Broken Jaguar

[Emmett]

Hello! So I have a Jaguar that's not working. It's got the original power and RF cables, but I have also tried different ones. It appears to have been blown up by the wrong type of power. (Both of the adapters I have tried it with when trying to fix it are the right type.) At first it didn't power on at all, no light. I replaced the U38 chip and a cap that appeared to be blown, cleaned the cart slot and various places where the board was dirty, and replaced the power switch. Now it will power on for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, and plays games fine, but then shuts off and won't work again for days after. Does anyone know what to do?

[+Stephen Moss]

Check your soldering on U38, you may have a bad joint that becomes open circuit with a little bit of thermal expansion.

You can do a visual inspection with a magnifying glass or an electronic one by checking the continuity with a multi-meter, just be aware that when using the multi-meter the pressure on the pins of U38/probe tip can temporarily make the connection. To try avoid that try pressing your probe tip on the pin where it enters U8 as lightly as possible and the other probe to a pin on another component that the U38 pin being tested connects to.

[Emmett]

On 10/26/2020 at 5:11 AM, Stephen Moss said:

Check your soldering on U38, you may have a bad joint that becomes open circuit with a little bit of thermal expansion.

You can do a visual inspection with a magnifying glass or an electronic one by checking the continuity with a multi-meter, just be aware that when using the multi-meter the pressure on the pins of U38/probe tip can temporarily make the connection. To try avoid that try pressing your probe tip on the pin where it enters U8 as lightly as possible and the other probe to a pin on another component that the U38 pin being tested connects to.

Today I finally got out my console and the U38 did look weird, so I re-soldered that and... it works! Thanks for the help!