There's Something FISHY About This GAME GEAR

I bought this faulty Game Gear on eBay and in this video I'm trying to fix it. It doesn't stay powered on and it doesn't have any sound. It also smells.
In anticipation, I got myself an SMD replacement capacitor repair kit from the guys over at RetroSix. Check that out here: retrosix.co.uk...
Hope you enjoy!
Steve
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The magic things I use to break stuff;
My soldering iron: amzn.to/2Isf360
My microscope: amzn.to/2VP3msU
My multimeter: amzn.to/2LjBgnN
My oscilloscope: amzn.to/2LUidAQ
My component tester: amzn.to/39mrzhY
Filming Equipment;
My camera: amzn.to/38IdR7s
My microphone: amzn.to/3rCriPc
My VO mic: amzn.to/3pz2c1L
PS. I'm not an expert in repairs at all. I do this for fun, and it may not be the best or safest way to go about repairing broken stuff. I'm pretty good at melting plastic though.

[@1kreature]

I just cant watch this ripping and tearing of capacitors. Use soldering iron, or some snips to cut the leads first so you don't risk ripping pads.

[@00Glitch]

Theory for the speaker wires: A parent had had enough and cut them because their child wasn't using headphones like the parent wanted.

[@texboy98]

Maybe, but he cut the entire connector off. Simply disconnecting it would work.

[@00Glitch]

@@texboy98 Maybe they did that and the smart kid just reconnected it. Someone wanted that speaker permanently disabled and it was likely someone who was tired of hearing what came out of the speaker.

[@badcommentbot8349]

Wrong ,poor prior repair attempt

[@delavanty]

@@texboy98 parents when mad do stupid things

[@delavanty]

I should know since my dad has thrown his phone

[@jonmayer]

The leaky caps may have made an awful sound from the speaker and they snipt it to solve that. Also, why did you rip all those components off? You're lucky no pads lifted from that. Nice you got it all working though. The CF backlight appreciated that power.

[@STHelton1]

Great Job. SMD practice paying off. Would love to see an LCD mod for this thing.

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Taylor! Yeah, the soldering practice helped me out a lot on this one. I've ordered up a McWill LCD screen for it, and will definitely be looking to fit it when it arrives. Looks complicated, but I'm sure it'll be fun! 😁

[@diegog1853]

Great fix for a great system. For future reference, you can use the same AC adapter for a megadrive model 2 on it, so that you don't blow through 6 AA batteries in a few hours. Very handy for testing too.

[@juweinert]

Hey. Did you realise you replaced electrolytic (polarised) capacitors with ceramic (non-polarised) caps? Do you simply not care or did you do it for a specific reason? You also have to make sure to properly heat (contact) BOTH sides of the solder joint. I saw a few cold looking joints there...

[@DxDeksor]

Removing the caps the way he did isn't very safe either (for the pcb)

[@TheOriginalSAKY]

I know very little but I was concerned that a solder was going to be ripped off the pcb.

[@glennmaxfield6618]

I'll bet when the caps went down on the sound board it made a din of a noise so they cut the speaker out and played the game without sound until the video caps went down and made it un playable.

[@AsheramK]

Had the very same thought. It must've bypassed the volume control as well.

[@billyline3558]

I was thinking that too, but why cut the connector off instead of unplugging it?

[@itwasnottheboots]

My first thought was a parent that was sick of hearing all the noise. 😆

[@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co]

@@billyline3558 Because the kid kept reconnecting them?

[@billyline3558]

@@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co that's a good possibility, but the kid would have to open the console each time.

[@raegar]

Great job Steve. I remember these things used to absolutely eat through AA batteries. Would love to see the screen mod and I wonder if there’s a decent option for a rechargeable lipo battery upgrade?

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Jamie, yeah those AA's will be gone in no time. I think with an LCD screen, it won't eat through them nearly as fast, but a LiPo upgrade would be sweet. I don't see why it wouldn't be possible, as far as I know it would need 5v, so it's gotta be an option. Will look into it, thanks for the inspiration! 👍

[@yabeeba_com]

you can replace the power board with a new one with a usb-c connector and included rechargable battery pack. with a screen replacement you can easily get 12+ hours runtime without the heat generation from the original screen, while the unmodded gg lasted only very very few hours. the screen eats up most of the energy. and while you are at it, replace the soundboard too. now you can charge your game gear everywhere with usb-c, have tons of runtime, great picture and sound ...

[@MrFatboy192]

Probably easier to just get the game gear emulator on a 3ds!

[@Isekai_Fan]

@@StezStixFix Also a USB charging mod!

[@Mymatevince]

Nicely put together video Steve, and the SMD caps look like a winner. Good job mate :-)

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Vince, much appreciated mate. Yeah, those SMD caps definitely make life much easier 👍

[@davebarnes2601]

I am enjoying your content, keep up the good work. But for the love of solder pads please stop using the twist method to removed caps! Get a tweezer iron or used the 2 iron method!

[@ShALLaX]

Came here to find this comment, you’re incredibly lucky you didn’t rip up the solder pads and traces. Also: tin your wires! They’ll solder so much more easily.

[@MrRobarino]

The way you pry the capacitors off with a pair of pliers has a high risk of ripping off the solder pads. I wouldn't do it that way.

[@bunnylove273]

hi bud l would go with ther upgrades, great vid

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Bunny! I'm definitely gonna try and put an LCD screen in it and maybe a new shell. Looking forward to modding it, it's such a nice device to hold. 👍

[@pedro_8240]

It was painful watching you just yank those capacitors off the board like a barbarian. Have mercy on them.

[@JLB456]

I think I have solved the riddle of the snipped speaker. As a parent of 3 kids who ALL use devices, I could definitely see an exasperated parent taking that apart while child is sleeping and cutting out the speaker. Then one would say, "use the headphones"

[@goku445]

Yep, pretty sure that's "vandalism".

[@ahndeux]

I doubt this is the case. The parent could have just unplugged the cable and it would accomplish the same. I'm guessing that someone tried to repair it and forgot to plug in the cable back and it got pinched in between the case when they reassembled it. That is why the connector is missing.

[@goku445]

@@ahndeux Correct me if I'm wrong but from what I remember the cable was cut, not unplugged.

[@ahndeux]

@@goku445 Look at the 6:13 part of the video. If you look carefully at the gray wire, you will see it crushed half way and a piece of the insulation is sticking out about 1/4 inch from the end. It looks like a classic situation when the wires get smashed in between a case and eventually gets cut off by the pressure or someone pulling on the wires. If you pay careful attention to the black wires, it looks like the same thing happened, but the wires got cut off at the end of the crushed area. If the wires were cut with a diagonal cutter, you would see a clean cut on the ends. Pay attention to the distance where the wires cut, it matches almost perfectly to the location on the case where it stuck outside of the case.

[@LimerickWarrior1]

@@ahndeux Sherlock holmes move out of the way :)

[@MightyJabbasCollection]

I hope this doesn't sound like a backhanded compliment, but... Your video quality and lighting have really improved in your recent videos! I think I've watched them all. I would absolutely recommend one of the LCD replacement kits. Macho Nacho Productions on KZbin has a number of videos about this kind of modding that might be useful.

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Jabba! I really appreciate that, I've been working to try and get my video setup better, and I'm starting to get there! I'll definitely check out more of Macho Nacho, thanks for the tip. I saw one of his vids the other day, and boy does he know how to edit a video together! Should be good for some more inspiration for me! 👍

[@Olivia-mh8wq]

Man, I remember having one of these as a kid. I also remember not being able to play it very often because my parents didn't want to keep shelling out money for the batteries lol

[@leonidaspereirafilho499]

As I was watching this, that is exactly what I thought! Man, having to buy batteries would eventually get very pricey for a console like this!

[@chriss4365]

No ac adapter back then?

[@Olivia-mh8wq]

@chriss4365 nope, not for that thing. Though weirdly enough, I actually still have the ac adaptor for my game boy color. It still works.

[@chriss4365]

@@Olivia-mh8wq Nice, I have my color sp and ds. They all still work. My sp still has the factory battery pack. Just bought a game gear to fix amazingly it still works and you can play it if you tilt it right you can see the screen. Looks to have all original caps.

[@Olivia-mh8wq]

@chriss4365 that's awesome! My sp and ds have both stood the test of time and still work as well. My game gear has been lost for decades, but I still have a single game from it for some reason.

[@andrasszabo7386]

Capacitors are always dying in the game gear. Even if the capacity is normal, the ESR goes higher. When using that ESR meter, always look at the ESR, too.

[@chris-pike]

Good to watch another of your fixing vlogs there Steve on the Game Gear that you manged to repair - Nice 1 👍

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Chris, really appreciate it! 👍

[@halgroda6967]

Omg the cracking as you rip those off.....

[@antonnym214]

I subscribed immediately. You do good work, and you have a nice relaxed tone.

[@fuzzybobbles]

The missing connector is a common one JST HX two pin. They are fairly standard on a lot of electronics. THe 3 and 4 pin ones are used as balance leads on multi cell li-po batteries used in radio controlled models.

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Fuzzy, appreciate the info! 👍

[@willkra]

Your skills are getting there!:) Your videos are very well produced, and a joy to watch. Keep `em coming!

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Willy, I really appreciate that! I had a lot of fun on this one. 👍

[@danielvazquez7482]

Let me help with the cut speaker wires. I’m a parent and grandpa who’s listened to the repetitive, loud sound sometimes for hours. There you have it. Although I now use a spongy texture material to adjust these sounds, back in the day I/we simply eliminated it.

[@garethdowds4024]

Hi Steve, loving your work. My older brother put a deep scratch from corner to corner on my Gen 1 Gameboy some 30+ years ago. Brasso wadding works a treat for removing scratches from the screen, also works really well on wrist watch lenses. NICE!

[@ulrichs.3228]

For a brief moment, I thought you'd say "it's easy to see what is wrong with this one -- it's upside down (flip) well that was easy to fix". (Also, totally in love with the purple bubble wrap envelope.) (Also also, thank you to the whims of KZbin for sending your excellent channel across my screen, I love the almost ASMR qualities.)

[@JoeyDoesTech]

Great editing and video production pal. Bet you were happy to see this working 😁 Good job pal 👏

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks mate, appreciate that. Yeah, really happy getting this one working, can't wait to pimp it. 😁

[@strat5520]

As a father, I know what happened to those speaker wires. "Turn it down"..."Turn it down"..."Turn it down, NOW"..."Turn it down!"....Thats it, time for that Game Gear to see God!

[@realdeal8225]

Listening to to that super kick off intro brought me back to my childhood!! I still have my Game Gear now somewhere. Here in England I had a T.V adapter cartridge that allowed a 8 year old me to watch M.o.T.d on my game gear on Saturday nights 😃

[@WhtSqurl]

I love that you don't have a loud and obnoxious intro, like every other youtuber. Love your content!

[@andrasszabo7386]

You think those capacitors smell like fish?? Try to recap the power board in a Toshiba T1200XE laptop from 1987!! It is a horror movie.

[@rod370]

Hi, Somebody (A parent) might have cut the speaker wires off to stop it making a noise. As they got fed up of the sound of Game Gear. While trying to watch the TV. Well that's my guess.

[@vectrex28]

I'd suggest dropping some white vinegar on those pads to neutralise the corrosion first before cleaning it up with IPA, that's what I do when I repair a Game Gear at least (Going for all models). Love to see another one of these live another day

[@Ibubbas]

This is cool I have an old game gear laying around I read about the capacitors, but mine also has corrosion around the battery connections because 12 year old me left batteries in it for 20 years lol. I may tear it down and try my hand at a repair and maybe upgrade it. gonna watch your other video on the screen upgrade. I am a novice but I love messing with things it already doesn't work so I guess im not out much if I mess it up.

[@RBKing80]

I was hoping you would get one of these. An LCD replacement would be amazing. I definitely want one of these myself

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks RB! I've ordered one of the McWill LCD screens for it, and a few other bits, so I'm definitely gonna try and mod it when they arrive. I think it'll look awesome! 👍

[@Beaps73]

Awesome job man, love the kinda monkey Island music also and the cuts, batteries in, screws in hahaha. Where did you get that magnifier screen, I need one in my life haha

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Beaps! Yeah, I'm a big Monkey Island fan. I'd use the original music if I could get away with it! I got the microscope from Amazon, really helps me out with the SMD stuff! 👍

[@dylanwickund9109]

I bet they cut the speaker wires thinking it would save battery life

[@retrobear9367]

Is that petroleum jelly you're using as flux?

[@beardedbikepacker]

You make soldering these tiny parts look so easy 👏👏👏

[@frazahmad5268]

Great job. Fun and hilarious great edutainment. I feel like ebaying a broken game ⚙ gear and fixing one myself. So I can also have afro capacitors rejuvenate the game gear. Great Great work.

[@StezStixFix]

Haha, thanks Fraz! I do love the Game Gear, it feels so nice in the hands. I really want to get an LCD screen for it, and maybe a few other mods. I think it'll look amazing! 👍

[@frazahmad5268]

@@StezStixFix Will defo look amazing with the upgraded screen. I think retro six do some shells for them too. I loved the game gear as a kid playing on friends and relatives game gears, I was the one with the DMG-01 good times.

[@frazahmad5268]

@@StezStixFix look forward to the next update

[@mikecro1111]

I'm guessing the speaker wires were cut off by a parent to force their child to use headphones....

[@Penfold8]

The only bad thing about the Game Gear is that it is a battery hog and eats them like candy.

[@sullah1986.]

Hi great video, can you tell me what flux are you using ?

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Sullah, it's Chip Quik SMD291 👍

[@sullah1986.]

@@StezStixFix Ok, thank you

[@nintariplays5654]

I know it's pretty common for people to pull caps off the board then desolder the rest.....but I have nightmares of traces and pads being pulled off the board every time I see someone do it.

[@rubberduck4966]

You have a brutal method for "desoldiering" old SMD Caps...

[@BlondieSL]

He gets lucky! I've seen others use the twist method and very often the pads lift off and break. More of a mess. For those types of mini can caps, using hot tweezers works best.

[@gb7767]

You can use white vinegar to cleanup and neutralize the electrolyte leakage from the caps. Rinse with distilled water and finish up with IPA. Glad you are making use of tea-breaks :D

[@StezStixFix]

Haha, thanks G B. Very good shout on the white vinegar, I'll definitely give that a go next time 👍

[@lukedorrington7455]

What braid do you use Steve? I bought some generic braid from ebay and it was awful, I'm looking for a reliable braid that will work

[@StezStixFix]

Yeah, I've also had some horrible braid. The one I'm currently using is MG Chemicals Superwick: amzn.to/3KU2pXw

[@lukedorrington7455]

@@StezStixFix Thanks I will give it a try

[@BakedPrawns]

You deserve more than 1.2k subs. You’re one of my favourite fix channels 👍🏼

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Kane, I really appreciate that! 😊

[@speedwaynutt]

58k Subs June 2022

[@StezStixSnips]

First!

[@StezStixFix]

Loser

[@chris-pike]

Good one Steve 😂

[@Ratchet_effect]

You beat the kiddies to it, I'm not thumbs up or down the "Loser" post I believe it to be Not! true. Your a winner! 😊

[@StezStixFix]

@@Ratchet_effect 🤣

[@Ratchet_effect]

@@StezStixFix I speak the truth! 😛

[@gpapagi]

Hope you are using a mask or a fan when soldering man

[@aaronveneruso2214]

So, i am not the One Who thinks those things smell like fish? 🤣

[@TheAkashicTraveller]

That initial power issue may just have been the power switch, I know GBA's get like that and just moving them back and forth a few times fixes it most of the time.

[@jimmyramkisoen191278]

Realy nice job!

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Jimmy, much appreciated! 😊

[@TripEllex]

Sorry for the years-long replies to these, Steve. I just today found your channel and wanted to chime in. And I hate to be that new nitpicker guy, but watching you remove those SMD caps almost gave me a heart attack lol. How you didn't destroy those delicate pads underneath, I don't know. Had one stubborn cap on one of my Game Gears that didn't come off and was forced to do it the same way you did rather than with the hot air, and it tore that pad right off.

[@MrFixiit]

nice fix stez but if your utube goes belly up you can aways be the next captain birdseye with your fishy goodness 😂

[@StezStixFix]

🤣 sounds like a good plan!

[@0pp841]

Get your iron against the capacitor before you start melting solder. The capacitor takes longer to heat up.

[@ProfessorJones7]

I'm surprised to see a "high voltage" warning inside a portable console.

[@Jamesalec63]

Had one of these much entertainment from it including the TV plug in and had a camera plug in did ever have the TV plug in? It seems that this one had a lot of use I remember the battery use then buying those adapters which made it heavy a bit the thing was fantastic and the games but I love the fix you did it was a surprise to eventually see inside the console I imagine you'll love to get the later ones that came out it a shame they stopped making them know there retro consoles but the originals are really interesting? Oddly I seem to recall there was a Saga Game Gear in Gold or yellow it had a few inches difference and a earlier touch screen think I was a prototype but then Nintendo Gameboy colour came out?

[@johanviskar5781]

as a parent, it is completely obvious why someone would want to cut the speaker wire. And just pretend it is broken

[@clivekapijimpanga7990]

You're very good at soldering!

[@Boogie_the_cat]

That's my old Game Gear. The caps were fine, I hid my fish sticks in the battery compartment. Tom Cruise cut my fishsticks in half, and as a protest I put them in my Game Gear, and then I watched Judge Wapner on Qantas Airlines flight 6.9

[@mehgoodenough]

I just have to say, the shots from the microscope on this vid are so crisp and superb, well done Sir!!

[@3DJapan]

I loved my Game Gear, even though I had to play it while it was plugged in to the wall.

[@LilyBloomVee]

You've gotten really lucky there: Usually if you have leaky caps on the right spots it can also happen that the corrosion can damage the screen permanently, as in you get vertical colored lines across the screen which meant the components on the ribbon cable got damaged and cannot be replaced. Mine unfortunately has experienced this issue.

[@ManaDrain315]

Can you get a replacement ribbon cable and screen for it?

[@LilyBloomVee]

@@ManaDrain315 A whole new screen, yes, however I'm not 100% sure if the screens are compatible from one to another boards, seeing that I have an early rev model and the late rev models are more common these days. Tho it is possible to just replace it, yes!

[@whatislovebutonelonggame5406]

i used to watch TV on this thing(there's a TV tuner for Game Gear) while working in a convenience store, so much memories. btw, polywatch can probably save your scratched screen

[@StezStixFix]

Yeah, I remember the TV tuner. Was tempted to get one, but it's kinda useless with everything being digital. Although I guess I could do a Vince and play Fortnite on it or something! Thanks for the Polywatch recommendation, that's a very good shout! 👍

[@SEGAGuys]

You’ve got a new subscriber. Love the delivery of your videos, very relatable and laid back with a touch of good old British humour. Great stuff!

[@TheAussieRepairGuy]

Fun fact, the "u" in "uf" is actually the greek character "Mu" or "µ" which represents micro - for microfarads.

[@ShyGuy83]

Although I didn’t play with it much, I had my old Game Gear for 30+ years from President Bush Sr’s last few weeks in Office until just recently when I very regrettably and stupidly tossed it after it wasn’t working properly. I sold all 3 of the games I had for it, but had I known to refurbish the system with new capacitors, as well as potentially a new screen, I probably could have received more money from that deal.

[@scucci]

You've got a good nose... That "fishy" smell is a great indicator of a failed, leaky capacitor. I repair pinball and arcade machines and after doing this for so long, I can tell if a capacitor is failing on a pinball machine as soon I open the backbox. Especially on WPC systems... there are 2 capacitors that are more likely to fail than others and when I smell that "fishy" smell I know I'm going to have to remove the driver board, replace those capacitors, and probably repair the traces under them. Sometimes you don't smell it until it heats up, either through use or when you're soldering near it. ... But as soon as you smell it, you know you've got a bad cap.

[@CrashHeadroom]

"yeah, 2 speaker wires have been cut. That's deliberate. Dunno why anyone would do that" Oh yyou don't Stez? Picture this: it's the early 90s, kid on his christ knows WHAT hour of sonic, bleeps, bloops and the same repetitive 50 seconds of track repeating ADNASUEUM because unfortunately, junior isn't TO GOOD at his gamegear yet........... and the parents' eyes are starting to twitch lol "nooooo junior, we have NO idea why the sound isn't working. I know I know it was your favourite most fav thing in the whole world *hides the wire snippers without 1 SHRED OF GUILT! lol*

[@skypirate4806]

It’ll be great to replace that LCD Screen for a brighter one. I’ve just replaced my PSP screen for an IPS type, and it’s so bright, that it hurts my eyes, so I had to turn the brightness down. I’d definitely like to see you change this one, and see the difference. Great video. ❤️👍👍

[@electronicengineer]

You did a really nice job of repairing this Sega Game Gear! Great attention to detail. Congratulations on the awesome outcome sir! Fred

[@stevenmckeown3222]

I got one from eBay listed as FULLY WORKING but the sound was really Tinny and it stunk realy Acrid when I opened it as the Electrolytic Caps on the Audio PCB had popped! Quick Cap swap and it was perfect but hell yeah, It loved eating 6 AA Batteries per day!!

[@stevesmith7009]

Love you channel. Is there a reason you don't use a fume extractor? I thought it was encouraged / advised for good health. Cheers mate.

[@BrunakoPAO]

Mate, capacitors don't always show esthetic failure ;) and if they are, it's for safety (like when they get fat huhu) loved your vid and great work !!!

[@KorAllRBare]

🐨 If you have a lot of games that you play on it, A screen mod would be fully scope.. 🤨 Err-Fully Dope.. 🤓 APU I left the 👍 all Blue..

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks 🐨! Yeah, I have quite a few games and one in particular that I absolutely love, which is Castle Of Illusion 🐭 I'd love to be able to play it on a nice crisp screen! 😍

[@SimonNemeth]

Every time I watch one of these opened there's always capacitor vomit everywhere. I hate old caps. I have a few older keyboards and it's the main thing that goes wrong. I had to have my JP8000 recapped when I got it and it ended up costing way more than it's worth.

[@StezStixFix]

Is that the Roland? Nice. Yeah, I think most manufacturers cheaped out on the caps back in the day. Shame really, as that leakage can really kill the board if unattended for too long.

[@SimonNemeth]

@@StezStixFix It certainly is.

[@t0nito]

The wires were cut most likely because it started buzzing loudly even with volume turned down.

[@InfiniteLoop]

I would so save that envelope

[@followthetrawler]

Great fix, but be prepared to replace those MLCC capacitors again - scourge of modern electronics. For the screen, I would try and get hold of some Polywatch from Amazon - about £3. It's what watchmakers use to get scratches out of acrylic watch 'glass'

[@PorterB]

I have an original game gear which developed the typical fault of no more sound and vertical lines of stuck pixels after around 9 years. Rather than fixing it I bought a £30 Linux handheld emulator that plays all 8 and 16 bit games at 60 FPS on a 3 inch IPS screen. Oh I also got a further £10 reduction on it due it being a different colour than advertised so yay.

[@mrsiborg]

I'm guessing that sound board connecter was harvested for another unit after the power failed.

[@SparksNZeros]

GameGears are easily my most booked job ive lost count how many ive done but i never stop enjoying it. Some tips should you ever do one again: You'll get mixed opinions on whats safest to use for caps, i think its good practice to atleast know how to source the right size electrolytics and how to shape their legs and solder them in should you ever want it to look more 'factory' (my customers request details like that, especially using electrolytic smd on the audioboard for a 'warmer' sound). It's very rare for me to have found failed psu caps, more often the systems auto cut off gets triggered by the CFL lamp taking too much power draw and the failing caps on the motherboard being unable to handle it, its best practice to update them anyway still. The more corroded the pads are the more likely they'll just crumble when trying to take the old caps off, i typically pre-treat the board with IPA, crack the caps free from their glue and then desolder the legs or even use fine cutter to cut them off their legs and then wipe them off the pad with flux and wick so i don't have to bridge anything or run bodge wires! Lastly these systems are addictive but the real knack is in diagnosis of viable repair, everyone in forums will tell you 'It's just caps!' but issues can vary from the CFL tube has an internal short or it's igniter fuses have blown, the contrast wheel has worn out (and are only available from donors) or electrolyte has contaminated the board in a difficult to clean area making it short out (and need an ultrasonic clean). You even just get poor storage issues like damp trapped between the screen and its light diffuser plastic or battery acid has ripped through the whole thing so every game gears a mixed bag, which is maybe part of the appeal! :D

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks for all this fantastic information! I really enjoyed working on the Game Gear, I'd love to do more of them, they are so easy to work on and so satisfying to get fully working! 😍

[@ToxoRetro]

Good going Stez! That "fish paste" was well hidden. Also your soldering practice proved helpful too. I wonder if the "fish" was leaking caps after all - usually they swell up before spewing it's chemicals, but maybe they just leaked out the bottom. Touch wood quick, I've never had to change a cap in that state so don't know the smell. My original Xbox (a late revision without the clock cap issue) has some slightly bulging caps, so I'd better do those soon...

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Toxo! Yeah, it was weird that none of them were bulging, but there was leakage under pretty much all of them on the main board, so it must have seeped out of the bottom 😳. I can still smell it, even when watching the video, it is ingrained on my nostrils forever! 🤣

[@nonchip]

those smd ones tend to leak past their pins often yeah. probably because they don't have the usual "K"-groove in the top (which is often used in bigger caps as a deliberate point of failure to prevent kaplosions)

[@ToxoRetro]

@@nonchip interesting stuff. 🤘 Always wondered why there tended to be a "K" on top of electrolytic capacitors; figured it was just a manufacturer's mark. A crumple zone makes far more sense.

[@Adrian1981]

Loved my game gear in 1990, not as much as it loved AA batteries though

[@Sqoou_Too]

You need fume extraction

[@gadgetmind]

The gold pads (I think you said test points) are factory test points and you'll often seen teeny marks in the middle of them where pogo pins made contact.

[@Melechtna]

Okay, real talk, what kind of horrendous fish are you eating that they smell like capacitor electrolitics? These smell NOTHING alike.

[@artk2219]

Even if you never do the screen swap, replacing the fluorescent backlight with an LED backlight is a must. That CFL baclight is the single reason for the game gears terrible batter life.

[@poweredbyWatts]

I’ve watched a fair bit of your videos. Every time you work on a speaker, using a 9v battery will tell you the orientation of an unmarked set of terminals and it will let you inspect the surround for tears. FWIW.

[@douggale5962]

Testing a capacitor like that is a total waste of time. At best, that "tester" tells you what it is if the label is not legible. Most testers can't tell if they are passing DC, and capacitors should block DC. Blocking DC is the whole point of most capacitors, most aren't used for smoothing AC to DC. The exact value of most capacitors doesn't matter a whole lot, look at the ridiculous tolerances on them.

[@Hammarsand]

6:28 I have that connector 😅

[@Mmouse_]

Cut wires theory: caps on the sound board and maybe a few others contributed together resulting in really odd squealing audio, so they cut the speaker entirely.

[@djlancematthew]

I’ll dig through your videos because I know that this is an older one, but I watch someone on another channel put a newer LCD screen in their game gear and the picture was amazing in comparison to the tube screen that’s in there. In the future video, if you haven’t done it already, will you try that?

[@nonchip]

"from my last video""not here""here" well not actually there either because youtube nowadays defaults to just ignore that ;) also it kinda hurts to see you ripping at those pads like that, is there a reason you didn't just desolder the original caps?

[@ROLEPLAYA64]

Ahhh... the old game gear. If you ever want to burn through batteries faster than Tony Montoya burns through cocaine, this is your little friend :)

[@mexesrexes4495]

Maybe, disabling the speakers allowed the then dying capacitors to keep supplying juice until the unit gave out.

[@TheOriginalNCDV]

Chances are the speaker was making a continuous buzzing or crackling sound due to the failing components. Hence cut the wires.

[@glenshearer6219]

Enjoying the content. Would love to be educated a little in what something is. This video talks about capacitors a lot. Maybe a bit on what their job is while you’re doing the rest of the talk

[@glenshearer6219]

Enjoying the content. Would love to be educated a little in what something is. This video talks about capacitors a lot. Maybe a bit on what their job is while you’re doing the rest of the talk

[@Ratchet_effect]

Steve you Savage! no retreat no surrender on them caps but... they had to come off. I bet that thing smelt like a fish market on a hot! day 😂

[@StezStixFix]

Haha, thanks Steve. There was no way I was delicately removing those little cylinders of fish death! 🤣

[@Ratchet_effect]

If you had used, hot air with a nozzle over the caps you'd have been sick with the smell for sure. I think you did the best! option in the long run to be honest. 😎

[@StezStixFix]

@@Ratchet_effect definitely. The smell is still in my nostrils 😬

[@Ratchet_effect]

@@StezStixFix Stephanie stop sticking your head in strange places at aerobics class 😂🤣

[@StezStixFix]

🤪