WonderSwan - No Power - FIxing Ebay Junk

Today I tackle this WonderSwan. It won't power on. Seems to be an issue with the battery connectors.
Want to buy me a beer? Or a broken console? Hit up the donate link (But only if you want, don't feel obligated). www.paypal.com...
Thanks for watching

[@NozomuYume]

SwanCrystal was a Wonderswan Color with a far, far, superior LCD that didn't have godawful motion blur and didn't require the light of a thousand suns on it to give a visible display. Basically out of all the Wonderswans, the SwanCrystal is the only one worth having.

[@rockmanfan5104]

You can always slap an IPS screen in one nowadays

[@nimrod3401]

@@rockmanfan5104 and lose the 20hr battery life then spend another $90 bucks on a battery pack, and still lose the ability to play games on a sunny day or outdoors.

[@sprybug]

Couldn't really tell in the video, but that "resistor" on the battery terminal might be an inductor. They also come in the same packaging type as a resistor, but usually have a green body to them like that does. Inductors also tend to have less bands as well. It being an inductor and not a resistor is my best guess, which is also why the resistance value is very low.

[@RetroRepairs]

Could make sense

[@lnFernemLand]

It's great to see you're back! Congrats on fixing the console too. Weird handheld, but I guess that it being obscure might be worth a fair bit in a couple of years.

[@williamv0242]

Not everything increases in value over time. (it might do)

[@primus711]

Not obscure either

[@brandonstormonth8356]

Nope kinda worthless

[@OokamiTheWolf]

Currently cheaper than a gameboy. It was a Japan only and they don't value old game consoles like they do in america. I got mine like new for $20.

[@RetroRepairs]

I think i mention early on, this cost me $5. Try buy any generation of non-working game boy. You'll be lucky to get it for 40

[@Tiger351]

Pretty easy repair in the end, well done. From what I've seen the Wonderswan colour is basically the same form factor just with a colour screen, Kelsey Lewin who's often seen on the Metal Jesus Rocks youtube channel (I think she has her own channel now) is a massive fan and importer of all things Wonderswan.

[@MattLarose]

Glad to see someone else take on the wonderswan! I'll be tackling two more in my next video, because they both have screen burn!

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

Love the Wonderswan, such a unique little system. Playing shmups in Tate mode was ahead of its time.

[@Assimilateduser]

WELCOME BACK!!!!

[@IrishAnonymous01]

I love your troubleshooting. Very clear order of operations to find what's wrong. Process of elimination etc. Wish I had more broken stuff to fix now!

[@briangereau788]

Got married during your hiatus? If so, congratulations! Great to see content from you again.

[@RetroRepairs]

I did, thanks!

[@Crimok]

@@RetroRepairs congratulations :)

[@MajesticalHonky]

I came looking for this comment. I don't recall ever seeing a ring before in his videos.

[@MajesticalHonky]

@@RetroRepairs Congrats, Adam!

[@helmuthbecker7636]

The classic is back. "Hey KZbin, whats going on, it's Adam here with RetroRepairs!"

[@Blin240]

A great start to the year. Cant wait to seem more again

[@KISSbestfan]

A repair video we've been all waiting for! As far as I know, Wonderswan was created by the same guy who created the OG Gameboy, but later he left Nintendo, and started his own company. Some games were probably really well made, but I know only of Clock Tower, as well as some ports like Castlevania or Ghost and Goblins. It wasnt also a thing over here when it comes to handhelds, even the Neo Geo Pocket was pretty much missed. It was all about Gameboy and Game Gear. Good to see you (and Kona) back and well!

[@RetroRepairs]

Thanks for the tidbit of info. I had no idea. Like i said in the video, i bet the games might be a bit more advanced than the og gameboy simply due to coming out 10 years later, but the tech seems pretty similar at first. With how well the GB was doing and the GBC coming out the same year, i can't see the WS doing well at all here, but always cool to look back decades later at these systems i never knew about at the time

[@ArGame.]

@@RetroRepairs You are absolutely correct on the games side. One of the games, beatmania for Wonderswan, has arcade quality audio compared to it's Game Boy counterparts that just used 8-bit renditions of the songs, which was super impressive for the time.

[@ukatosp1953]

Heck yeah! starting the year with a RetroRepairs video!

[@MrRewdtv]

Its exciting to see you posting content again!!

[@discobiscuits5564]

Great to see you back hope everything is good for you and your nice dog

[@deandabbles]

The person icon on the screen indicated which orientation the handheld is to held in. Since some games can be played in portrait mode or landscape. And the left pin like icon is your power indicator like the LED on the game boy.

[@Evercade_Effect]

Great job! I enjoyed watching your method for trouble shooting the power issue

[@Adrian_Finn]

Great video as always, brilliant to have you back. Don't know if someone has already mentioned this but I think you may have auto white balance enabled on your camera that keeps changing the colour temperature of your video, keeps going from a nice neutral to over warm when your hands are out of shot, think it's compensating for your blue mat. lol

[@jochenwuerfel]

15:15 Kona 🥰

[@STHelton1]

Looks like we need to get you a bench top power supply. Great for this kind of thing.

[@RetroRepairs]

Yeah, definitely something i need to look into

[@soullesspenguin]

me for the first 16 minutes screaming "cleans the batter contacts" at my tv

[@Mobin92]

Yeah wtf did I just watch. Something is wonky with the battery... Clean all the damn contacts instead of tinkering around with the multimeter for 20 minutes!

[@ChingotchiJoao]

Looks like a neat system! What a shame it never came to the west, specially the other versions. Anyways, great fix as always!

[@DevilishAsF]

Retro repairs is back, already making my new year better :) happy new year!!

[@psychodad4434]

Man I missed these videos. Great to see you back.

[@timberjumping8744]

It's great to see you again

[@Rivi_Styx]

I was thinking about you recently. Glad to see you back!

[@TheSkaldenmettrunk]

Finally some new content. Misssed your vids. Interesting repair.

[@bubsy3861]

Its nice to see it works. But If I were you, I would take the opportunity and thoroughly wash the plastic, since I disassembled it anyway) Glad to see you back.

[@RetroRepairs]

That's my plan. The screen lens is adhered and i need to find replacement adhesive and maybe a new lens before i do that

[@drnod4779]

Great video as always. Love you Adam, happy new year!

[@Michael-dt7sd]

This was the last bit of inspiration I needed to crack open my broken SNES and get it going again. Luckily all it needed was a good IPA scrubbing of the cart connection with a toothbrush. At some point a may get rid of the yellowing of the plastic, but having it working is more important than how it looks here.

[@scottyleics]

Two vidoes in a week? I thought Christmas was over!

[@sydneybiscuit]

I'd recommend using Deox-it on the cartridge socket, contrast wheel, the other battery terminal, and the power switch Even if it is currently working, it's simply a matter of time until it gets oxidized to the point of unreliability in the future Just my $0.02

[@Schattiz]

Kelsey the cutest gamer/collecter ever is a big Wonderswan collector.

[@paulpaniccia6626]

We need to get this fellow a iFix-it sponsor , not that his existing tools are lacking but IFIX-IT lol

[@lordrussell666]

Holy crap you're back, nice to see you're back! Unless I miss something, lol.

[@danielreeves4799]

Glad your back. Love your videos!

[@ClericPreston_]

Nice to see you back. Important question how is Kona? I heard the dog in the Christmas video :)

[@RetroRepairs]

Kona is doing great. She makes a brief appearance in this one

[@RetroRepairs]

Kona is doing well, she makes an appearance a little later on in this one

[@fatst101]

The console itself didn't do well and there weren't many games (in comparison to the GBC and GBA) but it did have some really cool accessories. There was a GPS addon as well as one that would allow you to connect it to your mobile phone so you could download games and even browse the web! Remember this was back in 2000 when smart phones weren't a thing and 99% of mobile devices did not have internet capabilities. Anyway glad you got it working. I have one floating around, might have to go find it.

[@theboone3848]

So happy that backlit screens are the standard now.

[@neyensb]

Does it boot without a game inserted? Looks like 0 voltage without game and 1,8 when inserted

[@StormsparkPegasus]

This was designed by Gunpei Yokoi (who also designed the Gameboy). It was his next project after leaving Nintendo. This thing is actually quite a bit more powerful than the Gameboy/Gameboy Color, it's a 16-bit system. But the screen is so terrible it might as well just be a regular Gameboy. They made a color version later with a better screen...but by the time they did that, this thing got utterly stomped by the GBA. It might've been more powerful than the GB/GBC, but not the GBA.

[@codenamegamma]

so one thing the polarizer looks a little burnt, they almost always have to be replaced on wonderswans and i've had to do it to my two as well. luckily the font one isn't too bad to replace.

[@RetroRepairs]

Yeah, a slight bit. It's not too bad but I'll have to find new polarizers for another video

[@Nickword1]

Hey buddy i just got a quick question for you. I own a IBM P200 20 inch CRT monitor and it's been working good for the past like 8 to 9 months than all of a sudden a few days ago the image does not want to appear on the screen. i have to put a small blanket on the back of the CRT to let it heat up a bit than in like 30 to 45 minutes the image will appear. Do you know if this is a fixable problem? Let me know thanks.

[@grug5963]

Good to see you back again.

[@hingeslevers]

Is there a way to set and lock the white balance on your camera (with a piece of white paper for example?)

[@noapparentfunction]

welcome back! missed your content!

[@derpdude32]

Welcome back Repair King!

[@tommy6934]

The deoxit d5 works well in cartridge slots, chip connections, power switches as well.

[@KiwiKoNZ]

Awesome vid bro! Keep em’ comin dude 😎👍✨

[@HavingFunRepairs]

Good to see you back!

[@CrS0CrashPL]

Nice repair, well done! As for the game - I've noticed my SwanCrystal does this thing as well sometimes, and I need to take the cartridge in and out a couple of times before it starts working again. And when it finally does, and I won't touch the cart again, the game will run every time. Curiously, so far it only happened with the old monochrome WS games, the Color/Crystal ones in transparent shells worked like a charm each and every time. Since the contacts/pins are cleaned, and looking great, I don't know whether the faul lies somewhere else, or it's just a quirk of these older cartridges.

[@fncrazy101]

Thank you for the awesome video 😁 Missed you 😃

[@SpursCards21]

Welcome back! Happy New Year!

[@TheHobbsTV]

Great to have you back my dude!

[@Crimok]

Happy new Year Adam and Community:)

[@robertmace2474]

We need to see more of Kona the Repair Dog!

[@AtariBorn]

I've seen GadgetUK use one of those fiberglass pens to clean lacquer from a ground plane for soldering to. I've never used one but can think of about 40 times when something like that would've come in handy. Do you recommend a particular brand or would something from Amazon suffice?

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

They're pretty much the same every time I've ordered one.

[@AtariBorn]

@@WhatAboutZoidberg Thanks

[@RetroRepairs]

I don't have any recommendations. I've got some generic looking ones myself

[@ZonicMirage]

The WonderSwan seems like a pretty neat little machine. It was Gunpei Yokoi's final project; how wild is that? Also realized it looks like a Digivice, which is appropriate for it being a Bandai product with a Digimon game.

[@twooey8232]

There was an english Digimon game released back in the day, and I wanted a Wonderswan so badly just for that game.

[@Super_Bros.]

To honor him they have a game on it called Gunpey.

[@bigdaddy51200]

Glad your back !!

[@mtshark7]

Nice job getting the console fixed!

[@hayleywaalen2612]

The game is Digimon Adventure 02: Digital Partner. You are a Digimon fan now

[@chillmatic4331]

THE LEGEND IS BACK

[@luigi7834]

RETURN OF THE KING

[@preferredimage]

So i'm 11:15 in and I'm thinking a short on the power rail. also seeing what looks like burnt areas under the battery box on the main PCB (might be dirt though)

[@mjc0961]

Did that game just hear you talking about opening it up, go "hell no I'm fixed now see?", and deny us all another video?

[@RetroRepairs]

I think it did

[@LegendSpecialist]

He is back💪

[@Ozzy-gk1tv]

Hey what’s the name of the screwdriver set that you use?

[@383angster5]

Glad you're back bud

[@shiva_hardly_sarcastic]

i like the color of the sweater you are wearing ^_^

[@RetroRepairs]

Was a Minnesota vikings Christmas sweater

[@danspam5022]

Yes Adams back 👏 👍

[@GuyManley]

welcome back!

[@RetroGamesLab]

Nice repair!

[@jackofalltrades1125]

Let's go!!!!!!!

[@Sanjuaro]

Nice sweater, dude!

[@sasj7682]

Yeah you are back!

[@Blitz9287]

The positive thing about the battery compartment is if a battery leaks and destroys the terminals there at least a chance it's going to be contained in the compartment rather than leaking into the entire machine. Also it would have been cheaper to replace the battery compartment that the whole unit.

[@RetroRepairs]

That's a good point. But the design for this particular one is terrible. The bump acts as a natural rest for your fingers, which a. Stresses the plastic and b. Makes it prone to disconnect. There are better ways to do this.

[@spartonberry]

WonderSwan didn't really get much attention from western games until Square made games for it. When they released the original version of the Final Fantasy remake for the WSC in 2000, it was a big deal. Might not seem as much 21 years later when Square-Enix has repackaged that game on seemingly almost every hardware in some form.

[@thomasandrews9355]

Lowspecgamer did a great video on the Gameboy color which the wonderswan pushed.

[@AtariBorn]

I disagree with you on the battery compartment. If all handheld devices, back then, had a separate compartment to hold the batteries, there'd be a lot less acid corrosion on those systems today. How many Sega Nomads have you seen with battery corrosion on their PCB? I'm sure that it was possible to pick up a replacement, for a few bucks, back when the WonderSwan was in its prime.

[@RetroRepairs]

Fair point. Id rather see a sealed battery compartment than deal with a bad design

[@AtariBorn]

@@RetroRepairs I'm definitely not defending the WonderSwan battery holder's design in any way. But yeah, a sealed battery holder would be ideal for those older handhelds. Something you could toss out and replace, when they got cruddy.

[@davidmcgill1000]

Also would've been more compatible with a rechargeable battery pack.

[@EndTheFate]

Yes ur back

[@orcarms]

Hey guy, good stuff!

[@JuicyJakeRepairs]

i do like the sliding battery compartment, but i cant imagine a single battery is enough juice for long plays

[@deandabbles]

The original wonderswan could get around 40 hours off a single AA

[@retroprojections]

Yeah, I just got a Wonder Swan Color with an LED screen replacement. One battery lasts about 6-8 hours for me. 40 hours would be amazeballs!

[@SimonQuigley]

I think the saying you are looking for is "not that well versed", when you were talking about your resistor colour code knowledge.

[@albertorenatobiancamano5208]

Hi, good video... try to check all capacitor in the mainboard system for loss power or short circuit... and check in there is a low bad battery for saves in the cartdrige game...bye

[@TechX1320]

As someone who's a micro electronics technician myself, I've never heard of using vinegar and simply tap water for cleaning. Usually use isopropyl and flux clean Would be cool to know where you learn this trick

[@RetroRepairs]

Not sure where, but I've done it for battery leaks, especially on battery terminals. Be careful with pcbs though, it will flake up the solder mask wherever any corrosion may exist

[@primus711]

Vinegar has been known forever for neutralizing acids

[@primus711]

@@RetroRepairs that is not true ive submerged many many bad corrosive amiga mobos for days

[@Assimilateduser]

HAPPY NEW YEARS

[@RamonHernandez]

i miss these videos

[@ArGame.]

Do you ever sell the consoles you repair?

[@RetroRepairs]

Sometimes, it depends. I only sell locally, and will only sell duplicates. Anything I don't already own, i tend to keep.

[@bartowo]

So cool 🥺😢

[@imbadwrench]

I finally acquired all 3 models. but I still do not have an OG b&w game.

[@jameskenney5623]

34 minutes to fix battery contacts? I like the video but 34 minutes is way too much. That should've been a 2 minute segment.

[@Cory_]

That battery compartment is pretty over engineered, seems like there are a lot of possible points of failure.

[@SolKnightt]

Woo! Kona Break!

[@daliromeriskie328]

Sweet!

[@lescoe]

I would have used a standard alkaline 1.5v battery for testing purposes.

[@tracymac1313]

Wb man

[@Mobin92]

Bro just clean those contacts, no need to analyse them for literally 15 minutes

[@andrewclark3325]

Adam is here, but where is Cona? Is she ok?

[@RetroRepairs]

Kona makes an appearance later

[@michaeladams9807]

👍👍

[@retrogameplus3838]

KONA