Trying to FIX a Faulty Nintendo GameCube 

vince condensed ebay down to one sentence .... "ebay isnt alway the best place to buy, but if i want faulty stuff , its ideal" . Should be ebay´s new slogan

Another great video Vince. I like how you ask "No that can't be right, Can it" or "Do you think it will work this time?" I usually find myself answering you.

Exactly same fault on a Gamecube my friend just picked up and took a hit during shipping. Messed around with pot, then searched on here and up pops Vince. Realigned rack and spring, set pot back to what it was, and its working fine. Thanks Vince.

Finally a GameCube fix. I was waiting for that. A very Nice fix. What a lovely little machine it is. I might find me one for my collection. Keep it up Vince.

Best channel ever ...........Way to go mr Vince

What a satisfying fix! Nintendo and little plastic gears again... you prevailed this time :) There may have been a bit of foreshadowing on the problem. When you moved the laser sled by hand at 4:14, it seemed like it wasn’t smooth - it was more like it moved in two big chunks.

Nice fix Vince. Most electronics guys just say k like 10k or 22k . Yes .3k is 300 ohms but it is still double the value of yours.

I always say killer grams, I never even knew anyone said keelow grams lol

#1 rule, check everything mechanical first before heading to the electronics.

Tried the board swap trick earlier with a couple identical Sony MZ-E3 Minidisc players, boards both good, laser mechanism bad in the one unit.

Great job My Mate VINCE

It looked like the head wasn't moving all the way up. There's a lot to be gained from cleaning and lubricating the mechanism as well. Most laser units work in the same general way. Nice job!

49:00 Vince: Fantastic! What a result! Now I'm going to put it back together and screw it all up! Give it a clean! And, uhh...That's it!!

I would have swapped the PCBs back since the PCB you pulled from the working Cube was pot tweaked to that laser. It should not matter if you have set the pots the same, but you could be decreasing the life of the laser in your already working Cube by not mating it back with its original PCB with the un-tweaked pot...

Would love to see you fix more phones

First check some mechanical issues due to trick of external damage. Why start to play with the potentiometer?

what does "Rung them UP" mean? i know what rung them means, but why do people use "UP" at the end of things, "I finished cleaning it UP"

They way you pronounce "kilogram" is exactly how ALL Canadians (and most people) pronounce it. So it isn't just you. You are saying it just fine.

This should be renamed the Pube Cube on account of how main hairs of questionable origin it had lol, I used to repair a lot of these when they first came out, that there is a familiar and quite common fault. Glad you got it fixed up, I should think as you find more to repair you will encounter it again and again lol. Also stick a bit of grease on those gears to stop it doing the same in future.

"Imma try and fix it" *IMMEDIATELY OBLITERATES THE BOX*

My Mate Vince's "LASER" Hair Removal Service - "No job too hairy - no LASER too powerful..." Fantastic work!

My favourite gameconsole of all time, so underrated

Just got home from work, made some coffee and Vince has uploaded an hour long video. My afternoon keeps getting better and better. Thank you for your in depth videos, you have inspired me to fix first before replacing my broken items. You are awesome!!!

Great job! Not what I expected - hard to believe that plastic piece came unclipped on the inside! Yes, 0.3K is 300ohms. They will nearly always be very similar from factory - maybe someone adjusted your other Game Cube previously, or maybe this one had been adjusted previously. But it is possible that they were set differently at factory too. The mistake lots of people make on the net when talking about "how best to adjust these" is basically incorrect and inaccurate. ie. They talk about an ideal resistance value to set the pot (variable resistor - hence VR prefix on the board) to, but often they are talking about when making an adjustment to get the unit to read burned discs, and it makes the assumption that the laser is good as new and behaves identically to the unit they took their resistance from. For that most part that can work, but is it not the proper way to adjust the laser voltage and as a result the laser could be a % off its ideal value. I've got a follow up to my recent GC video coming soon, and I will probably swap the laser out at that point too and perhaps talk about some of these things. When the laser diode weakens it wont affect the resistance measure on the pot! Slightly increasing the voltage on a dieing laser can bring a little life back, but its already on its "failure curve / coming to the end of its life expectency" and too much of an increase only accelerates its demise.

Other than fun past repairs, your videos, TronicsFix videos have inspired me. I've fixed consoles, phones, tv's, and this week I repaired a 2008 model washer and dryer. Best 100 spent. We needed a new set and they both work great.

Just a tip, the GameCube's hub is also an "eject" button. It saves you from having to rip the discs out. Keep up the great videos!

Love your videos man. I do the same thing. Compare if possible and see what others have discovered and checking those discoveries as well. Keep them coming man. And pay no attention to the so called negative comments of the proclaimed professionals. Some of them just want to stand on a box and beat their chest like a zilverback. Trying to oppress the diy guy.

The Wii Shop will be close at 07:00 A.M. R.I.P Wii...😞😢😭

I found one at a garage sale for $5! It has a few scratches on it, but not bad considering it works.

Interesting that this was a case of you almost knowing too much and thinking you had the problem solved. Whereas if you had noticed how loose those black clips were, you could have pulled them off and found the fault immediately. I love this content

Late to the party, I know, but hopefully this helps a little from what I've read.... The resistance values changed between the original GameCube (dol-001) and the second dol-101. If I remember correctly: 001 had a resistance value setting of 450-600 ohms. By contrast the newer dol-101 (without digital output) had mfg setting of only 150-250 ohms. I'm not sure if it's because Nintendo started using weaker lasers, or if they realized they need more current. Advice to anyone not familiar....that's a very tiny by powerful little potentiometer! Remember to go counter-clockwise to reduce current and add resistance (measured in ohms). And don't use a good game for testing!

Beautiful video! It seems to be such an easy fix! Also the GameCube is a very pretty and sweet little console :D Easy to work with, just loved watching the almost one hour long video, no regrets!

Yup I'm British and I say "Killer" grams..

Turning the resistance down that much at once is not good for the laser (i will try to find MrMario2011's and modern vintage gamer's videos and link it here) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LhAqYhPM60I.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-up6Rm1Sw1ps.html

I did the same exact process repairing my garbage bin GameCube a few months ago, including pot tuning and rail greasing. It's such a rewarding feeling when you get it to read a game again. Edit-forgot to mention, if you want to waste a couple hours, completely disassemble the outer shell and disk cover and try to put it back together again, it's an enormous pain.

Watching him try to grab that spring with the tweezers was making my ADHD kick in LOL. Love watching these videos , keep up the awesome work Vince. 👍👍👍

This should be good- I've fixed like 11 of these so I might actually be familiar with what you are looking at too. One interesting misconception about them surrounds the "laser pot"; it is usually attributed with controlling the power that the laser gets, but that is not true! It is a common CD/DVD Drive element known as a "signal" pot. It controls the current level coming from the eye (that sees the reflected light) which is the cut off between detecting a 1 and a 0. This can be needed if the laser is failing , though I suspect that conclusion might get lept to more often than is needed.

You rule at repairing stuff.

You made a mistake you said bad board good laser but tested it and said good board bad laser. It's definitely the board that needs fixing not lasers.

Fixing skills 10 Mario kart skills 2 😁

Too bad for me, eBay IS the best place I can get most things I want, where I live there really isn't many stores other than a Walmart and a thrift store that is mostly women's clothing.

Nobody likes hairs on it mate. Even worse when it's ruining a motor!

game cube for 17 bucks nice dude $17 USD

Punctuation of Kilo we pronounce the O as we were taught in primary school as the sound of the letter O.

I bet it was drop damaged. That's cool Vince

I wouldn't have used mario kart as a test game 😔 use a sport's games they are worthless

in lasers ,in this particular cases, whgen you see a lot os dust, you canpuit the entire unit in the ultrasonic clean whit isopropanol alchool (this can clean the dust on mirror , or /and in the laser emmiter /reciver. it works muche better than tweek laser in trinpot, if, just IFnot work, you can try the trimpot. the sucess rate of this is much better than tweek the laser pot...

one problem is the oem laser lense are plastic and get micro scratchs new replacements are glass so less scratch prone

Yet another fix under your bet, nice one Vince ^_^ I've not had to touch my gamecube, but now I know it should be pretty easy to get in and check the mechanicals should I need to

Regarding CD drives, they read the location of the files from the file access table on the disk and then try to position the laser to read them. If it can't reach the target position, it throws an error and the laser returns to its park position. :)

I don't want to sound critical but the problem was obvious if you had been watching the laser move with the disk mounted. Keep up the good work and love the videos.

Americans say "kill-a-grams," too. At least, I always have. People who don't say it that way are weirdos.

I'm English from Yorkshire and I say 'killer gram'

I love working on Dreamcast and Gamecubes. The engineering in those machines is just amazing. It's good enough that I sometimes feel a craving for opening one of them up just to get my hands into it again.

You know you are engaging with your audience.... When I find myself yelling at the screen, while you are doing it.... I'm always yelling at the screen.... I wish you could hear me sometimes.... I actually know something about electricity.... Heh heh heh! You seem to get there in the end, so.... It's all good....

Hello VINCE, I'm from europe and I'm really wondering what is the product you call IPA ? seems like a magical liquid that can sometimes ressurect electronics, I really need this product ^^.

Thanks for the video dude, I have a working Gamecube but it’s silver and I really want an indigo console as I had as a teenager. Been thinking of buying one that needs repair and fixing it. Btw, nice Tag Heuer.

Great video. I work with lasers and gears. Just a suggestion, when I am working on determining good or bad board, I take a black sharpie marker and mark each board either G and B or Good and Bad. Helps me keep track. Then just take some alcohol and the ink comes off easy.

Never understimate the power of mechanical faliures in complex electronic devices 😅....

Vince you should make a review of your soldering station! I also have 853D solderig station and it's a really good station

wow amazing :). Very simple cleaning did the job lol

The Game Cube is such an awesome little system.

0.3K is that 300 ohms? jeezes...

hold z when you turn that bad boy on next time.

I have to admit I took apart my Gamecube and now I don't know where the screws go.

Nice fix. It's shows that you need to check everything first before doing something. It's a great lesson for all of us. Great video!

Another great vid and I love the gamecube its a great little system I've accumulated 4 now and I just can't part with them. Keep up the good work.

The Vincemeister wins again!

I wish you'd be more careful with the discs and cube. Handle them gently and slower care. Never touch the bottom of the DVD. Your CD etiquette is awful. Always grab them by the sides by using your hand as a claw on the outer rim or finger in the middle. I'm only 8 mins in the video and I can see you know some of this. My mom taught me to be delicate and careful with things.

Nice find. I love how all the videos are very genuine. It fun to watch along as you try and track down issues. Keep the videos coming ;)

Pot adjustment should be last option, replace the capacitors first on the disc drive board, or if you dont own a heat gun, get someone else to donit or buy a new recapped board This gamecube probBly has aged capacitors, gamecubes are now the age where they need replacing and cause a no disc. Soemtimes if they are on their last leg, leave the gamecube running for a little time to one guy did 20 minutes, and try again, it could work

I got my Gamecube several years ago with the accessories for like $15(US) but its been sitting in a drawer for years, don't really have a reason to use it anymore since I have like 3 Wii's now.

The game cube was my childhood

Thank you soo much!!! I've been waiting for you to fix my favorite console!

As much as Vince wants to take apart this Gamecube, I don't want to hear my doctor say "You know, I hope these antibodies don't make you feel better, because I kinda want to perform surgery on you."

What a nice system to work with. Good built quality. I used to have one.

I pronounce it *killer* ohms too =)

Vince you are not the only one around the world who has an English accent. Many many people in this world speak the English accent

A bad gamecube lazer, would be perfect for modding, replace the disk reader with a memory card to play your games that you own ;) Also, "Teardown " works great for finding a yt vid to help how to open almost anything!

My 19 year old niece picked up a gamecube pretty cheap ($20) from or local letgo from a seller who told her it worked fine. He had positive reviews however after getting used cords from our local video game store she turned on the gamecube and started playing resident evil. The 3 times she turned on the console it randomly shut off after 30-40 minutes of play time. I'm fairly confidant just like a cpu and the heatsink the Nintendo shuts down the console to prevent the chip from frying. My thoughts are either it's clogged and I'll need to clean it(hoping) or that the thermal paste is old and not conducting as well as s bad heatsink fan. Hate to order something I don't need but would hate to not have it when I get to it this weekend/ upcoming week. Thank you and much appreciation!

This is NOT required!!! Slowly to 1/8th of a turn counter clockwise until it fixes the problem. I fixed mine with just screwdrivers. I also didnt use the nintendo bit to open the game. If anyone wants me to make a video on how to fix it with basic tools; let me know.

Got one with description: rarely turns on, cant read disk. Stopped working one day ... In reality someone tried mod it, accidentally removed dvd-rom data cable and connector from dvd-rom board.. then soldered it back so all traces were united.. also mod chip was but on with many shorts and 2 legs not connected. Took few hours and lots of swearing.. but now have gamecube that not only works but can read written mini-dvd-s (xeno :)

Great work on fixing it =)

None modded standard gc's are around £30-50 so not much but harder to find limited edition ones like the early platinum sliver ones with digital out (not later DOL 101's) are £60+ and up and spice orange models even more and now really clear hdmi adaptors exist the early models will start to rise again.

I will say you making great videos. But as it is says, then will I say you are to quick and I sitting says no no no don't do that. If you don't no what it is, Google is your friend. It it looking at a new Trainee 🙈. I'm sure if you taking it lots more easy and checking first what is what and how to do og what you not should touch, you will mayby fixing more then breaking it 😂 just a advice from an technicians with 25 years experience 😊😉

My GC has similar problem, I tried messing with the potentiometer but had no luck, I thought about buying a new laser and swap but it might be that my GC has the same problem as yours do Thanks for the video, I'll check the laser first

"Actually we don't say killer ohms because we don't talk about this because none of my friends are into this" LoL F in chat...

Enjoyed this Vince & Double Dash is the best Mario kart in my opinion I also have 2 GameCube consoles & the black console stopped reading discs only 2 months old still have it in it’s Mario kart box so basically still brand new but I couldn’t get a direct replacement at the time so went out & purchased a purple console that came with Donkey Konga & still have that too

Anybody know the name of the exact version of the music that is been played when fast forwarding? Vince are you able to provide the name? I wan't this exact version please, not a cover or any other version. Will be greatly appriciated if i could get this music. I appriciate my comment is a couple of months after the video was posted but if anyone can provide please do. I really like it

My dad thought it was a good idea to throw my GameCube on the ground as hard as he could when he got angry one time and I had the same problem with the game disc not spinning. I wanted to fix it but I was only like 12 at the time so I didn't know anything about how to fix it, but I knew something had to of been knocked out of place or broken. Now I have a better idea of what the problem could be. Even though I already got a new gamecube, it's always better to have a backup one and I prefer the purple over the silver. I don't think anything is wrong with the laser, but I'll have to take it apart to really find out.

My gamecube does not spin at all, I tried several Kilo Oms measurements from 150 to 600 and still not working, HELP!!

The one you already own, £18 bargain. I suppose the fact that most Wii machines are compatible, lessens the popularity of the actual machine's, the games are getting expensive these days, some great games.

Not sure if you wanna get into the mod stuff, but in watching your skills grow..... and help mine! thank you so much.... you have the ability to, and its quite fun :)

glad i watched this to the end. same exact issue. the little screw that holds down the rod. The rod jumped out. Just unscrewed it and popped the rod back into place. cleaned a few hairs out.

Your pronounced kilogram just like every other English speaking person. At least here in America that’s how people say it. Then again we don’t use the metric system here, so…. No one likes a word purists

0.3 I think would be 300 ohms just common sense. Good video a great learning process in tinkering.

Job well done!!! Nice music at the end there too!

The most surprising thing about this video is that a GameCube went bad in the first place.

Killer ohms have broken Ohm’s law and belong in prison.

Regarding your multimeter readings, most auto range sensing meters will change at around the 2xxx point. So anything more than 200 Ohms will show has 0.2 - 1.19 K Ohms anything less will show has 0-199 Ohms, so you started with 3XX Ohms but that displays has 0.3XX K Ohms, turned it down, as soon as it got below 0.2 K Ohms (200 Ohms) the auto range sensing jumps it to displaying Ohms and not K Ohms.