Vince's Repair Thread - (Console Repairs & Mods)

Got me some more faulty consoles today :)



Something to play with next week, £44 which seems ok... I already have a psp but hopefully this one is more broken than my last one! Couple more games for the psp library and I may just fix the ps2 and shift it on pretty quickly. Not sure I actually want a ps2.
 
pingwing said:
You say that now but in a couple of weeks you'll have a pile of the things, each one reading one type of disc and a fun labeling system to switch between when you change game...
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We shall see. I'm sure I will have some fun with it regardless, especially the psp those little things are seriously underrated so adding a few games to that library is a winner. What I do envisage eventually being a problem is space, I mean I do have a lot of space but I'm not sure how much the Mrs is onboard with me filling the house full of games consoles.
 
Back from Gibraltar and itching to fix something but the parts for the master system aren't here yet. Might start with a laptop while I am waiting for parts but I dunno... I have a skylake gtx970 6gb laptop that's got some power issues and also a 1050ti with no power on the PC side, that might be fun to fix. I do still have some consoles including some retro so what do people think I should fix? Current options are:
  • Atari 520stfm (I know it needs a part or two so I could start by stripping it down and doing some diagnostics)
  • Laptop (intermittent power issue, it makes a weird sound and shuts down)
  • 1050ti (no power)
  • OG Xbox (not tested and not sure if there is a game in it or not)
  • 3DS Charge port replacement
  • ASRock B450 HDV - no power (blew the board and the cpu!)
Should probably start with a console given this thread is in the console section and perhaps open another thread in GD or general hardware for PC/laptop/gpu board repairs what are peoples thoughts?
 
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LuckyBenski said:
Just read the whole of this thread over Christmas. Mega jealous! Current day job as a software developer leaves me missing proper hands on work. I've done 3 or 4 soldering repairs this month but I'm itching to do some more advanced board level stuff.

Looks like we'll be moving house in the next few months but as soon as that's done I'm filling out the tool set with hot air and one of these:

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005002547115609.html

Basically it injects power to anywhere on a board and allows current to flow, and you can figure out where a short is. Can even use a thermal camera to highlight exactly which component has failed or is receiving too much current.

Especially useful for complex stuff like laptops but probably good for graphics cards too, or anything that charges. Learned about it after binging on this guy's videos:
Sorely tempted to start buying bits now but I'd only struggle to keep it all tidy before we move. I've got a laptop board with a charging/power MOSFET issue so I know what project 1 is :) Then it'll be the box of 3x PS2s!
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You will come join us repairing all kinds before long I am sure of that :D
 
[Death] said:
I like repairing anything tbh :) we could make a new one or just put all in here and move thread to gd
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Decided to test the xbox by hooking it up to a capture card. it works and has a game in it :( - I don't have a pad for it though :cry: The pad in the lot i got is apparently for an xbox S. The thing fired straight up no issues at all. I guess I need a pad to see if it will actually play a game and not die but I think it's going to be just fine tbh. Likely not in need of repair at all.

Will just leave the thread as it is for now and throw everything in here, if it gets PC parts heavy or starts drifting miles away from consoles ill shout and get it moved.
 
Xbox that didn't read disks now has a controller and reads disks :) there is a potentiometer on the laser that should be set to a resistance of around 3.7ohms - The one in this xbox had been fiddled with and somebody set it to the max setting of around 5 ohms which could very well mean I need a new laser but I'm not sure yet.

Took a few pics of the strip down. The game I have is heavily scratched (proper gouges in places) so ain't nothing reading that, got a few games coming so I'll likely sell it on as soon as I've properly tested it on a few games. It now reads dvd's perfectly though and it didn't before.

Also I didn't know you need a specific "thing" to play dvds on the xbox but it tells me you do when I put a dvd in so can't even test that.





I'll put a few more pics up when I revisit it when a game gets here.

the USB capture card I bought I have also already managed to break as I stupidly tugged on it quite heavily so will now have to fix that as well. I only bought it to test the consoles because we only have one TV in the house and if the wife's watching that it's good to have something else to plug into.
 
[Death] said:
Awesome work there fella , now Xmas is out the way I’ve got some more time to work, everything I’ve ordered from the bay is taking forever! Nothing until the 4th Jan !

component tester arrived today, one I shown in the disco. I’ll put some pics up here when I test after dinner
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Sweet you grabbed one. I think I did as well so I'll 3d print some cases when mine gets here. Want a case for yours?
 
[Death] said:
Mine came with one :) came with some cables too for attaching if needed. Also charging cable as built in battery.

CE0-B2419-F864-428-A-904-A-87024-F91-B335.jpg
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Nice, I bought the one that has the metal pads you can solder smd's onto. ill show you the chepo one I got when it gets here :D
 
Everybody likes a 3DS right? My one had that dodgey charge port so today I spent just a little time having a look given I ordered a port a while back. what I found was interesting, I stripped the console down whipped off the old port and straight away noticed they are different. Old 3ds has a surface mount design whereas the new 3ds has a through board design on the pins. Rather than order a new port and wait I tried my luck... I sanded down the edges of the port as the new one is a bit larger, bent all the legs roughly where they should be and winged it!



Nasty old port and yes im forever burning the lights on my scope :D ...



New 3DS port bodged onto the old 3ds!



Slapped it back together real quick and it works perfectly! I did clean up and make better joints than in this pic but forgot to photo it! That will do for now although I do feel like I should probably buy the right port for it, I probably owe it that much :cry:
 
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Alpherah said:
You really should start a pc thread -‘this ones been amazing ^^

Would love to get into this kind of thing but wouldn’t know where to start
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I have been kinda going back and forth on this. On the one hand it would be awesome to have the both and have all kinds of cool repairs in their respective places, on the other hand will I be able to commit a decent amount of time to both threads and the repairs that I can keep the other thread moving and semi interesting? I might get a couple of repairs under the belt on the PC side and see if I can actually repair a GPU or Motherboard for example before I open the thread and embarrass myself :D - I am fairly sure I can for example fix a dead board or GPU but haven't committed the time to prove that I can. I think this is going to be a watch this space. Ill update if I do any PC repairs in here but perhaps not share all the photos etc and save a few for a new thread.
 
DIABLO said:
If you're producing millions of consoles why pay the DVD license cost if the buyer does not use that feature. It's the same with the the new Xbox's but instead of a dongle the license gets activated over the internet the first time you watch a movie. If you have an internet outage and have not activated the license previously you literally can't watch a Blu-Ray.
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With the cash they make over the life of a console you would think they would just bundle it in and be done with it. I'm pretty sure my ps1 could play dvds back in the day without any of that nonsense. Either way I'm learning new stuff every day.

For what its worth the xbox now works but the laser is properly noisy and load times very slow. I will order a cheapo laser replacement from china to keep this within sensible money so it can be revived and sent to a new home. Bought splinter cell for a whole £1 from CEX this morning :cry:
 
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DIABLO said:
Sony were one of the creators of the DVD format so it cost them nothing to bundle the functionality in. The same with the Blu-Ray which Sony exclusively created.
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Ahh makes sense Microsoft don't want to give money to the competition I didn't even think about it to be honest... Just thought it was a bit of a cheek. Getting old and expect things to just work.
 
Adam_151 said:
@Vince

Is it a co-incidence, or are you the chap also called Vince who has a youtube chanel with repairs mostly of game consoles and the like?

Only skim read thread, so sorry if its already been asked....
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Coincidence, we are different Vinces. I don't have a youtube channel that repairs stuff but I am a Vince that also repairs stuff! I did have a look though as was curious, the other Vince is a switch killer :cry:
 
I am not sure how many of these I have already shared but some of the recent pickups that we will be working on :)



Still waiting on parts for:

OG xBox
Master System

Decided to list the DMG Gameboy as honestly I feel I would only like one that isn't fully working to mod etc so this one is too good for me and is now on the bay and already at £36 with 6 days remaining. I also have a load of switch parts listed to scrape back some of the cash for the one I gave away :)

Probably most looking forward to the PSP as just feel they are seriously underrated little machines. If I'm lucky there may be the charger for it in all those wires! Time will tell.
 
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Emlyn_Dewar said:
I've noticed I can get full replacement PSP shells on Taobao here for about 25 quid. My 1000 is a bit tired now but I'll never sell this one as it's just got so many good titles on it.
Thinking of changing it from the scratched up black original, to a white shell. IPS kits available, but I've never found the PSP screen to be bad, even the original model.
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Yea they seem to be pretty cheap, if you wanted you could just replace the face plate and that costs about £10 or so I think. My current one is a 1003 and I am the same as you the screen is perfectly good, I really don't think it needs an IPS really.
 
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