Faulty Game Gear

[RitchieTheBrit]

I have heard that there is a common fault with the Game Gear causing the sound to stop working. 

Does anybody know what the cause of this is?  The only reason I ask is because I have been given a couple of them, working all bar the audio.  I can't find anything off hand on the web.

I'm not too bad at precision soldering, so if it comes down to that, not a problem.

Thanks for your time, dudes.

[RitchieTheBrit]

Okay, so I gave up and bought a boxed one from eBay!  I'll leave this thread open, htough, just for the sake of education !I owuld love to know what causes this!) 

[ChadTower]

Erg, I used to know the exact fix but it's escaping me right now... it really is a simple soldering job, too...

EDIT:  Oh yeah, duh, now I remember.  Bad cap on the sound board.  IIRC, it was C7.  Replace that cap and you're good to go.  That's a very common issue with Game Gears.  It will take 4 times longer to disassemble/reassemble than it will to replace the cap.

[RitchieTheBrit]

Okay, so you didn't mention the damn security screw!!!!   

For anyone else with this problem, and who can be bothered to fix it, I've tracked down a very useful guide, fully illustrated!

http://www.smspower.org/dev/docs/GGFix.zip

It comes as a zipped word document.  And as for this guy on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8176691209&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

Can you beleive it!  I think this is the same document!   

I hate it when people do that!

[ChadTower]

Dude, calm down.  If you can't figure out how to undo a security screw you shouldn't be opening the device.  Either get the driver bit or use the melty ballpoint pen method.

Take the ink container out of a ballpoint pen, heat the tube up so the plastic is soft, then press it into the screw.  It will harden in the shape you need to turn the screw.

[RitchieTheBrit]

I was just kidding with you! 

Damn, my humour doesn't work too well in forum posts!

On a related matter, it turns out the GG had somehow taken on water (I'm guessing that it was through the headphone socket) as there was actually corrosion on the board!  Heh, all that for nothing, ho well!