Whats in my Dreamcast?

[Apollo]

Earlier today, I was playing my Dreamcast. It's always had an issue where unless the controller cord was positioned perfectly in the console (sometimes to the point where I need to have something supporting it from underneath), it wouldn't be read at all. Today, i finally opened up the console, thinking something was loose and could be tightened. Well, I found this.

Obviously, theres something wrong with my Dreamcast. The first thing it reminded me of was when a battery has been sitting for too long, or been inside a device for too long and the acid begins to leak and forms this sort of buildup. Anyone familiar with this? Any ideas on what I can do to fix/clean this?


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3491/3236892155_7f64c57220_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3350/3237732390_ef93c03fb3_b.jpg

PS: The images were too large to be uploaded to DP, so I hosted them on flickr, hope no one minds :D

[skaar]

Pixie dust.

[dendawg]

I don't think it's battery acid, as the battery itself looks clean. Was there anything sitting on top of that port, because that looks like an overheat.

[Link83]

I have seen a Dreamcast that looked abit like that and it was caused by a drink being spilt on the console, which then leaked into the lid and through the power LED 'plastic triangle' bit and down onto the controller port board - im guessing yours could be something similar as there is residue on the black plastic controller port housing, and there's no other components above that could cause that sort of damage - plus the battery looks fine as previously mentioned. I would imagine its also corroded the joypad connectors inside the ports aswell, so causing an intermitant connection.

You could take the whole controller board out and try and clean it up using some lightly damp cotton buds/q-tips including inside the controller ports (Although make sure no bits of cotton get left inside) Alternatively I would probably nick a working controller port board from a broken dreamcast (Most of which have drive failures - so you could even just swap over the drives instead if you liked)

Hope that helps :)

[eskobar]

Probably someone spilled something :S

[Apollo]

Well, I know I haven't spilled anything on it, I've kept it on a shelf in a mini entertainment center that I use for my consoles. However I did buy it used from a shop, so I'll call on Saturday when the owner is supposed to be in and see if there's anything he can do for me.

Also, I'll see if I can find any scrapped Dreamcasts somewhere, although I think my best bet for that would be Craigslist.


Thanks for all the advice, everyone.

[eskobar]

Let me know if you do not find spare parts for the DC, i shoud have extra controller cards ... just pay shipping for them, like 4 usd, shipped from mexico.

[otoko]

somewhat not but kinda related not: Do you have any working Dreamcast motherboards? My first Dreamcast's Board stopped displaying video on me and I know all the other parts are still working like new.

[SnowKitty]

somewhat not but kinda related not: Do you have any working Dreamcast motherboards? My first Dreamcast's Board stopped displaying video on me and I know all the other parts are still working like new.

i have a spare dreamcast board around

[Dreadstar]

Almost looks like blown capacitor goo.