I'm in the midst of checking up on my Twin Fami Turbo and I noticed some of the capacitors on the motherboard have leaked, some worse than others. If you have a Twin Fami Turbo I'd suggest checking out the caps and get them replaced ASAP.
EDIT: Just replaced all the caps on my Twin's motherboard, it seems that almost all of them leaked in some way. I'd really like to see if mine was an isolated incident or if this is a widespread issue much like the Game Gear and TurboDuo.
Did not know Turboduos had that problem too. I'll check my Turbo Twin Fami and see.
Twin Fami Turbo? You mean the Twin Famicom with rapid fire on the pads...?
Quote from: Hamburglar on February 13, 2012, 05:39:43 pm
Twin Fami Turbo? You mean the Twin Famicom with rapid fire on the pads...?
Yes.
Quote from: petik1 on February 13, 2012, 05:02:41 pm
Did not know Turboduos had that problem too.
Yeah, it's by far the most common problem with those consoles. It's the same thing as the Game Gear and TurboExpress, they were plagued by poorly made surface-mount caps that would fail prematurely and cause potential damage to nearby traces. I didn't notice any damage caused by the leaky caps on my Twin Fami though but it's better to be safe than sorry.
I haven't seen this problem. Could it be noticed on functionality?
Tend to see a fair amount of twin famis with no sound or broken video output, guessing this (leaky caps) is the most likely culprit.
After replacing the caps, my Twin Fami seems to be making this odd ticking noise in the audio. I'll see if I can get a recording of it later and hopefully someone can pinpoint what it might be.
So it worked fine before you replaced them?
Actually I think it started doing this before I replaced the caps, I'm not too sure. Here's a recording: http://www.mediafire.com/?7702umd4g20lz5x (http://www.mediafire.com/?7702umd4g20lz5x)
No one has any ideas?
Wrong polarity on a cap, maybe?
Quote from: petik1 on February 27, 2012, 11:54:24 am
Wrong polarity on a cap, maybe?
If that were the case, I'd have a blown or leaky cap on my hands. I'll have to double check later but I'm very sure I put in all the new caps correctly.
Is it just the turbo? My regular black twin famicom has quite perfect looking caps.
Quote from: Drakon on February 27, 2012, 08:40:26 pm
Is it just the turbo? My regular black twin famicom has quite perfect looking caps.
It seems to be, but I'd still like to know if mine was just an isolated case or if this is becoming a problem for the Turbos. I noticed that my Turbo was manufactured in 1989, so I'm curious if the Titler may have the same issue or not.
I've never had a console or arcade pcb with caps that died. I read about the batteries on arcade pcbs eventually leaking and causing damage so I removed and / or relocated batteries off of my arcade pcbs. But I've never heard about caps going crazy.
Quote from: Drakon on February 28, 2012, 10:45:43 am
I've never had a console or arcade pcb with caps that died. I read about the batteries on arcade pcbs eventually leaking and causing damage so I removed and / or relocated batteries off of my arcade pcbs. But I've never heard about caps going crazy.
It's definitely possible, it's actually a widespread problem with handhelds like the Game Gear and TurboExpress and certain consoles, namely the TurboDuo and LaserActive PACs.
That's disturbing to know.... :'(
Game Gear systems are notorious for bad capacitors causing a myriad of sound & video issues.
Depends on how much use the console has seen, re the caps dying, but there are many systems that are notorious for it happening.
E.g.
- Game Gear
- PC Engine GT
- PC Engine Duo
- I've encountered quite a few twin famis with broken sound or video as a result of leaking caps
I had a Neo Geo MVS board whose battery started to leak too, luckily I got to it in time before any damage was done.
Many electronics were made with bad caps. Here's an interesting read about them (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/jun/29/dell-problems-capacitors).
Yeah the leaking battery thing I'm totally aware of. But I think leaking caps is less common....or atleast I hope it is.
Quote from: Drakon on February 28, 2012, 08:03:27 pm
But I think leaking caps is less common....or atleast I hope it is.
Unfortunately it is quite common. It depends on the type and quality of caps used, but in general if you collect old consoles chances are that some of them will die due to leaking caps - not a matter of if but a matter of when.
Easy to replace them though and best tended to quickly to avoid further damage being done from the corrosive material that leaks out of them which ruins the board. If any of your consoles start fading in audio or suffer from unexplained diminished video output, it's time to get some new caps in that sucker.
Just one of those things. We're dealing with electrical components that are 20+ years old, they won't last forever.
I managed to fix the audio issue, it turned out to be the mic of all things. At least I can rest easy now knowing it wasn't the caps after all.
Quote from: 2A03 on March 03, 2012, 11:52:26 pm
I managed to fix the audio issue, it turned out to be the mic of all things. At least I can rest easy now knowing it wasn't the caps after all.
I usually disconnect the p2 controller for that very reason.