapping a GG. Great content! Btw when you mentioned the smell i almost got nauseated by the memory of that rotten fish hell lol
Thanks for the video. Clear instructions. I recapped two game gears. One only gets the red light and the other one has no music from the speaker after the recap. I'm looking forward to your next repair videos.
Hey there! Just wanted to say that this video is very helpful. I only just started soldering about a month back to learn how to put backlit screens into my GBC and GBA. After that I used my iron to repair the ribbon contacts to fix up dead columns on my OG GameBoy. I was happy with what I'd learned but I thought repairing my Game Gear's board with new capacitors would be beyond me for some time - Following this video made it very easy! I now have a Game Gear that plays games and gets nice and loud, a big change from one that put no visible image on the screen and barely made noise at all. Thanks a ton!
You definitely helped me out alot. I am running into issues with 2 of my game gears. I will be ordering parts soon to attempt to bring my consoles back to life. Thanks a bunch.
Great video. I’m very excited about the next videos showing some more basic soldering techniques. I just got into modding GBAs, I need some more info on how to trouble shoot non operating consoles.
I've been watching repair vids for the past couple years and have started job lots myself. I finally came across your channel recently. I absolutely love how well you explain everything! It really helps in diagnosing issues. I'm finishing up another Game Gear and removing all the capacitors at once and doing things in phases totally made things go faster! No picture, no sound. recapped the main board and audio board and it's working great. Would you also recap the power board even though it's working now? I don't like to be too wasteful and am of the mind "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But I feel like people buying recapped Game Gears expect all 3 to be done. Thoughts? Also, I really like the PIP setup with the readings and extra cam. Thanks!
i have a Game Gear i picked up recently which i will need to recap as well as replace the screen... thanks for the video! it was super helpful... i only have worked on Gameboys up until now...
Great vid! Looking forward to the next instalment of this series. I have a few GGs lying around, hoping I could revive them someday. One recently died, strange symptom - lcd flickers and image appears pixelated. Definitely some broken vias somewhere. Initially tried reflowing the VDP chip, but still no cure. This one is VA0 twin asic though.
Next time clean it with some 91% isopropyl alcohol and a small fiberglass brush, before removing those soured out capacitors. I learned that the hard way, when I brought back mine from its grave in the dust bin. Recently, I did another successful recapping for my friend’s powerless VA5 unit, and it wasn’t so bad, after having given it an alcohol bath.
Great video, didn't know the board would power up with out the caps. I recapped with the ceramic caps a V1 board like in this video, afterwards it only goes on for a sec then shuts off. I checked the power after i recapped the power board and I'm getting 5v. Not sure why it's goiing into a safe shutdown. I'm going to maybe take all the caps off and power the board.
Great Video. I was thinking of buying either a completely refurbished GG or a good one and just replace the Screen/Power and stuff. After this Video i just bought the cheapest GG i could find and cant wait to start working on it. Btw what sort of microscope is that? Its insane!
That's good to hear. Any issues getting it running let me know. This one is a Tagarno. Pretty pricey. Amscope is good and cheaper and use them for non video work
Switching from electrolytic to ceramic isn't always a good idea because the characteristics don't always transfer smoothly. How did you determine the safety of these replacements?
I've designed hardware for many years and so reverse engineering the GG from schematics and making replacement parts was pretty easy. I'll do an article on my wiki explaining the GG designs and why ceramics are fine here but in short all the caps are for smoothing or bulk no feedback loops or requirements for specific ESR
Your hair straighteners would have removed those caps in half the time fella :D. Cracking video, i'm just about to re-cap mine and order your clean screen mod.
I just replaced the sound board with your retro six board. Super easy install and it's LOUD !!!!! When will y'all have more clean juice GG rechargeable battery kits available?
i recapped a va1 using this cap kit and the before and after was amazing except that before the backlight worked fine and after it was dead but the screen does work and so does sound
Considering how dirty a Game Gear can be after all these years, am I right in assuming you guys at Retro Six clean up the boards when you refurbish them? Preferably with ultra sonic cleaners? Because that makes the most sense to me.
If they need it. Usually instead they get IPA scrub and diamond files on contact points. Ultrasonic cleaner is pretty useless it just cleans flux off which you can do with hot air and IPA
In the video you said that the gamegear will work wothout capacitors, but somewhere online i read that that's not very recommended, are you sure it's ok to do it? Because i wanted to try on a gamegear i'm working on
It will work totally fine. It's for testing before wasting time. Your LCD won't work but audio and game load will. Once confirmed you can then add caps
@@RetroSix i assume the only caps that do major roles are the power board electrolytic? Anyway, i'll try it out, I have already bought the ceramic kit anyway though, could still be handy if i cone across more, but I hope this one all it needs is caps
Hello, I'm about to order the caps but I have a doubt, are they the same voltage? I'm asking because those I have in my game gear have different voltages and I don't know if it's safe to use the same voltage. If you can please let me know. Thanks
Hey, great video. Will you do a video in the future showing an install of your Cleanscreen on a Game Gear (possibly this one when you get it working properly) ?
Any idea why a game gear turns off after turning on before and after recap? I can see segas legal disclaimer on the screen before it runs off so it appears to be the system shutting it off. My first game gear recap was success unit works great this one idk. The board was also pristine no sign of cap leakage and it had oem caps. This one has a va5 board non majesco.
I prefer not to cut or move up and down capacitors when you remove them. That's because plates could be pulled away and you're forced to recreate the trace.
Really wish you would have named them all as you go. Most of the video was you cleaning the board, even though you said it wasn't going to be that, and not going through and replacing each one.
I did not know that you could put SMD capacitors, do you have a list of the capacitors and voltages that you used? or recommendation of any Aliexpress store? excuse my english, i use the translator
Hey Luke, great vid but may be better to show cracking the caps with needle nose pliers and then rocking the caps with your finger to break them off their legs. Much easier to then desoldering the legs tbh…
Yeah you could do that too but rocking can damage the pads if they are already lifted and rip traces more. Albeit very rare that happens but it's a way people could still use for sure
Hi I had a recapped GG done the recap years ago and it worked fine but hadn´t turned it on in a while. I decided to play and it wouldnt boot any games. So I opened it up. Saw that some of the joints from the capacitos came loose. I resoldered everything I used flux. Put the thing back to gether and instead of turning on it just shuts off immediatly short circuit somewhere but I put the capacitors back like they were. I don´t get it it does flux create shorts? Then I tried to solder soms capacitors back again but I messed up. The solder is not sticking anymore in one place and I spilled some solder on the round gold pad that I cannot get off because I couldn´t find any whick all stores were sold out.
That's some great equipment you've got for recording this repair, very jealous. Never heard the story of SEGA botching the capacitors design, quite interesting. I just assumed that sega got them from Del Boy. Must say tho, it's very cruel of you to leave the... aroma of the GG capacitors for the new modders to discover!
ok, I finally got the board completely re-capped... it now powers on and I can play games BUT, no audio and the picture is really washed out. Any ideas? I'd love to replace the screen but I'm concerned dealing with those ribbons is going to be more than I can handle.
@@RetroSix I’m already a member. I guess I was just too dumb to realize that I have to change out the caps on the audio board as well. I do still need to figure out how to make my screen better as well as I’m not sure if I missed it or not but your cap kit, I didn’t see a positive or negative side. Is there? If so I might be redoing my entire board :-(
@@97JoMiller the caps from our kit will give your screen its fully brightness if its working. I'd say send photos or vid on discord to assess if the dullness is the normal level of brightnes expected, and also turn the contrast wheel during the video to show the range. You can also check the contast circuit pins (mainly the end LCD pins for -+20V www.retrosix.wiki/lcd-circuit-game-gear
My game gear that I have had from new has always worked, got it out yesterday and the screen is a bit distorted and there is no sound. Is this the capacitors.
Is this only if the system has problems booting? If it boots fine but just has screen or sound problems, that's a different set of capacitors to replace, right?
@@RetroSix lol you missed my point. I'm just shocked at what it costs to ship things although I frankly shouldn't be shocked at costs for anything at this point.
@@RetroSix I got the package that I ordered today... Super fast shipping! 2 things, I was also shipped a red Gameboy case that I did not order, is that typical? Also which side of the little capacitor is the negative and the positive?
The capacitors don't have polarity they can go either way. Shells are normally used for shipping CleanJuice inside. Sometimes we also just give away freebies
@RetroSix I ordered the TFT screen and purple board from Handheld legend and the ribbon cable is too short to attach properly. Also the board pictured on their site is not the board I was sent. Can you respond with troubleshooting information?
I think the issue is their 3D brackets are slightly different than ours they print their own. Seen it an odd time. Get them to check fit a 3D bracket and resend you the brackets
@@RetroSix I ordered a new screen and was able to connect it now. However, all I get is static on the screen even though the sound states that the game is booted and running. Any troubleshooting tips you could give?
No. I reverse engineered and tested the whole game gear design before this and the values are ok to use. We have also sold over 5000 kits not a single issue and use them every day
@@RetroSix hi I bought a few kits and my board is slightly different, are the 47 6.3v, the 33 6.3v, and the 22 6.3v, replaceable with the 10uf, 100uf, or the 1uf caps from the kit?
