Vince's Repair Thread - (Console Repairs & Mods)
- Thread starter Vince
- Start date
Yeah I was shocked at reading that too, I've got a slim PS2 with the various methods but I want a fat one for the HDD option that seems to have no issues.People missing out of the fat ps2. I would never give mine up purely because of the HDD. I know there are other solutions for playing games from other sources, but none seem quite as trouble free as an internal hdd.
Its easy enough to set up a file share and access it over lan. If you know anything at all about networking then its super easy but yea the slims are just much easier to disassemble and repair and I can shift em along fairly easy. The fat systems a lot less so. I do however have an aqua blue fat waiting at home for me (as well as another 6 or 7 that wont read discs properly that honestly I just haven't been bothered to fix).
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a lot of it needs a lot of tlc but a lot of it is also quick fixes
Soldato
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- 5 Aug 2006
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- 11,461
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- Derbyshire
This is one of those threads I keep coming back to.
Bought myself an RGB modded NES this week. I need to find a 'soldering for beginners' guide.
Bought myself an RGB modded NES this week. I need to find a 'soldering for beginners' guide.
Just grab a practice board like the clock kit they do! you will be away in no time!
The fixed pile is slowly growing!
Soldato
- Joined
- 5 Aug 2006
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- 11,461
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- Derbyshire
Do you have a budget yet not crap soldering iron you recommend?
I have recently thrown away my £50 one as I'd set it to 400 degrees C and the leaded solder still wouldn't melt - Must have been broken.
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been using this one since Aug 2023.... love it and its still going strong. For the price its a very good iron.
Everything that comes with it bar the t12 tips is junk but the iron is a copy of the Hako t12 station and is very decent. You can use t12 or t15 tips in it.
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Had a switch today with a fault that was different!!! An inductor was kohms across when it should be a dead short (ish) swapped the inductor and we good. Not one ive seen on a switch before but hey ho... I'm about 12 switches in now and so far so good, I haven't come across one I cant fix yet but there is a very rotten pink one that's water damaged, ain't nobody fixing that...
So far we have fixed:
- about 12 switches
- 1x ps5 digital
- 1x series x + Pad
- ps2 aqua blue fat
- 1x One S + Pad.
- 1x 3ds
I would say we are doing pretty OK so far, still plenty more to do but a good chunk of it is fixed and sold already. Happy days.
So far we have fixed:
- about 12 switches
- 1x ps5 digital
- 1x series x + Pad
- ps2 aqua blue fat
- 1x One S + Pad.
- 1x 3ds
I would say we are doing pretty OK so far, still plenty more to do but a good chunk of it is fixed and sold already. Happy days.
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Associate
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- 23 Apr 2020
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- 241
- Location
- Close enough to OcUK that my wallet hurts
That's quite a hoard, are you managing to sell the fixed ones or do you off load them at CEX etc?
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Hey @Vince …friend of mine tells me his daughter’s 4yr old Switch lite is draining the battery from 100% to 0 in around 5mins.
He’s spoken to a local ‘tech’ who advised it might be the board and likely is not worth fixing.
Have you come across this before? If so, any idea of the cost to repair it, or if its even repairable? Thanks
He’s spoken to a local ‘tech’ who advised it might be the board and likely is not worth fixing.
Have you come across this before? If so, any idea of the cost to repair it, or if its even repairable? Thanks
That tech doesn't know switches! That response is a "i dont know and dont want to take it on" response, I suspect its absolutely repairable and its only one of a few things, the BMC (Battery management circuit) on the lite isnt some mystery and is pretty well documented at this point. You know what to do my man
How much would it cost me to repair? Well nothing as I have about 100 donor boards and BQ area isn't a common failure point so yea I have many many boards with the parts. How old is the lite? Scrap that you answered it.... yea repairable almost certainly. And there is a chance that its just the battery. Switch batteries though, pretty good and not common failure points.
Edit: Also just to add if I have to guess i'm going with max17050 which is the switches fuel gauge (3x3 bga) think of it as the chip that tells the battery and BQ how full it thinks it is at any given point in the charge cycle. It's also the very first chip I ever did a reball of, no joke I sat there for nearly 24 hours and tried probably 100 times to reball a 9 ball chip. Tell you what though that experience although one of the most frustrating ive ever experienced taught me a ton about reballing - Now days reballing pretty much anything is pretty trivial.
What I'm saying is throw me a beer and send it in. May as well fix it real quick for you.
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Pretty much everything is already sold, stuff doesn't hang about i listed about 10 switches last few days and generally they all sold within a few hours. Given I paid dirt cheap if you follow my ebay shop you could have picked up a switch for just a few quid above the price of a faulty switch last few days. In some cases lower than some of the ones listed as faulty.
Not gonna lie and I've mentioned it in here before a few times, some items people seemingly have no chance at getting. There are some resellers that scalp certain items I sell and that makes it difficult for others to buy. One reseller has bought about 50 xboxes off of me in the last 12 months. If you wanted one of my one x + pad combos for example you would be up against two or 3 resellers that snap em up very quickly. Sad really but what can you do.
Im not in it to make crazy money but I enjoy the hustle and the fixing still so there are bargains to be had
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You Sir are a star and a gent, oh and quite possibly something of a wizard too!!That tech doesn't know switches! That response is a "i dont know and dont want to take it on" response, I suspect its absolutely repairable and its only one of a few things, the BMC (Battery management circuit) on the lite isnt some mystery and is pretty well documented at this point. You know what to do my man
How much would it cost me to repair? Well nothing as I have about 100 donor boards and BQ area isn't a common failure point so yea I have many many boards with the parts. How old is the lite? Scrap that you answered it.... yea repairable almost certainly. And there is a chance that its just the battery. Switch batteries though, pretty good and not common failure points.
Edit: Also just to add if I have to guess i'm going with max17050 which is the switches fuel gauge (3x3 bga) think of it as the chip that tells the battery and BQ how full it thinks it is at any given point in the charge cycle. It's also the very first chip I ever did a reball of, no joke I sat there for nearly 24 hours and tried probably 100 times to reball a 9 ball chip. Tell you what though that experience although one of the most frustrating ive ever experienced taught me a ton about reballing - Now days reballing pretty much anything is pretty trivial.
What I'm saying is throw me a beer and send it in. May as well fix it real quick for you.
Will message you now for some details, and get this sent off to you as soon as I can get it from my friend.
Thank you
Associate
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- 23 Apr 2020
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- Close enough to OcUK that my wallet hurts
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I know a while back you were looking at setting up a 'shop', did this ever work out and now it's full time or do you still have the day job? (No need to answer if this is getting too personal, but interested to know if it still possible for someone with a real talent for something can make some headway in the current advertising heavy world we live in)
So still in my day job and in fact I spend more time actually in London (from 0 days a week to now 2 days a week) This has some impact on my output honestly as I rarely feel like doing any repairs after a day in London. I do however get through more than I ever have even with less time available, I have improved my own processes to try and bridge the gap. Additionally I have more send ins, more stock and more work available to me than ever before. I am in the lucky position where I still have a bunch of regulars (a lot are resellers) that send me their stuff and I turn away a fair bit as well.
Generally speaking I can't see me having to advertise or anything like that unless I could drastically improve throughput, as one person though there will always be a hard limit somewhere.
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