Game Gear Capacitors

[Gamereviewgod]

I've been trying to figure that out myself for some time and I've yet to find anything to indicate what it means, even in electrical engineering textbooks. In the GameBoy Color there are some labeled similarly that I replaced but thankfully the capacitance rating was clear, just not the voltage. Having them replaced with a higher voltage is fine just don't go to a lower voltage or a higher/lower farad rating.

Right, but what is the farad rating on the Game Gear ones? That's where I'm confused. The way I understood when I reading up on this stuff is that R means a ., so it would be .5 uf? Or is it 40uf?

[FABombjoy]

If you replace those two with .47uf @ 50v then you'll be all set.

[Gamereviewgod]

If you replace those two with .47uf @ 50v then you'll be all set.

Will do. Thanks. How do you know for future Game Gears? This is the second one I've seen with them. The first one I totally botched because the damn soldering iron got too close to the plastic connector and melted the hell out of it. Lesson learned to be aware at all times.

This one I legitimately want to fix.

[FABombjoy]

The VA1 revisions are the only Game Gears with electrolytics smaller than 1uf, so you shouldn't have to worry about any future oddball markings. I think I used to know of a site that explained the 2-digit codes but I can't seem to locate it. Maybe the cap itself is marked if you remove it from the square plastic holder.

[APE992]

I'll have to independently confirm this information and add it to SMS-Power's wiki page for capacitors. All of the info they have now I put up but for some reason I didn't write down all of VA1's values, just 99% of VA4.

Gotta track down VA2 and VA3, if they exist.

[FABombjoy]

FWIW, out of a dozen or so Game Gears, I haven't seen anything marked VA2 or 3 yet.

[APE992]

Same thing here. I've yet to open up a PAL GameGear (which apparently exist as labeled PAL on the motherboard) and a Majesco GameGear. I'm thinking both of those are labeled differently but I've yet to come across one.

[FABombjoy]

The Majesco units are completely different from the others, and aren't marked VA anything. I have a parts list that I'll be publishing soon.

[thegamezmaster]

I got mine from Digikey. They were very helpful with getting me the right size to fit and everything. Just google search and get their phone number and call them up. Good prices too. Good luck.

[APE992]

The Majesco units are completely different from the others, and aren't marked VA anything. I have a parts list that I'll be publishing soon.

I've already beat you to it (mostly):
http://www.smspower.org/Development/...apacitorValues

VA1 is mostly incomplete admittedly. VA4 is about 98% complete but I get the feeling I missed a few.