PC Engine Duo (Turbo Duo) repair! Capacitor replacement guide and demonstration

[@disrealnow9664]

Nice video, just a warning / comment on the cap removal: It is true that in the case of the Turbo Duo the smd caps are so flimsy that you can get away with just using pliers and twisting them of the board, but overall this is something that should not be done, for the risk of lifting pads. Hot air aside, I find that the best way to get rid of them is use two basic soldering irons, one in each hand, heat from both sides of the cap and once the solder starts flowing then use the two irons like tweezers to remove the caps. After removing the caps and adding fresh solder to the pads it is also worthwhile to clean them up with some desoldering braid - makes for a cleaner, flatter surface so placing the new caps is easier / neater.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yes that’s another good method that also works well

[@gregdunlap7538]

When I got mine it was "working", but the audio would fade out after a few minutes, and not come back until I left the console off for long enough. When I opened it up it was a real tragedy inside. Someone had previously "fixed" it by soldering some through-hole caps on top of corroded pads, there were some weird bodge wires, and no right audio channel - the left was soldered to both left and right pins on the AV connector. It took me quite some time to undo all of that, clean everything, and replace all of the caps. I had to bodge wire lots of missing traces, fix bad vias, and epoxy the volume control to the board because all of its pads were gone, so bodge wires for all of its pins too. Also replaced the audio mixer chip. Works fine now finally, but that was a lot of work!

[@Lampiono69]

😊 very good video. My major concern with my Duo is to replace the 5 used security screws by basic ones. If you know a link and a reference. Thanks a lot.

[@LIRetroGaming]

I know that standard NES screws are the same length and thickness. Not sure of the exact measurements but those should work. Those can also be found in snes and n64 consoles

[@dwightdixon8508]

Glad you’re back and safe too, a few years ago I had three of my TurboDuo‘s capacitors replaced it was a little nerve-racking sending them out because they’re kind of rare but it’s something that definitely needs to be done because the type of capacitors that were originally used tend to leak and can lots of damage to the board and other components as you stated in the video. great work man!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed this video! Yeah it’s definitely essential to do this repair with all TurboDuos. The longer people wait, the more damage accumulates over time

[@Creamen]

Thanks for this nice video ! I have now no more excuse for not fixing mine which stand on a shelf for weeks !

[@abx42]

Welcome back hope you had a good vacation

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks! I had a wonderful time in Germany, but it’s good to be back!

[@cabbitkisser2620]

me & my dad whet to a thrift store one day bumming around & i found a turbo duo for $2.00. i damn near broke my neck getting up front & paying for it. after i bought it i walked out with a big smile & happy as hell knowing i found a rare system

[@LIRetroGaming]

Wow that is pretty amazing. Now that’s a score!

[@cabbitkisser2620]

the bad side was it had the controller. but no hook up's or ac adaptor. so i don't know if it works or not

[@ScruffyLookinRGB]

Another great repair on a beautiful pcengine. In my opinion the best looking pcengine of the line up. Glad you got it working with just some cap replacing. I have a duo-r where the cd rom is not reading discs. I wonder if replacing the caps will do the trick. id definitely like to see how you adjust the pots in a future video. I have little luck when it comes to cd drives

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks! I really lucked out with this one because often there are other problems that need to be addressed aside from the caps. At some point I’ll do a video on adjusting those potentiometers because it can be a real pain

[@retroanderson]

Would love to see that laser calibration video! I have a Sega Mega CD1 that needs the laser calibrated and I have struggled to figure out how to do it.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yes at some point I will make one of those videos! It can be really challenging to get it dialed in

[@RealOGWithin]

Another great repair.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks! It always feels good to get another one of these working

[@ModoJogo]

Very good! Greetings from Brazil! 😊 😊

[@LIRetroGaming]

Obrigado! I need to visit Brazil again, I have some friends in estado São Paulo

[@ModoJogo]

@@LIRetroGaming cool! I live in Rio de Janeiro, I have a lot of friends there too!! 😊

[@THELEGENDARYK2]

Pandoras Box is a good way to describe Duos. Such a fragile console. Fixed all my caps, then one year later laser went out of alignment. I sent it out at that point. Now that the Turboduo is fixed, my Supergrafx stopped working...sigh.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Sometimes that’s how it goes with retro tech, and NEC stuff in particular can be fragile. Here’s hoping that the supergrafx gets fixed!

[@DARK__KING]

what kind of dc power does the duo need ? can i use md2 dc adapter ?

[@LIRetroGaming]

No it has a different size barrel jack. Castlemania has good triad replacement power supplies

[@DARK__KING]

@@LIRetroGaming thanks for the reply and info

[@natethefighter]

A thought occurred while watching this one - would chip quik be advantageous in removing smd caps? I imagine that could be a lot less stressful on the pads/traces.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Possibly but when the pads are this degraded, it’s really tough to get any solder to stick to it, including chip quik

[@natethefighter]

@@LIRetroGaming good to know. I just bought a cheap Game Gear to recap, maybe I'll give it a shot on the surface mount caps on the audio board just as an experiment.

[@MundoNintend0]

when will they re-enable their store that says it is paused

[@LIRetroGaming]

I’ll probably reactivate the store in the next couple of days. I just needed to close it because I have been traveling a lot. I also had a bunch of orders that need to get finished up. But now all of that is finished so it’s time to re-open!

[@philipayers7471]

My pc engine duo makes a grinding noise when loading. Is there a way to fix that? I remember you saying something about error codes i think.

[@TheCoolDave]

I have one and it works perfect... should I even mess with it ?

[@LIRetroGaming]

Maybe it was already repaired by a previous owner? Very few of these still work with the original capacitors

[@TheCoolDave]

@@LIRetroGaming Nope, could not of been. I purchased this brand new. I will admit, I didn't use it as much as my SNES or Genesis in the day. I mainly used for the Japanese shooters I used to get to borrow (boxes if them).....

[@AshtonHutchinson]

one of my pads is gone, am i totally screwed?

[@LIRetroGaming]

No, it’s ok. You have to follow where that pad was going and connect the capacitor leg to that point. Another option is to scrape some of the solder resist off the trace and solder the cap leg to that

[@Heymrk]

I'm trying to get to your website, but keep getting sent to your convention page. Have you not turned it back on yet?

[@LIRetroGaming]

It’s still turned off, but I will reopen 1uprestorations.com this week

[@leonkiriliuk]

I find it to be the other way around. Due to much higher humidity in Japan, capacitors in Japanese systems leak much more than USA.

[@LIRetroGaming]

That’s interesting! I don’t know, but for whatever reason whenever I get an American turbo duo the leakage has always been extensive so I just assumed either the cap quality is worse or the storage conditions are worse

[@mattparker9726]

Hey I wanted to ask if you've ever repaired a 286? I have one with some alkaline battery leak damage on the MB. Just thought I'd ask, it's my first PC and I really want it fixed, and it's totally outside my wheelhouse.

[@LIRetroGaming]

I have not worked on one of those yet but I have repaired battery language on other things like pinball machines. It can be difficult, it just depends on how much damage there is

[@mattparker9726]

@@LIRetroGaming would you feel confident you could repair it, and if so, what would you charge?

[@bubbadmatt8124]

Off topic, but if someone had a retro pc (motherboard, cpu, psu, graphics card, and case) and they were requesting a recapping service, as long as they provided the replacement parts would you ever consider taking on a job like that? I've got a buddy with a Windows 98 era pc in need.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yes, that is something I would consider. I do repair computers from time to time

[@bubbadmatt8124]

Dang you're up early on a Saturday. My excuse is I'm still at work, but dang man.

[@OldSchoolGamerandCollector]

Very Nice!

[@bruce_just_]

good video, but how did you go with checking the chiptune output, besides Red Book CD audio with some HuCard games off camera? The 4558 SMT audio op-amps around the board are vulnerable to leaking electrolytes, especially the two op-amps near the video and headphone outputs. Still, I’m looking forward to a video about CD potentiometer adjustments you’d mentioned in a different comment. I’ve got a couple of SuperCDROM players here with faulty CD readers - apparently the CD playback section is similar to the Duo’s..

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah those op amps can definitely fail because of the electrolyte, but fortunately these were OK. To test CD audio I have a music CD with about 60 tracks on it. I play some of the tracks at the end of the disc which forces the laser to go out to the edge where it’s more prone to errors. I’ll definitely have a laser adjustment video at some point in the future!

[@DarthShino]

I think I need to do this to my duo. I'm having sound issues with mine and it seems the most commonly stated issue is the caps. Can you please give suggestions on tools to do this work and do you have suggestions on how to learn and practice with this type of electronics work... I certainly don't want my duo to be the first thing I ever work on like this. :D

[@LIRetroGaming]

These are really difficult to work on. I would recommend giving this to a professional because it will take a lot of training before you can work on one of these

[@DarthShino]

@@LIRetroGaming Any ETA on when you would be reopening yours? It's a pretty important part of my collection. ;) I wish I would have seen this sooner... I'm in Atlanta so if you were at the SFGE I could have stopped by.

[@QCJSiteB]

Do you do commissions on repairs?

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yes, you can reach me at 1uprestorations.com

[@Cyrus_Nagisa]

man... I did this back when I was collecting, was a pain in the ass, had to also fix the audio, and honestly I dont think I ever got the CD drive to run 100% correct.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Glad that you got yours working as well though! Yeah these consoles are some of the hardest to repair

[@anglopakistani]

why bother with this when we can play these old retro games on our Oled mobiles at high resolution .

[@LIRetroGaming]

Some people enjoy using the original hardware. There’s nothing wrong with either method of playing games.