How to tell if a Famicom is fried

[Zycrow]

Hi folks. I'm sure this has been asked before, so feel free to point me in another direction or move this thread if so.

I've had an original Famicom for a number of years, and I used to be able to get it to work on an American CRT by using the standard channel 95/96 technique. I found this did not work on every television. A few years ago I lost the CRT I was using to play the Famicom, and since then I've tried it on many TVs, to no avail.

However: After a while I realized at some point I had lost or misplaced the Japanese AC adapter I was using and had been plugging in the Famicom with an American one, probably either a U.S. NES adapter or one of the multi-plug units you can usually find at used game shops. Given the complicated issues surrounding Famicom power supplies, I'm kinda worried now that I've fried my famicom and THAT'S why it's not working. But since the Famicom doesn't have a power light, I can't tell if it's switching on at all. So how can I find out?

By the by, the RF switches I've been using have been a generic one that works on most classic systems, one I bought for the Famicom in Japan, and a Sega Genesis switch, in case that helps.

[famifan]

FM ?
http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=9721.msg137084#msg137084

also famicom's shell casing is really getting hot after few minutes of run (the area after the cart slot where a lot of air vents). Check that fact too

[aha2940]

If you can access a voltmeter, you can start by checking if the output of the 7805 voltage regulator is constant 5V. From there, try checking the output of the PPU (pin 21). Check the videos of GameTechUS on Youtube, they are great, easy to understand (if you have some electronics knowledge) and he solves a lot of problems on famicoms/NES systems.

Regards.