SEGA Mega Drive (Genesis) 2 | BLACK SCREEN | Can I FIX It? | PART 2 

I really enjoyed watching this Steve. Very refreshing to see a man openly walk through his thoughts and emotions without fear of getting it wrong. Helped me realise I'm not the only one who doubts himself when taking on problems I don't always have the immediate answers to. I'd love to see a follow up video, I get the feeling you're not going to give up on this! Thanks again. 😊

Hi Steve, that capacitor is most likely used for decoupling on a power rail and added as a modification at the manufacturers. It could be to solve a stability or intermittent issue. You might find that it became a standard part of the PCB in later revisions of the board. This is common to see on boards as a modification to solve an issue. Sometimes referred to as a "Bodge component". It could also have been left off of the PCB design by accident.

Was looking for ways on how to level up my repairing game past just replacing parts and learned a lot of tricks and things to buy from you and even your mistakes- thanks for doing these and not pretending like you know everything, these are my favorite

Holy cow! I can appreciate how much effort you put into these Mega Drives. I saved up for a year to afford my one back in the 90’s..

NGL when you said our friend Corrosion, I was half was half expecting The Sisters Of Mercy to kick in.

I've binged a ton of your content now. This was the best and most informative by far.

I'm an amateur on a budget. I'm used to watching pros do amazing videos on mods and repairs and I think I like your videos just as much. Great job, I feel like you were close.

I could more or less watch you repair just about anything and enjoy it MASSIVELY. Thanks so much for some very entertaining and informative videos. I'm even becoming more comfortable with working on some of my own gear, and you're very much a part of the reason why, and I very much appreciate it!

Found your channel during some time off work and having always enjoyed fault finding and fixing things I’ve proceeded to binge pretty much all your videos. Having started on my own Megadrive 1 with a black screen of death I feel your pain on removing the cart slot but having found broken traces underneath was quite the feeling of success! Though I did a bit more trace damage than you did. Keep up the good work.

I really enjoy watching your videos and I especially appreciate your patience and determination to find and fix issues.

It looks like pin 7 on the rgb chip is a selector pin to set the chip to ntsc or pal. If you ground it it's set to pal, if you set it high it's ntsc. It's not connected to anything on the working unit because leaving it floating has the same effect as grounding it because it's not set high. My first clue was that on the pinout diagram pal has a line over it. That means it's set to low for pal. I also realized how old this video is so I'm searching your channel to see if you figured it out. And I found it

OMG you just brought an oscilloscope to the game!! Love how you follow your intuition....massively entertaining and motivational, thank you very much

Yeah, I really appreciate your effort and will to keep searching, work through the frustration. I really felt this episode!

I enjoy your videos, and your persistence. I appreciate that you show all, all, the attempts you made to fix this really sus board. Kudos

Mate.. this is such a rollercoaster, I can hear the frustration/ sadness in your voice

those dark spots under the solder mask on the traces is usually a telltale sign of corrosion. Whenever you see it, always scrape it clear, tin it with solder, and apply fresh mask.

Fair play! You're great at making content - subbed - I admire your perseverance!

Hey just wanted to let you know I found your channel today and I must say I love it! Keep them coming

Hi and thanks for the video ! I enjoyed it soooo much. I like that you speak true and not pretend to know like other guys do. Did you check the cable by any chance ? On this I would have go first by a good overall cleaning of the board, cartridge slot and check the cable. Might be a solution I don't know :)

Awesome video your train of thought is exactly like mine, congrats for the perseverance as I would have chucked it a long time ago lol fingers crossed for a revisit 🤞

Whew im glad you put a link to your underpants. Vital troubleshooting equipment!

I believe what you have there is a system that was once modded and someone has removed the mod then sold the unit. The cut traces, solder blobs on chip pins and the capacitor on the video output all scream a mod job. I would look up videos on how you do video mods to the system and see if you can trace back all the steps and see if something is still disconnected.

The reason mastersystem 2 were used to mod. Is because of the cartridge slot covers. They were easy to cut away the sides, so japanse cartridges would fit. These are round shaped at the corners in stead of European curved ones. If you look at the cartridge slot from the inside of the plastic housing, you will see cutlines were to remove the plastic.to enable Japanese, American cartridges. Therefore these system two's were the preferred system to use. This resulted in system 2 with a switch to switch between 50and 60 herz. And maybe there lies the problem with the black screen.

when my megadrive had the same issue, I reflowed every joint and cleaned the cart slot with wet and dry sand paper soaked in lighter fluid folded around an old credit card,, then tightened the pins with a fine watch makers screwdriver. That did the trick. However, there was always one cartridge that wouldn't work in it, but it would in my other console. It was an Aklaim made cartridge and I read they can have compatibility issues with some board revisions. Try doing the above and try different cartridges.

meant to replay this video, my understanding is the Z80 controls sound, meant to see if the unit crashes at the point sound starts playing when compared to the working unit. There's also a diagnostic cartridge available, which may have helped. Anyway keep the video's coming they are always a good watch.

Great vid, it’s really a thriller. Looking forward to the follow up!

Did you ever end up figuring out what was wrong with this? I started messing around with electronics and soldering about a year ago and now I'm trying my luck at making a handheld Genesis, which I guess is a Nomad lol. I love watching your videos, they teach people to be persistent and to follow hunches that are often the answer to a problem.

Don't give up! You are probably very close to fixing the console and it is quite entertaining to watch :) Reminds me when I've spent 4 days on a Game Gear that did not read games. I have even read the service manual like 2-3 times. In the end, I have found a single broken trace when checking the connections of the cartridge connector by the service manual. You don't want to know how much time I have spent cleaning that cartridge connector thinking that it must be a dirty pin... :)

The epic quest continues. Nice!

I had the same issue with a MD2. I looked everything.... Looking the pins of IC's on the schematic i had found that reset signal was "on" on the CPU (i dont remember It was the z80 or the motorola) but that order was sent by the IC6, the 315-5660... Never knew if i was right. Nice video!!!! 👍

You put so much energy into this. Sad to see it couldn’t be repaired….. yet.

Wondering if it might not be the power regulator. You get a very small window where the system is running but when everything else kicks in it's too demanding for the aged regulator and dies? The fact that you get that licence screen seems to indicate that the video encoder is just fine, or at least "good enough" that it shouldn't be the cause of the system shutting down.

I know than I come here way too late for you but my comment can still be useful for anyone who watch this video ^^ For the capacitor, I've seen much uglier from factory. If the brand and/or series of the capacitor matches the other ones, it probably comes from factory as well. Also, the aspect of the soldering can be a clue : most of the time, brighter means later. - @10:04 Yes, it's the Z80. - Oscillators are often used with harmonics of the base frequency, not the base frequency itself. - If the main quartz/oscillator is not working, you won't have anything on the screen. So, if you have "produced by/or under license..." wihout any difference with a working console, then many things are working properly. - @28:59 Your iron is too hot, so it melts the glue of the trace and thus lift it. Also, the white/beige things near the pads show that the iron is hot enough to create bubbles within the PCB (delamination). Definitely too hot. - About choosing an oscilloscope, be sure that it can see the signal properly : to see a 50MHz signal, then choosing an oscilloscope that can see at least twice this frequency, 100MHz here . Nowadays you have excellent 200Mhz rated products from Siglent or Rigol below 300€. For a tool like this it is very cheap. - @44:56 For this kind of chip the choice of the video standard is done with the pin tied to Vcc OR ground. Check in the datasheet if available.

by look, the voltage is dropping when the power demand goes up. (hence the flash of picture and poof) i know you did a very good amount of eyeballing, but still i would say, check for any potential solder bridges, it could also be polarity is switched. You could also try measure VI curve. If you can.

2:58 If you mind me asking, did you ever figure out what that capacitor was for? I thought to try the Triple Bypass mod for my MD2 VA0, but the cap is in the way. I wasn't sure what to do with it?

1st class video to watch thank you take care kind regards from me kenneth

Out of curiosity, when it turned on then blanked out, did you ever put a thermal camera on it to check to see for anything overheating? That should always be the first step when turning something on. Was there ever a part 3?

When looking at a diagram a line above the pin name means it is active low. The pin is a switch low for NTSC high for PAL or vis versa. A permanently low signal can be achieved by tying it to ground and a high can be achieved by tying the rail to an appropriate power rail. Also I would check the capacitor you found to be shorted to ground on both sides with it out of circuit. If that reads okay out of circuit then the chip that it goes to is more than likely faulty. It could be on a very low resistance line which newer CPU's and graphics chips have. However they are higher wattage devices and I doubt a megadrive would need any high wattages.

@10.30 whilst you were removing the solder blob, the first leg on the left looked like it had pulled away from the board. Possibility.

Your FNIRSI oscilloscope can measure 5mhz max. Keep the limitations in mind and this will be a very valuable tool. The bigger one, the 1014D can do way more, goes for under $200.

New sub here. I don't know what it is about you but I love your content keep it up

The Pinout diagram for the MB3514 chip shows pin 7 NTSC/PAL with the PAL having a line above that info. PAL and NTSC are television standards for different parts of the world. NTSC is used mostly in the USA and Japan, where PAL is used mostly in the UK. That pin tells the chip which TV standard to select for the market its being used. The line above PAL indicates for PAL that pin should be logic LOW or 0Volts, and logic HIGH or 5Volts for selecting NTSC standard assuming a 5Volts supply. As your model was sold for the UK market that pin is held LOW for the PAL standard in the UK. A pin description with a line over it means its active when logic LOW, often seen on Reset and Chip Enable pins.

Problem solved ? Same on my Multimega after TMSS black screen only do you have check IC7 vram?

I have/had the same issue as you have( that is why I watched your vid), only I did not have any broken traces I also have the same cartridge slot as you have, and what helped for me was pushing down in the holes on top of the cartridge port on the pins with some tweezers so the pins would be compressed a bit and protrude some more in the cartridge slot. everywhere I have read that black screens is the cartridge slot, turns out it was right. ps. Do not push in the pins to far so they do not buckle.

Hi Steve, I know this is an old video but you could attempt an RGB mod on it. You confirmed that the RGB pins are getting a signal but not the analogue output. If it doesn't work, you could always use the rgb mod on the working one.

Don't give up come back to it fix that Sega you do great work keep it up keep kicking butt I hope my channel my personal channel will grow as big as yours mine is MCS capsule tech but I subscribe to you on my personal cuz man you rock so relaxing when when you're soldering it's cool to watch

Star Trek quote here. "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Spock

Nice vid! For what is that cartridge looking side of the board?

Was that a later model console or did you guys get a different design over in Europe?

Had the same issue with my MD. Black screen. It appeared the PSU became faulty. I replaced the filtering caps, the diodes and it worked again.

I have a black screening model 2 myself, from looking at the board one of the pins on a chip looks non shiny and dry compared to the others, one of these days I will just remove the solder and add more and see what happens.

I think, although I’m not 100% sure that those chip legs were supposed to be soldered together. Pin 19 and 21 are both ground

Hey Steve ! Watched the video again. Did you change the power section capacitors as well ? Dunno looks power related issue to me. Like the game gears do when they have bad capacitors they show a lil something before turning all black. Might be an idea 😛 Apart of that the oscilloscope link is broken. Could you update it or just give here the model ? Thanks a lot again 🤘

Aren’t parallel caps good for cleaning up signal noise? Surely that’s all that capacitor was for? And yeah it definitely looks like an addition.

Sorry to see you had no luck l must say you have some patience but this is we’re you need a schematics l had a good friend like you Steve and he would spend hours on a pcb and by the end of the day his brain was fryed so he would look at it first thing next morning and 9 times out of 10 he would find the fault don’t give up mate l hope you fix it thanks for your video 👍😊

That red strip covering the connector that goes into the mega CD 2 or mega CD 1

the capacitor is there for over/ under load protection varible power needs was put into later models to correct fluctuations in the circuit

In my experience, when measuring the output frequency from oscillators you would do better with a dedicated frequency counter that can handle the frequencies involved. Scopes can measure frequency but they tend to be some what limited in bandwidth and hence max frequency measurement unless you spend a lot of money. You could probably find a stand alone frequency counter at a fraction of the cost of a scope with the bandwidth to measure the 50Mhz you are looking for. Frequency counters typically have a higher resolution readout and accuracy than scopes, unless you go for the high end scopes. Bandwidth is very important when it comes to selecting the scope you consider purchasing. My rule of thumb is buy a scope that has double the frequency bandwidth of any frequency you want to examine. On the other hand if a frequency counter specifies it will read 200Mhz its going to be good for at least 200Mhz and not have the same bandwidth limitation of scopes. Obviously there are a lot more factors to consider one being sensitivity. Think of a scope as being more a tool to examine the voltage, period, ratio and shape of wave forms. If you want a scope to do everything in one box with a high bandwidth expect to pay high hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Hi m8 , did you ever fix this ? Cos my megadrive 2 has the same prob , spash screen , them black screen not reading games . serching google for answers i came across your video .

Good try lots of effort I hope it gets there in the end what if it don't don't beat yourself up you tried the hardest

seeing the random cat hairs and whatnot under the microscope always makes me want to take the board and give it a bath in IPA lol. wouldn't be very effective, but the reflex is there.

So I got a second generation Genesis for my birthday (July) in 94'. The Red sleve on the connector for the Sega CD is factory. It has both a black shell and the red cover that you take off before connecting.

Hey Steve, the rule I have for electrolytic capacitors is if around two or three smaller caps measures a resistance above 1Ω then I replace them. New electrolytic caps should have very low resistance usually .5Ω or lower

First board is a "VA4", which was the first board without any discrete CPUs. The second one is a bit older, it's a "VA1 - PAL". It has two discrete CPUs (Motorola 68000 + Zilog Z80). The newer VA4 also has these CPUs but they are contained in the new SEGA-315-5960 ASIC. ...I would love to tell you that the VA4 is "better", but I guess it was only a bit cheaper to manufacture.

Hi Steve, enjoing your videos. Have you tried bridging the two legs again on that chip? Could be this was intentionally done in factory

The somber music at the got got me 😂😢

For the crystal to measure, you need an oscilloscope. You came a long way, kudos for trying and failing live, not many show that.

My megadrive that does that flash thingy thing if there's loose connection between the slot and cartridge.

Hey Steve, about this trace leading to main chip... was this leg at the end moving? could you poke it again???

Why don't you use your IR camera and once is powered on check if something there is overheating?

OMG the end of that was traffic, did you put the random cap back on before testing the final trace?

I had a MD2 with the same symptoms, tried everything, even replaced the main CPU from a donor board, nothing worked. Gave up in the end as I was starting to go mad the amount of time spent going over the board. Not worth it for a $40 console.

Can you share the magnifying apparatus you feature in this video?

didnt see clear... is that rusty under capasitor? 41:57 above C30 letters? it is first. second - did you get back that capasitor, that you remove before you find last broken connection? and did you test this capasitor too? did you check voltage after that... how it names... like transistor, but with radiator? 7805 or how it names... maybe it is voltage fault.

Can you tell me what microscope you use please

Haha 😂, Hon kanske kan hjälpa dig med estetisk kabeldragning av högtalarkablarna.. 😊 Klart är att ju mer uppmärksamhet det ges, mer klick och pengar kommer in.

If you have working TMSS, which you do, then you have working CPU to the ROM where TMSS is stored but not necessarily to the cartridge ROM also check the voltage regulator could be an amperage issue.

I would have tested that cap while it was out. 👍

42:06 there is corrosion under the condensator. You should check above the c30 condensator.

11:58: Thanks I am gonna have nightmares now

I have the same exact symptoms, the screen starts to display the "Sega..." text but then it's just a black screen. Would be super nice to get these things going again.

It seems like a power issue to me. You keep looking at signal data, and clock signal and video output... But what I see happening there is a proper image coming up on the screen. So all of that other stuff is fine, followed by power cutting out.

Agree Lee put the short back, good luck

Steve the MB or CXA chip is where the video signal video sends out the video, it goes from pin 20 through R49 Resistor, CE12 Cap, 101 EM2 filter to the rear socket. You fixed part of the issues it had, Take the cart slot off completely and check the traces under it, for solid continuity. might not be visible to the eyes, Its a common fault area. Could also try swap the EM filters, both are the same, its just one filters video other audio. Also re-flow the MB chip off the board and check to see if shorts go away. also with regards to the OSC1 Crystal MD 2 PAL clock should be around 3.5Mhz & NTSC Genesis 2 7.6Mhz Thinking about it, it also could be a v-ram problem that's linked to the encoder.

OKI! I cruised past their HQ in Tokyo a few years ago.

What’s the flux you all use to reflow the solder joints? Cheers.

Did we look at the reset button on this one?

I have the same issue with a super Nintendo. It just won't show anything on the tv. I believe it's the encoder chip or the main chip. Good luck, I hope you can make it work!

Wasn't there a short on C30? Remove that and see if the short is happening. BTW the RGB chips probably have different pinouts as often parts will change between revisions (due to availability) and the new chips require a layout change to accomodate the different pins. Crystal was showing the same 13MHz on each board, crystal speeds are divided down, so a factor of 4 on the nose seemed sensible. The cartridge port you buzzed out, and it was fine, but you got frustrated and took it off anyway even after reflowing the joints. When this level of frustration happens, step away from the soldering iron and reach for the Tetley. Then ask yourself if you really want to remove something that has goo continuity. I see others have recommended to remove the slot, but checking for and resolving any shorts should be first. Good luck fella, don't give up, but don't forget to put the kettle on when you need to either ;)

I know this video is now old now...your intuition has served you well but I don't understand removing the cartridge slot without some evidence of trouble, given that you toned out all the contacts. I'm surprised that you have not tried to clean all those vias which appear to have corrosion. Also, I doubt your scope has the bandwidth to measure the freq of that crystal. Still, I love your content and I keep watching...

Maybe if you join the 2 points in the Z80 chip what you separated first

@ 15:19 is that a damaged trace?

17:27 that nick supposed to be there? 5th line above c9 diagonal, theres 3 but center looks nicked hard.

Is there not a broken trace at 15:21?

When you see signs of flux and cotton left by ear sticks or whatever they're called it's pretty sure that isn't factory and it was opened before

After you swapped the crystals, I could almost hear "f**k you sonic" as he appeared mocking you

Maybe the answer lies in a attempted soft mod whereby the mastersystem 2 is used for pal and also Japanese, American ntsc games. The system twos were often nodded with a switch for pal and ntsc display. Or to switch between japanese and European games. The faulty screen display looks like the system is jumping between 50 and 60 herz, which ends in no screen at all.

12:20 it's a dust bunny dressed as a clown 😂

I dont understand why you not work with air, or comressed air to get rid of dust and equal dirty things

Minute 19:41 the trace next to the one you repaired looks also broken to me (the one above the upside down "4")