What are the "capacitor issues" with Game Gear?

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

I have a GG I bought new whenever it came out...Don't remember the year....it was barley played, Ill say not even 20 hours. I don't see any dead pixels or anything so what is the capacitor problem and how do you know it your GG has this problem?

[Rickstilwell1]

There are two ways to tell. The sound starts becoming weaker, almost to the point where you can't hear it. The other possibility is that the screen will get darker and darker, having to have the contrast turned up higher and higher over time just to be able to see the game on the screen. Sometimes both fail equally, other times one goes out without it affecting the other.

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

is it from heavy use or time?

[Shulamana]

Over time, although use probably doesn't help.

The capacitors have electrolytic solutions in them that tend to either leak, burst, or generally become weaker over time and unable to do their job.

[Duke.Togo]

The good news is they aren't terribly difficult to replace and once you do it's as good as new. You'll know when you need to replace them. On mine I had to tilt it at a really steep angle to be able to see anything. After the recap is looks great.

[dendawg]

There are no capacitor "problems." Every Game Gear ever made still functions perfectly

[101011]

If it's a case of bad sound or no sound, Just find one with good audio and swap out the small printed circuit board that the headphones plug into. That's the one with the audio caps. No soldering required.

[wiggyx]

if it's a case of bad sound or no sound, just find one with good audio and swap out the small printed circuit board that the headphones plug into. That's the one with the audio caps. No soldering required.

rofl.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Another symptom of bad capacitors is that the viewing angle is decreased, meaning you have to tilt the unit to see the screen clearly. I have one that's almost invisible if you view it head-on, but when it's tilted 45 degrees, all of a sudden an image appears.

If yours is fine after all these years, it may have been the way you stored it, or perhaps you are just lucky.

[jb143]

Capacitors are rated for so many hours at a certain temp. The warmer they get, either through use or storage, the faster they'll go out of spec(the capacitance value actually changes). Cheap caps are going have a lower # of hours at a lower temp. Game Gears simply used cheap caps. But even high quality parts will be subject to this, it might just take a lot longer.

If it's a case of bad sound or no sound, Just find one with good audio and swap out the small printed circuit board that the headphones plug into. That's the one with the audio caps. No soldering required.

So postpone the problem for a while and eventually have 2 "broken" Game Gears instead fixing them both and having 2 good ones?

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

Well I checked it out and its fine. I guess being stored for all these years helped.

[101011]

So postpone the problem for a while and eventually have 2 "broken" Game Gears instead fixing them both and having 2 good ones?

I have done this with an otherwise thrashed "donor" that was useless except for the audio board. More than a year later & still has great sound.

Merely a suggestion for anyone who's more proficient with a screwdriver than a soldering iron.

[BetaWolf47]

I don't know if this is related to capacitors, but I had a GameGear once that had problems with the backlight. The system got so hot that it made my hands sweat. Eventually, the light just went out one day while I was playing. Can bad caps cause that?

[wiggyx]

I have done this with an otherwise thrashed "donor" that was useless except for the audio board. More than a year later & still has great sound.

Merely a suggestion for anyone who's more proficient with a screwdriver than a soldering iron.

Finding a beat up, working unit was pure luck. Now you're stuck with a ticking time bomb and a turd. May as well fix em both so you have a backup. Plus, caps are CHEAP.

[Rickstilwell1]

I don't know if this is related to capacitors, but I had a GameGear once that had problems with the backlight. The system got so hot that it made my hands sweat. Eventually, the light just went out one day while I was playing. Can bad caps cause that?

Yes. Since the job of a capcitor is to store charges, if they become completely dead they won't be able to store a charge at all, casuing the screen to not even turn on. The failing capacitors that cause dim screens are on their way to this but still have some charge left. It's kind of like batteries and a cassette player. It doesn't just stop when the batteries get low the first time, it gets slower and slower until there isn't enough energy to move at all.

[Edmond Dantes]

The problem with capacitors is that they won't be able to handle the 1.21 jigawatts you need to send you back to 1985.

[Thrillo]

Just to add to this, you know your sound caps are still good if you can set the volume to max and the speaker gets so loud that it distorts. This is one of the reasons why I preferred my Game Gear over my Game Boy back in the day, as I could always hear (and see ) my GG no matter what, while my GB couldn't even compete when it came to that. It's one of the few advantages of using 6 AAs as opposed to 4
Also, anybody else notice that new handhelds keep on getting quieter as time goes on? My PSP's speakers are just barely adequate even in quiet conditions, and my hearing is fine.

[MarioMania]

How do you cut the LED light so you have better battery power??

[wiggyx]

The GG screen doesn't really work like that. You CAN remove the backlight, but doing so means that it'll be damn near impossible to see anything on screen :/

[jb143]

They use cold cathode tubes for the backlight. These are similar to florescent or neon lights and require a pretty high voltage. To get the high voltage needed from 6 AA batteries, capacitors(along with inductors, transistors, and resistors) are used to create a frequency through a transformer, and one of the reasons for poor battery life. But yeah, it's possible that a bad cap could cause the backlight to stop working.

It's also possible to mod the Game Gear with LED's in place of the the CCFL to get better battery life.