No alternatives to a SNES power supply except for Virtual Boy?

[Aussie2B]

Just to confirm with you guys, no power supply for any other system is interchangeable with the SNES power supply except for the one for the Virtual Boy, right? (Technically, the SNES and Virtual Boy power supplies are the exact same power supply.)

Out of nowhere, after playing a game these last few days for several hours across multiple play sessions with no problems (and no problems any of the previous times the SNES was used), my power supply suddenly decided to go on the fritz. :/ I couldn't get the system to start up at first, until the cable was fiddled with (not at the system port, but at the wall wart), and after I got it working, I played for around 30 minutes before the power cut out, making me lose my progress and quite well ticking me off. More fiddling can get it to come back on so it's not like it's dead 100%, but it's pretty much unusable in this state and I don't trust it to not potentially be a danger like this. I'm guessing something has come loose where the cable meets the block (despite the fact that I'm not the sort to carry or pull plugs by their cords).

So now I'm pretty much skunked. I know I have at least one extra SNES AC adapter buried away in storage on the other side of the country, but that's of no help. And I do own a Virtual Boy and a Virtual Boy power supply, but when I bought it, it had already been fan-modded to be hardwired to the controller, so that's of no use to my SNES either.

If there are truly no other alternative power supplies, what do you guys recommend here? Is a fix feasible? Should I just buy a new one? Looking at official SNES power supplies on eBay, the prices are pretty outrageous. I'm not going to pay even more for just a power supply than I would for the whole system with all hookups in the wild.

[theclaw]

If you're really out of options, installing a Super Famicom type plug is the most universal fix. Our SNES remains rated identical to original Famicom.

Right Virtual Boy is a lesser issue today. One could import Japan's adapter piece.

[Kotomo]

I have just sort of been dealing with this same thing myself. There are really cheap Chinese adapters that nintendorepairshop.com sells here. I recently picked this up since I have been trying to troubleshoot some video problems with my SNES. These adapters have two leads coming from the wall wart. One for NES or Genesis and the other barrel and pin connector for SNES. It works just fine, provides the correct amount of amps, and the polarity on the connectors is correct. However they are incredibly cheaply made, so be warned. I took mine aparte since I was curious about the internal components, and the plastic mounts for the screws just cracked and fell apart. Now the two halves won't stay together using the screws and essentially need to be glued. Well, you get what you pay for.

I don't know how handy you are with stripping wires and a soldering iron, but it is possible to take apart the original SNES adapter using some needle nosed pliers by grinding down the tips, or drilling the holes wider to fit unmodified needle nosed pliers in and unscrew the two screws on the wall wart. Once apart, you could cut out the section of wire that's causing you trouble and re-attach it to the PCB further down the wire. You shorten it a little bit but that's a small sacrifice to get it working again.

OR you could chop off the barrel connector and find another 10V 850mA adapter and splice it on to that. You have to get the polarity right, however, as the polarity on the SNES AC adapters is backwards from the usual. Positive is on the outside and negative is on the inside.

Hope this has been some insight for you.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, I've been discussing those potential fixes with my fiance. He's a bit of a tinkerer (consolized his MVS himself even), so he's pretty good at this kind of stuff. Initially we were talking about possibly splicing the cable with an extra Game Gear power supply since it's also 10V 850mA, but then we noticed that the wattage is lower than the SNES so that's a no-go. Seems like opening up the SNES wall wart and shortening the cable is where things are leaning.

But we haven't made any decisions just yet, so if anybody else has any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to share. Thanks a bunch for the info and suggestions so far, guys.

[Pikkon]

I did this to a snes I had,I bought a power jack from radio shack and opened up the snes and removed the rf port and installed the power jack so I could use a model 1 sega genesis psu and it worked great.

[theclaw]

Yeah, I've been discussing those potential fixes with my fiance. He's a bit of a tinkerer (consolized his MVS himself even), so he's pretty good at this kind of stuff. Initially we were talking about possibly splicing the cable with an extra Game Gear power supply since it's also 10V 850mA, but then we noticed that the wattage is lower than the SNES so that's a no-go. Seems like opening up the SNES wall wart and shortening the cable is where things are leaning.

But we haven't made any decisions just yet, so if anybody else has any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to share. Thanks a bunch for the info and suggestions so far, guys.

You'd have to slightly rewire it. American Game Gear uses center positive.

[xelement5x]

Yeah, I had to repair a power block with issues like this. What you're saying is that you need to move the cord around until you hit a "sweet spot" and then it'll work while the wire is in that position right?

If that's the case, the brick itself is probably fine, there is just a kink in the wire somewhere. I'd recommend trying to isolate where exactly the problem spot on the wire is at, then cut the wire to remove that kinked point and then resolder it to the brick in the right spots.

To open the brick you'll need to slave away with needlenose pliers, drill it out, or I bought a cheap spanner bit and was able to open it that way. Also, by cutting away the kinked part you may need to cut and remove the boot where the wire goes into the brick. As a replacement I used a bit of hot glue to hold it all in place, then colored it in with a sharpie to make it look a bit less ghetto.

Hope that helps!

[SuperSonic]

Speaking of virtual boy anyone have a way to ghetto rig some power. I lost my power pack and I don't feel like paying 20 bucks for another one.

[plasticMan]

Speaking of virtual boy anyone have a way to ghetto rig some power. I lost my power pack and I don't feel like paying 20 bucks for another one.

do you have the virtual boy screwdrivers on hand? if so find any old power pack laying around and wire it directly. i would recommend wiring an outside universal interface to the outside of the vb and use a standard universal power pack. that way if the power takes a dump again, you can buy a universal power pack or use a random power pack/adapter with same ratings easily.