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No Picture on Recapped Sega Game Gear


mmbe

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About 8 years ago I had a complete recap done on my Sega Game Gear. Until quite recently it worked fine.  Now no matter what game I put in, all I get is a blank white screen with no sound.  All games have been tested on another Game Gear and work fine.

 

Anyone have an idea on what could be the problem? Am I looking at replacing one bad capacitor or do I need to have a complete recap done?

 

Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very hard to say. I've done some completely recapped fresh and still just a white screen. Apparently sometimes the transistors can go bad as well, and the screens themselves can fail. I wanna say it's probably not a cap issue, but I've never seen one where sound fails after a recap.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've seen a lot like this where the Game Gear doesn't engage with all of the pins of the cart. Usually, if you have no cart in the GG, the screen is black. However, when you have a cart that has corrosion or other problems where some pins connect well and others don't, I have seen solid color screens (pink & white are the most common). The cart slot pins can get worn and bent and don't easily recognize a game anymore (because not all of the pins are connecting). It's a possibility. Has the Game Gear been stored away with a game inserted for long periods of time?

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Discussing with a guy that install McWill screens, he said he stopped recapping GameGear because sometime, the screen dies or was dead when the console suffered cap problems.

It's not totally surprising on screen this age.

A white screen can indeed be a sign of a cart connctor not making a complete contact. Does the game sound plays or not? If the game make no sound, then it's most likely a problem with dirty cart or connector, or a general issue with the system and not the screen.

If oyu used your system on a regular basis (like once a month) there is no reason caps should fail prematurely, unless they were extremely cheap, or new old stock (AKA 30 years old capacitors never used)

Edited by CatPix
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As a person who has done many McWill screen installs, you should always replace the capacitors in your Game Gear before installation. And then, as McWill says, check the voltages! If not, you risk damaging the new screen.

 

If you start your GG with no cart and you see a black screen, but then put a cart in and see a white screen, it is almost always that the Game Gear is not reading all of the pins of the cartridge. This could be a cartridge issue, but if it happens with many carts, then it's a GG cart slot issue.

Edited by gamegrid2084
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9 hours ago, gamegrid2084 said:

As a person who has done many McWill screen installs, you should always replace the capacitors in your Game Gear before installation. And then, as McWill says, check the voltages! If not, you risk damaging the new screen.

 

I should have said that this guy was doing recaps AND McWill's install, but he stopped offering recap services alone because it had several cases of GG screens being dead after cap replacement - and since he installs McWill screens, people may feel like it was done so they would pay for the McWill screen. So he only do recaps of GG if people get a McWill after.

Edited by CatPix
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All of the games worked fine on the other Game Gears that I have so it's not the cartridges. The system with the issue was not stored with a game inserted in the cartridge slot.

 

No sounds play with this system. The sound board is fine because I tried with another GG.  All I get is a white screen when I turn on the system with a game inserted - no sound and no picture.

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Besides the cartridge slot possibly not being good anymore, it's possible that the 8 year old recap could have started to develop cold solder joints. If new, good caps were used, I doubt that the caps are bad now. Cold solder joints can develop for a number of reasons and, besides any obvious visible signs, their is not any good way to detect cold solder joints. The solder joint could look nice, shiny, and normal on the outside, but have internal cracks = bad.

 

If you're up to some solder work, I'd reflow the solder on the replaced caps and see what that does. There's not too many of them anyway.

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Well, then that would make me think that the issue is leaning more towards a capacitor or other issue and not the cart slot. I'd say it could be a brightness wheel issue, but if you don't hear any sound when games are in then it's probably not that. Does the brightness wheel do anything? If it's a white screen and the brightness wheel works fine, then you should be able to turn the brightness down all the way and make it black or, at least, darker. If not, then that does inform the problem a bit more...

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Well, without actually getting into the GG to see what could be wrong, it's really tough to diagnose this kind of problem. On the Game Gears that I have worked on, the white screen you are describing (with the brightness knob working) happens when there is no cartridge in the GG. It also happens when the GG does not think a cart is inserted, even when one is. Usually this means a bad cart, but could also mean a bad cart slot on the GG, or even an internal component failure. You mentioned that you've tested the games on another GG, so bad carts can be ruled out. The other two possible issues are very hard to narrow down without a bunch of little tests to figure things out. In any case, even if it were a bad cart slot or some internal component failure, you'd probably need to have someone repair it (unless you are up for tinkering around inside your Game Gear). I'd be happy to run down the list of tests that I would do, if you're up for it...

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19 hours ago, gamegrid2084 said:

Well, without actually getting into the GG to see what could be wrong, it's really tough to diagnose this kind of problem. On the Game Gears that I have worked on, the white screen you are describing (with the brightness knob working) happens when there is no cartridge in the GG. It also happens when the GG does not think a cart is inserted, even when one is. Usually this means a bad cart, but could also mean a bad cart slot on the GG, or even an internal component failure. You mentioned that you've tested the games on another GG, so bad carts can be ruled out. The other two possible issues are very hard to narrow down without a bunch of little tests to figure things out. In any case, even if it were a bad cart slot or some internal component failure, you'd probably need to have someone repair it (unless you are up for tinkering around inside your Game Gear). I'd be happy to run down the list of tests that I would do, if you're up for it...

 

Sure I would appreciate any tests or tips you can provide to troubleshoot the system.

 

I found this web page showing a repair involving the cartridge slot:

 

http://laptoprepairpro.com/sega-game-gear-repair-part-1/

 

The screen does flicker when rotating the brightness wheel.

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Ok. There are several tests to try. Some will seem completely unrelated, but they will help. Also, the flickering is interesting. Can you describe it in more detail? Does it flicker on and off like if the backlight is going off completely, or are you talking about lines on the screen or something else?

 

1) Are you really seeing a white screen or are you just seeing white because the brightness is all the way up? When the brightness is all the way up, it will always look white (or very close). When the brightness is down, it should look black but with a little green tint. When the brightness is in the middle, it should look black (black for a Game Gear). I would try this: With no cartridge in the system, turn the brightness all the way up so the screen is white. Then, lower the brightness just until the screen begins to look black, but not at the very lowest brightness setting. What happens? If you have to turn the brightness all the way to 0, then you are seeing a true white screen from the system. If you can turn the brightness somewhere in the middle and see a black screen, then good, keep it there.

 

2) Once you've done #1 with the brightness turned down to a black screen but not all the way down to 0, try a bunch of games. Do you see black screens on each game or do you see a screen with color or white (pink, green, and white are all common)?

 

3) When you power on the system, turn the volume up to 100%. Do you hear a slight hissing from the speakers (try headphones, too). You should hear something both with a game inserted and with no game. All of these handheld systems have some sort of interference and you should hear some slight noise from the speaker or headphones.

 

Let's start with these and we'll go from there.

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Forgot to mention the system has a LED back light mod. The screen flicker is like a candle flame shimmering or pulsing. It stops (or becomes fainter) when you turn the brightness down. The screen is white with the brightness wheel turned up. Believe I now have it set to the middle setting as you suggested.

 

I have briefly tested 5 games and the screen looks the same as if there is no cartridge inserted. I can't comment on the sound as I swapped its working sound board with another Game Gear where the sound board wasn't working (both the speaker and head phone jack).

 

Was the link I provided in my previous post (#13) something I should be looking at?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

 

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13 minutes ago, mmbe said:

Forgot to mention the system has a LED back light mod. The screen flicker is like a candle flame shimmering or pulsing. It stops (or becomes fainter) when you turn the brightness down. The screen is white with the brightness wheel turned up. Believe I now have it set to the middle setting as you suggested.

Ah. Well, with the mod and sound board that you know is not working, there are too many variables to accurately diagnose the problem. I can tell you that, on a proper LED backlight mod, you should not see the candle flame shimmering flicker that you are describing. However, since many things seem to point to the cart slot, the link in #13 is an OK thing to try. Not the entire link instructions, but just the reflowing of the solder joints on the cart slot pins.

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  • 8 months later...
On 6/23/2020 at 7:40 PM, gamegrid2084 said:

Ok. There are several tests to try. Some will seem completely unrelated, but they will help. Also, the flickering is interesting. Can you describe it in more detail? Does it flicker on and off like if the backlight is going off completely, or are you talking about lines on the screen or something else?

 

1) Are you really seeing a white screen or are you just seeing white because the brightness is all the way up? When the brightness is all the way up, it will always look white (or very close). When the brightness is down, it should look black but with a little green tint. When the brightness is in the middle, it should look black (black for a Game Gear). I would try this: With no cartridge in the system, turn the brightness all the way up so the screen is white. Then, lower the brightness just until the screen begins to look black, but not at the very lowest brightness setting. What happens? If you have to turn the brightness all the way to 0, then you are seeing a true white screen from the system. If you can turn the brightness somewhere in the middle and see a black screen, then good, keep it there.

 

2) Once you've done #1 with the brightness turned down to a black screen but not all the way down to 0, try a bunch of games. Do you see black screens on each game or do you see a screen with color or white (pink, green, and white are all common)?

 

3) When you power on the system, turn the volume up to 100%. Do you hear a slight hissing from the speakers (try headphones, too). You should hear something both with a game inserted and with no game. All of these handheld systems have some sort of interference and you should hear some slight noise from the speaker or headphones.

 

Let's start with these and we'll go from there.

Would you mind helping me? I am getting the EXACT symptoms as OP, however mine is completely stock, no LED mod.

 

I replaced the caps on the sound board and main board (haven't done power board yet - caps are on the way), and still getting a white screen and no sound. When I booted the GG up for the first time after the cap replacement (had a cart in), I saw small colored rectangles on the screen before it went white. I thought maybe the cart was dirty, so I cleaned it, but nothing. I have not touched the pins inside the GG itself. The screen is white with or without a cart in.

 

After I do the power board caps here in a few days, I will try these steps here. Would you mind if I posted back on this thread for some continued assistance? 

Edited by icer22x
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Sure, I'd be happy to help.

 

Definitely do the power board recap before any other troubleshooting. Also make sure you're using a known good power supply (OEM Sega would be best) and that you've tested it on another system (if you can) ... or just use batteries. You'd be surprised what really weird things can happen in a system if the power board is not providing what the system expects.

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17 hours ago, gamegrid2084 said:

Sure, I'd be happy to help.

 

Definitely do the power board recap before any other troubleshooting. Also make sure you're using a known good power supply (OEM Sega would be best) and that you've tested it on another system (if you can) ... or just use batteries. You'd be surprised what really weird things can happen in a system if the power board is not providing what the system expects.

Fantastic. Thank you so much.

And copy on the power source. I am using batteries. Will post back once I get the power board caps installed.

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On 3/9/2021 at 3:53 PM, gamegrid2084 said:

Sure, I'd be happy to help.

Okay. Got the power board caps installed. Still white screen.

 

1) Are you really seeing a white screen or are you just seeing white because the brightness is all the way up? When the brightness is all the way up, it will always look white (or very close). When the brightness is down, it should look black but with a little green tint. When the brightness is in the middle, it should look black (black for a Game Gear). I would try this: With no cartridge in the system, turn the brightness all the way up so the screen is white. Then, lower the brightness just until the screen begins to look black, but not at the very lowest brightness setting. What happens? If you have to turn the brightness all the way to 0, then you are seeing a true white screen from the system. If you can turn the brightness somewhere in the middle and see a black screen, then good, keep it there.

Yes, really a white screen. Adjusting brightness produces the results you explained (black with green tint, middle GG black, and white). When I turn the GG on with no cart and adjust the brightness just until it begins to look black, it remains there. I DO NOT have to turn it all the way to 0. So good here.

 

2) Once you've done #1 with the brightness turned down to a black screen but not all the way down to 0, try a bunch of games. Do you see black screens on each game or do you see a screen with color or white (pink, green, and white are all common)?

I have 5 games. Trying all of them with the brightness setting remaining as it was in step 1 above, the screen remains black.

 

3) When you power on the system, turn the volume up to 100%. Do you hear a slight hissing from the speakers (try headphones, too). You should hear something both with a game inserted and with no game. All of these handheld systems have some sort of interference and you should hear some slight noise from the speaker or headphones.

Yes I do, I hear a lot of static.

 

Also, I tested the working voltages on the power connector - all check out (5V,5V,GND,GND,GND,1.28V,9V,34V) - so I think we can safely say the power board is good.

Edited by icer22x
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If #1 above produced the brightness levels as I mentioned, then #2 above is telling me that you don't have a white screen. From #2, it appears that you are only seeing white with the brightness way up. What I mean is that if you took a working game gear, put a game in, then set the brightness to a good level ... then powered off the GG, took the game out, and powered back on (with no game), you should see a black-ish screen. So the problem is not "I have a white screen when I power on for all games," it's really "I have a black or blank screen when I power on for all games." Why the difference? Well, if you had a truly white (pink, green, etc...) screen with the brightness level not maxed out, then that indicates that the GG is trying to read the game but can't fully get the info it needs to boot the game (usually a bad connection to the cart's pins). If you have no white (or solid color) screen, then the GG isn't even recognizing that there is a cartridge in the slot. That's different from worn down GGs where their pins don't always connect to the cart and you'd get a white or solid color screen at normal brightness levels.

 

My guess is that the GG doesn't even see the game as being inserted. This could be many things... I saw you opened a thread about this before and have a picture of the unit. However, I can't really see the detail up close that well (it's out of focus at that high resolution). Could you send more? I'd like up close and focused views of the main board. You could do the left side and right separately, if that helps. Also, you can send them directly to me or post them here, either way is fine.

 

Other things to check and a question:

 

 - Double check that the cap C1 is the correct value (33uF 6.3v or higher [voltage]).

 - If you can, check that the voltage from C1 + terminal to ground is 5v (or thereabouts). C1 provides the 5V line to the cartridge slot and so to the cart itself.

 - What's the serial number on the back of this GG? I see it's a 1-ASIC system, but I want to know if it's also TMSS or not (that blue screen that comes up before games). The SN on the back is a good indicator.

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5 hours ago, gamegrid2084 said:

If #1 above produced the brightness levels as I mentioned...

Apologies, I read that wrong. Allow me to correct - It isn't really a white screen - it is "white" because the brightness was turned up. So it seems the GG isn't even recognizing there's a game in the slot.

 

Here are the pictures you requested. I added the sound and power board as well.

 

-C1 is 33uF/10V (re-soldered just to make sure)

-C1's voltage checks good

-Serial #: 040448873

 

 

20210313_015120.jpg

20210313_015138.jpg

20210313_015219.jpg

20210313_015236.jpg

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You're not going to believe this.

 

I was thinking the static I was getting was strange... esp. with no game in. I took out the soundboard and reflowed everything on it.

 

Now I am getting picture AND perfect sound...

 

Edit: So I think my cart slot was corroded because games are iffy. Any tips on the best way to clean this?

Edited by icer22x
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LOL and that's great! I was just about to send the response below. But when you said something about the sound board, I remembered why it was an issue that I raised before. I had an entire system fail because of 1 SMD cap on the sound board. For me it was C4 (which looks fine on yours), but it messed my whole system up. This is good to know because this is now the 2nd time that the sound board has caused some serious problems on a GG. In fact, I have one GG that I'm working on now that has some "strange" problems. I might just reflow the whole sound board and see what happens...

 

---- nothing to see here, move along ----

 

Thanks for the pics. Everything seems OK. On the right side of the main board, I do see something that I haven't seen before - EM1 & 2 are blue, the rest are black, and EM4 seems to have a chunk bitten out of it. I have never seen a mix of the EM chips (like blue & black), but who knows... However, those are only related to the GG to GG com link and shouldn't really affect anything else (but they might because the link is I/O).

 

The serial number tells me that it's a TMSS system. That means that a blue screen saying something like "licensed by Sega..." should pop up at the boot of any game. This is important because this blue screen would be the first thing to show up even if the GG can't read the game correctly. That is, you could put a game in and see the blue license screen, but it still may not work. So, if you don't see the TMSS screen, then it's really not reading games at all.

 

This points to a more serious problem like the actual main chip on the board or one of many small components and circuits that you'd have to check individually. But, it could also just be some cold solder joints on the cart slot (however unlikely). This is less fun to check out, but it might help to check those out. You'd have to unscrew the 4 screws on the backlight reflector and carefully fold the screen over so you can see the cart pins on the screen side. I would reflow each of them just to be sure. Sometimes cold solder joints don't look so bad on the outside. (Again, this is highly unlikely the cause).

 

Having said all that, I have never come across a GG that was "dead" because of cold solder joints, so I don't want to give some false hope here. If you've recapped the boards, there doesn't seem to be any corrosion due to previous bad caps, and the main board looks OK, I think the problem may be beyond the general fixes...

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