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Hello, i "found" a gamegear's cartridge, but it was not working, so i opened and see that the "blob IC" was gone. Is it possible to solder a new chip with a different encapsulament? Thanks!

ft1.jpg (427.77 KB)

20201213_220845.jpg (281.91 KB)

The IC is very much there, what you are looking at is the raw silicon die, normally it would be attached to the surrounding pads with incredible thin wires that probably got ripped off with the encapsulation.

You are unlikely to find anything to replace it with, and it would be very difficult to do so. Blobs ICs like that tend to be one of a kind custom made for the purpose.

That board is basically toast..

djbass wrote

The IC is very much there, what you are looking at is the raw silicon die, normally it would be attached to the surrounding pads with incredible thin wires that probably got ripped off with the encapsulation.

You are unlikely to find anything to replace it with, and it would be very difficult to do so. Blobs ICs like that tend to be one of a kind custom made for the purpose.

That board is basically toast..

Thanks for awnser! So i have another multigame cart, this one have the same PEEL18CV chip, but dont has the big one GAL20V8A, you think if it is possible to put the PEEL chip of the broked cart on the working one?

Thanks.

20201226_224346.jpg (1.23 MB)

The "PEEL" chips are "support" for the main ROM chip, so swapping them won't help you. Your ROM is destroyed on the first cart, there's not much you can do without extreme difficulty.

Maxim wrote

The "PEEL" chips are "support" for the main ROM chip, so swapping them won't help you. Your ROM is destroyed on the first cart, there's not much you can do without extreme difficulty.

Thanks, so the "rom" from the broked cart are writed on GAL20V8A chip?

No, the other one, the shiny silicon that’s been destroyed by the removal of the resin.

aldighieri wrote

Maxim wrote

The "PEEL" chips are "support" for the main ROM chip, so swapping them won't help you. Your ROM is destroyed on the first cart, there's not much you can do without extreme difficulty.

Thanks, so the "rom" from the broked cart are writed on GAL20V8A chip?

You should look at it under a microscope and see if any of the relatively big traces that go into the chip are cut somewhere, then you need to look closer at the already mentioned micro-wires (ex https://i.imgur.com/gahDlWM.jpg) that goes form the traces to the chip. THere is also the possibility that UV rays deleted or altered the EPROM data; so probably Maxim is right, 99% the chip is gone or at least not recoverable for most of the people.

The chips with relatively fewer pins are there to support some logic for switching games. There’s no games in them. You can search their numbers on the internet and you find they are programmable logic devices.

The one chip on each with many pins is a large ROM. In the broken one, the silicon die was attached to the board using incredibly thin wires before being covered in glue; this is now missing and so probably are the wires. In theory you can fix this is you know which wire goes where and you have a suitable kind of microscope soldering setup.

Author	Message
aldighieri Joined: 14 Dec 2020 Posts: 4	Help with GG multigame cart Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 1:53 am
aldighieri Joined: 14 Dec 2020 Posts: 4	Hello, i "found" a gamegear's cartridge, but it was not working, so i opened and see that the "blob IC" was gone. Is it possible to solder a new chip with a different encapsulament? Thanks! ft1.jpg (427.77 KB) 20201213_220845.jpg (281.91 KB)

thatawesomeguy Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 731 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:49 am
	The IC is very much there, what you are looking at is the raw silicon die, normally it would be attached to the surrounding pads with incredible thin wires that probably got ripped off with the encapsulation. You are unlikely to find anything to replace it with, and it would be very difficult to do so. Blobs ICs like that tend to be one of a kind custom made for the purpose. That board is basically toast..

aldighieri Joined: 14 Dec 2020 Posts: 4	Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:09 am
aldighieri Joined: 14 Dec 2020 Posts: 4	djbass wrote The IC is very much there, what you are looking at is the raw silicon die, normally it would be attached to the surrounding pads with incredible thin wires that probably got ripped off with the encapsulation. You are unlikely to find anything to replace it with, and it would be very difficult to do so. Blobs ICs like that tend to be one of a kind custom made for the purpose. That board is basically toast.. Thanks for awnser! So i have another multigame cart, this one have the same PEEL18CV chip, but dont has the big one GAL20V8A, you think if it is possible to put the PEEL chip of the broked cart on the working one? Thanks. 20201226_224346.jpg (1.23 MB)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14744 Location: London	Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:12 am
	The "PEEL" chips are "support" for the main ROM chip, so swapping them won't help you. Your ROM is destroyed on the first cart, there's not much you can do without extreme difficulty.

aldighieri Joined: 14 Dec 2020 Posts: 4	Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 4:40 am
aldighieri Joined: 14 Dec 2020 Posts: 4	Maxim wrote The "PEEL" chips are "support" for the main ROM chip, so swapping them won't help you. Your ROM is destroyed on the first cart, there's not much you can do without extreme difficulty. Thanks, so the "rom" from the broked cart are writed on GAL20V8A chip?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14744 Location: London	Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 8:16 am
	No, the other one, the shiny silicon that’s been destroyed by the removal of the resin.

asper Joined: 25 Nov 2015 Posts: 143	Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 7:00 pm
asper Joined: 25 Nov 2015 Posts: 143	aldighieri wrote Maxim wrote The "PEEL" chips are "support" for the main ROM chip, so swapping them won't help you. Your ROM is destroyed on the first cart, there's not much you can do without extreme difficulty. Thanks, so the "rom" from the broked cart are writed on GAL20V8A chip? You should look at it under a microscope and see if any of the relatively big traces that go into the chip are cut somewhere, then you need to look closer at the already mentioned micro-wires (ex https://i.imgur.com/gahDlWM.jpg) that goes form the traces to the chip. THere is also the possibility that UV rays deleted or altered the EPROM data; so probably Maxim is right, 99% the chip is gone or at least not recoverable for most of the people.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14744 Location: London	Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 8:04 pm
	The chips with relatively fewer pins are there to support some logic for switching games. There’s no games in them. You can search their numbers on the internet and you find they are programmable logic devices. The one chip on each with many pins is a large ROM. In the broken one, the silicon die was attached to the board using incredibly thin wires before being covered in glue; this is now missing and so probably are the wires. In theory you can fix this is you know which wire goes where and you have a suitable kind of microscope soldering setup.

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