Did I Fry my Genny??

[HyruleHero]

I was hooking up an old model 1 Genesis, couldn't find the power supply for it. I had a bunch of model 2 power adapters but no elusive model 1. So..... Me being impatient tried a couple other very random power adapters, none worked. Upon finally finding the correct one it powered on. Weird thing is only some games are working. It seems I have a pork el with any and all EA games but I was able to get MK, Beavis and Butthead and Outrun to work. Then I tried B&B again, and the Sega screen came on but then the screen started going haywire. I even tried cleaning the games and system to Bo avail. Did I screw this model 1 up??

[Leo_A]

Try cleaning your cartridges. Seems odd that some games work and some don't if you caused damage to it.

But plugging in any AC adapter you find with no attention paid to the specifications required is a quick way to kill a game console. So it wouldn't shock me if you did it in doing that stunt.

[Lerxstnj]

yep, fried pork el.

[wiggyx]

I was hooking up an old model 1 Genesis, couldn't find the power supply for it. I had a bunch of model 2 power adapters but no elusive model 1. So..... Me being impatient tried a couple other very random power adapters, none worked. Upon finally finding the correct one it powered on. Weird thing is only some games are working. It seems I have a pork el with any and all EA games but I was able to get MK, Beavis and Butthead and Outrun to work. Then I tried B&B again, and the Sega screen came on but then the screen started going haywire. I even tried cleaning the games and system to Bo avail. Did I screw this model 1 up??

Which EA games? I only ask because the oldest EA games had a goofy bypass for the lockout which would keep them from working on model 2 systems. I wonder if you somehow damaged a small portion of the unit that, for some magical reason that's beyond me, killed the ability to play such games.

Either that, or it's just fubared and it's just a coincidence that those particular games aren't working for ya. Maybe a cap or something is just about to fail, and that's causing the intermittent functionality.

Maybe try taking the thing apart and inspecting the guts. Some stuff, like blown caps, are really easy to spot. You didn't happen to try an NES-001 AC adapter, did you? Those things are deadly for anything but an NES-001.

yep, fried pork el.

What you did right there, I see it

Mmmm, bacon!

[sloan]

So..... Me being impatient tried a couple other very random power adapters, none worked.

Adaptors that will work fine with genesis model I console are Sega Master System, Atari Jaguar, and Sega CD. NES plug will fit it, but will fry the Genesis I console. Hopefully, you did not use a NES power adaptor on your Genesis.

[eggwolio]

Hypothetically speaking, if one were to have plugged their NES adapter into a model 1 Genny long before they saw this thread, how might they go about un-frying it?

[M.Buster2184]

yep, fried pork el.

Well said.

[dendawg]

Hypothetically speaking, if one were to have plugged their NES adapter into a model 1 Genny long before they saw this thread, how might they go about un-frying it?

A good starting point would be the fuse and voltage regulator.

[old_skoolin_jim]

Try cleaning your cartridges. Seems odd that some games work and some don't if you caused damage to it.

But plugging in any AC adapter you find with no attention paid to the specifications required is a quick way to kill a game console. So it wouldn't shock me if you did it in doing that stunt.

Yeah, that's how I broke two separate Sega CDs, circa 1997... NES power supplies fit nicely the jack, but they very literally INSTA-KILL the system. Oops. At least by then the system had gone down to $60 and included Tomcat Alley instead of Sewer Shark. My friend is still mad at me for erasing his Lunar 2 save, but I never had the heart to tell him it was because I accidentally fried his system the same way I fried mine... TEENAGE DERP

[sloan]

Most power adaptors take 120v AC current and convert it to 6-12v AC current. Unlike most, NES outputs DC current. You can use adaptors that output AC current (so long as the center pin polarity is equivalent) on consoles that require DC current, but not vice versa. So, you can safely power your NES front loader with a Sega Genesis or Atari Jaguar power brick, but the NES brick will insta-cook your other devices. Not recommended for the feint of heart, or limited of budget.

[wiggyx]

Most power adaptors take 120v AC current and convert it to 6-12v AC current. Unlike most, NES outputs DC current. You can use adaptors that output AC current (so long as the center pin polarity is equivalent) on consoles that require DC current, but not vice versa. So, you can safely power your NES front loader with a Sega Genesis or Atari Jaguar power brick, but the NES brick will insta-cook your other devices. Not recommended for the feint of heart, or limited of budget.

Right idea, but backwards.

NES-001 adapter doesn't convert AC to DC, it steps the AC down and the console converts it to 5V DC. That's why the NES adapter/step-down fries everything but an NES.

Pretty much every other system uses an AC adapter that converts AC to DC, and since the NES will eventually convert the juice from AC to DC anyway, using an adapter that does the job in the first place won't hurt it a all.

[theclaw]

It really begs the question why Nintendo didn't just follow Famicom's power concept. I mean that adapter already fits US outlets and is generally regarded safe enough. A more minor tweak would've saved them R&D cost.

[wiggyx]

That's just it, there were probably just about zero R&D costs. AC adapters from that era are rarely proprietary, and I doubt that the chipset which converts the AC into DC within the console is anything but an off-the-shelf unit. I'd wager that the choice was made because it actually saved them money.

[alec006]

What's funny is the NES can run off a Genesis DC power supply without any fuss, since it's converted to DC anyway. It's that AC that kills consoles because computers are met to be run with DC power. Hopefully the fuse and voltage regulators stopped it before it got to anything else on the console.