So I bought a "for parts" SNES on craigslist. Seller said it had a broken power connector and claimed that he couldn't test it, which to me reads as "working SNES for a steep discount". Well, I lost that gamble! Here's everything wrong with it aside from the common power connector problem.
* Distorted audio. Recognizable but a bit "off"
* Distorted video. Recognizble. (in this case, switching to an OEM power adaptor mostly cleared it up. I tried a working SNES and the 3rd party adaptor did not introduce any distortion that I could detect for that machine.)
* Non-functional power LED (root cause undetermined)
* Blown fuse (I temporarily jumpered this with a 1A glass fuse for testing purposes)
There was also something rattling around inside: a 22uF electrolytic capacitor with only a few mm of its legs left. Didn't look like that ones on the board. I looked it up and the SNES doesn't use a capacitor like that. Weird.
Any idea what caused all this damage? I've got a couple of theories, but I'd like to ask the audience first.
Thanks