Two broken NES's - NESdev BBS

Two broken NES's
by ZeoTG on 2010-03-02 (#57422)

Case: 1 NES powers on, appears to run normally, but only outputs a buzzing sound. Red light works like normal, game has to be messeed with and cleaned like normal, but no out put from Coaxial, and only the buzzing from AV.

Assumed: no power to out put adapter box.

Case 2: unit works, but has loose connection in adapter box some where. need to know how to take apart adapter box.

Re: Two broken NES's
by hyarion on 2010-03-02 (#57425)

ZeoTG wrote:

the voltage converter is placed on the "output adapter box" so it will always have power if the rest of the system have power.

do you get a picture?

ZeoTG wrote:

Case 2: unit works, but has loose connection in adapter box some where. need to know how to take apart adapter box.

to take apart the RF-box you need to desolder it from the main board

by ZeoTG on 2010-03-02 (#57426)

no picture. just buzzing from the Av ports.

by Xious on 2010-03-02 (#57439)

Unit #1 seems to have a bad PPU. You could swap the PPU from one to the other, or swap the RF modulator from the unit #1 to unit #2 in order to get one good, solid system out of them both. (These are both soldering jobs of equal levels of difficulty—pretty easy if you are handy with a soldering pencil—although I suggest swapping the RF modulator as it is less sensitive to heat and has fewer connections.)

Else, use unit #2 in A/V mode: The RF Out isn't all that handy, as you get a better signal from the A/V out than the RF modulator can provide.

I strongly advise disabling the 10NES "lockout" chip and replacing the cartridge ZIF connector at the same time in order to minimize future problems.

-Xious

ZeoTG wrote:
no picture. just buzzing from the Av ports.

by Dwedit on 2010-03-02 (#57440)

I always got a crappy picture from the AV out jack on the NES, and a decent picture from RF. But the sound from the AV jack was far better than what RF did.

Re: Two broken NES's
by AWal on 2010-03-02 (#57442)

ZeoTG wrote:
Case 2: unit works, but has loose connection in adapter box some where. need to know how to take apart adapter box.

The RF modulator inside the NES is usually just held together by aluminum or steel that is clipped onto the RF modulator itself. I'd recommending resoldering the actual RCA jack (most notably the pin, that might require access from both sides to get into), and if it's still too grainy, even on another RF switcher, try sanding the exterior portion of the RCA connector...I had a Genesis/MegaDrive core (model 1) that has a shoddy RF that this worked wonders on from time-to-time.

Oh, and good luck.

by ZeoTG on 2010-03-03 (#57448)

its not grainy, its cutting in and out.

I can't combine them unfortunately. The 1rst one is my original NES from 1988, the second is my friends from the same.

His unit sounds like a solder job, which I figured, so time to buy a solder pencil.

Mine looks like I need to start taking meter to components then. This is going TO be a LOOOOT of fun. I;m NOT buying a whole another WORKING unit for $50unit just to take one part out of, since finding broken NES's is not easy around here.

by Xious on 2010-03-03 (#57485)

If you want a parts unit, I'd sell one for $25 (plus postage), if that is helpful. That's about what I'd sell the PPU for by itself...

-Xious

ZeoTG wrote:
its not grainy, its cutting in and out.

I can't combine them unfortunately. The 1rst one is my original NES from 1988, the second is my friends from the same.

His unit sounds like a solder job, which I figured, so time to buy a solder pencil.

Mine looks like I need to start taking meter to components then. This is going TO be a LOOOOT of fun. I;m NOT buying a whole another WORKING unit for $50unit just to take one part out of, since finding broken NES's is not easy around here.

by Xious on 2010-03-03 (#57486)

Wow, how very bizarre lass... Either your Video out RCA jack was problematic or your input device (TV or monitor?) didn't like the signal or had problems of its own. Were you connecting the A/V out to a VCR?

I use Commodore (mostly model 1702 and CM-141) monitors on all of my systems with A/V out and I notice a much cleaner signal from my NES & Famicom units on them than I would receive on a standard television hookup over the FR Modulator and what’s more, it provides a cleaner image than A/V out to a television with A/V inputs

Commodore monitors are nice because they also have speakers and volume knobs, so it's easy to control everything. I place my systems and monitors on cafeteria carts and roll them around, and I generally have three systems per monitor with Y-splitters, so I can fit six systems per cart, which saves on space.

If you have a stereo system, use the Commodore 1084-S monitor, which has stereo speakers in it, otherwise, the 1702, 1802, CM-141 or basic 1084 (the original Amiga monitor) all work flawlessly and delivers a far superior experience (in my opinion and by technical design as well) to using a television.

-Xious

Dwedit wrote:
I always got a crappy picture from the AV out jack on the NES, and a decent picture from RF. But the sound from the AV jack was far better than what RF did.

Two broken NES's
by John Walcott on 2010-03-08 (#57719)

Well Well, some of the advice I'm hearing sounds great and some of it sounds bad. I have worked on over 100 Super NES and 100 NES systems with a very high success rate, so I know what tends to go wrong with them. It's harder to fix the Super NES systems because, so many motherboards go dead. Thay have lots of different things go wrong with them too. On the other hand the NES systems can almost always be fixed; about 1 in 50 cannot. Over 90% of them have 72 pin connector problems or corrosion on the motherboard pins which the 72 pin connector slide onto.

Taking care of the 90 to 95% problem area is the first thing you want to do, by fixing the 72 pin connector and checking the motherboard pins. I'm saying Fixing the original 72 pin connector because, they can work much better than the junky 3rd party replacements, which tend to, damage a game's pins , stop working after a few uses, or get the games stuck in them so you can't get them out.

The nexst most common problem is that the RCA jacks can break free from the box and start wiggling. Then the wires will break off inside of the box. There are special ways of fixing this problem and if it's not done right the RCA jacks will be permanently damaged. When items in the box need to be repaired the box can be removed fairly easily but it's a little time consuming.

When a system is producing a humming sound it is generally a capacitor that is having problems.

Unless you have stuff get inside and shorting out the system, trace corrosion is a more comen problem then, ICs going out.

Concerning your description of the problems the systems are having, I do not have enough information from you to be able to know exactly what the problems are; The best way of handling this would be talking with you on the phone. Send me a personal message with your phne number and time zone and when the best time to call you would be and I can go over details on how you can fix the systems then.

by AWal on 2010-03-09 (#57825)

Not quoting specifically here, but if the Video from AV is cutting in and out, I'd suggest what Xious said and try an older set. Some sets and input devices that support "blue screen" can be sensitive to grainy pictures and cut out when an otherwise visible picture comes onscreen.

I remember I had a chance to snag a commodore monitor with the RCA Luma/Chroma...I should've, but the GE I took instead had variable gains...too bad the flyback went out on that one

If the cutting out seems conditional to moving the set, the inner connector of the RCA jacks probably came loose, but nothing a little solder after cracking open the RF modulator couldn't fix.

@JW: New 72 Pin connectors can in some situations be better than the original connectors, most notably the older ones without the split in the middle of the pins. I found that this is the rarest case of repair for myself, generally because a 72-pin connector is what most people are apt to fit themselves with a saftey pin...thankfully...