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View topic - Game Gear turns itself off/screen is unreadable/sound is gone/screen flashes

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  • Joined: 11 Jan 2017
  • Posts: 1
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Burned the contact for C43
Post Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 3:53 am
Can I run a jumper to ground it to one of the copper circles nearby?
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  • Joined: 18 Jul 2017
  • Posts: 14
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Post Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 4:18 pm
I have one 2 ASIC VA1 Game Gear that has been slowly failing over the past few months. I would like some help diagnosing the problem. This GG has had all of its capacitors replaced (all three boards) and received the McWill LCD upgrade.

Starting in April, games would sometimes not boot. However, they would eventually work after repeated insertions and power cycles.

By July I could not reliably get games to load past their splash screens. The red GG LED would cut out at this point and the system would reset. This would continue until I cut the power.

Now, the GG will barely power on. Sometimes it will send a loud screech through the speaker, but the LCD stays black and the LED does not light.

I do not think the problem is with either the sound or power boards, because I swapped these around with known good boards but nothing changed.

All electrolytic fluid has been cleaned from the board, and in July I reflowed the joints of all capacitors.

I can't find any broken traces. I can post photos if it helps, but I was wondering if the behaviour of my GG can be explained by one of the ICs failing. Has anyone here seen similar symptoms before?

I currently have the LCD mod completely disconnected from my system. I am verifying correct operation based on the LED turning on and music coming through the speaker. Currently, I see/hear neither of these.
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  • Joined: 30 Dec 2017
  • Posts: 2
  • Location: Southern California
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Post Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:04 pm
blahblug wrote
I have one 2 ASIC VA1 Game Gear that has been slowly failing over the past few months. I would like some help diagnosing the problem. This GG has had all of its capacitors replaced (all three boards) and received the McWill LCD upgrade.

Starting in April, games would sometimes not boot. However, they would eventually work after repeated insertions and power cycles.

By July I could not reliably get games to load past their splash screens. The red GG LED would cut out at this point and the system would reset. This would continue until I cut the power.

Now, the GG will barely power on. Sometimes it will send a loud screech through the speaker, but the LCD stays black and the LED does not light.

I do not think the problem is with either the sound or power boards, because I swapped these around with known good boards but nothing changed.

All electrolytic fluid has been cleaned from the board, and in July I reflowed the joints of all capacitors.

I can't find any broken traces. I can post photos if it helps, but I was wondering if the behaviour of my GG can be explained by one of the ICs failing. Has anyone here seen similar symptoms before?

I currently have the LCD mod completely disconnected from my system. I am verifying correct operation based on the LED turning on and music coming through the speaker. Currently, I see/hear neither of these.


Yes, pictures would help. Of the main board around the ASIC chips.

Gary
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  • Joined: 22 Nov 2018
  • Posts: 1
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Game Gear - screen gets brighter at one side when its been on a for a while.
Post Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 7:15 pm
Hi, what a great forum i probably should have signed up for it some time ago! Please forgive me first of all as i have come here seeing some advice. I recently purchased a Game Gear and have recapped it. At first everything is fine, nice screen and loud audio :) However after the game gear has been on for about 15-20 mins i have noticed the right hand side of the screen becomes much brighter than the rest of the screen at the same time the console becomes warm. I have tried this with 2 psu's and also batteries - happens every time. Can anyone shed any light on this, could the tube be at fault or is there something more obvious that i am maybe missing? Any advice would be appreciated thanks!
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  • Joined: 14 Dec 2018
  • Posts: 2
  • Location: Limburg, The Netherlands
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Auto-off GG after replacing all caps
Post Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 1:27 pm
I too have the problem of 'auto-off' after replacing all caps. I did 2 GG cap replacements (replaced all, so power, sound and main) and they both turned out having the same problem.

After "fixing" the first GG and encountering the problem, I tried the power and sound board on a not yet fixed mainboard and it worked fine. I had sound and it stayed on. There was no screen because the caps were not yet replaced on the main board. After replacing those caps, the auto-off also happened to the second main board.

Can someone brain storm with me to find out why this is happening? I see a few more of you have the same problem, but nobody has come up with a solution... Are we using the wrong caps? I checked a few versions of the caps list and even gone through the original GG schematic to find the values, but they all are the right ones.

I still have two Japanese/US GG's (the ones I recapped already are European) laying on the workbench ready to be fixed, but I'm waiting for parts to arrive.

-edit- Might be important to know that I'm powering it with a bench power supply with the leads connected to the battery terminals. Anything relevant that should be added, please ask.
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  • Joined: 25 Jan 2019
  • Posts: 1
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Post Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 2:51 pm
Quote


Hi, did you solve this issue? Because I have the same problem. I change all capatitors, clean everything, but still not getting good picture. Contrast wheel works and game loads, but it is almost invisible on screen.


i'v the same issue too. Image almost visible. all caps replaced with 2 different kits. After the first recap it worked for a couple of days correctly, after that the screen start flashing after 5 minutes of play and then completely withe with washed imaged. Any possible solution /check ?

some images attached

thanks
ciao[/quote]

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  • Joined: 25 May 2012
  • Posts: 32
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Post Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 5:32 am
I've replaced all the caps in two GGs and I'm getting bright clear video, clear audio and the games are booting fine.

On the first one, I just won Devilish (my cheap batteries lasted 35 minutes, just enough!) and everything seems fine.

The other seems to restart if I hold the system tight and twist a little. Is that a common problem in GGs or should I reflow my new joints and clean all connectors? (I ought to do that anyway, but I'm curious about the twisting thing)

--

edit -After reflowing some of my new caps and being very careful to close the case without trapping the black battery compartment leads on my capacitors, I've not had any trouble.

I think my issue was that I was using cheap batteries, and these were partially used. With new batteries (though still cheap) I got all the way to Sky Base Act 2 with no issues before I got a flashing light.
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  • Joined: 14 Jul 2019
  • Posts: 1
  • Location: US
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messed up lcd
Post Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:41 pm
bought a used gamegear off ebay with described screen issue appears the lcd has been super glued to the diffuser and is no longer clear. removed the diffuser and shining a 300 watt light through the back barely lights the center of the screen. any idea how to remove glue from the back of the lcd with out killing it?
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  • Joined: 08 Sep 2018
  • Posts: 270
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Post Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 4:42 pm
tad010 wrote
bought a used gamegear off ebay with described screen issue appears the lcd has been super glued to the diffuser and is no longer clear. removed the diffuser and shining a 300 watt light through the back barely lights the center of the screen. any idea how to remove glue from the back of the lcd with out killing it?


You could try a solvent such as acetone but you'd have to be careful about applying it not letting it sit on any plastics for a long period. You could also go the expensive route, toss the screen and get a McWill mod.
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  • Joined: 23 Sep 2021
  • Posts: 96
  • Location: Poland
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2023 5:01 pm
I noticed in my GG that the screen on the left (left-center to be precise) is brighter than on the right - is this normal/common for these screens?
2023-04-30-6137.jpg (151.94 KB)
2023-04-30-6137.jpg

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