Turbo Express - Slow to load game?

[Flynn]

I recently got a Turbo Express that was recapped and it works, kind-of... After putting a game in and turning it on, I see a white screen (with a slight horizontal line flicker at the bottom 1/2 of the screen). This screen will be this way for anywhere from 15 seconds to 2 minutes and then the game shows up and plays fine. During this 15s-2m, there is no sound or response from the control pad. The game plays perfectly fine for as long as the system is on. Then when I switch games (turning the TE off and on again), I get the "slow boot" of the new game again and have to wait. But, again, it plays fine for as long as it's on.

Anyone experience this on an TE/PCE or even a TG-16? Could this be a bad capacitor or bad connection? If so, anyone know where to start looking?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks!

- Flynn

[Fidde_se]

Probably not all caps were changed, a few years back it was popular to only change the video caps...

Besides that maybe electrolyte hasn't been cleaned and makes interference on the PCB and vias that has leaked from the old caps, even if they were exchanged it's still there until it's cleaned once and for all.

[Flynn]

Is there a map/list of what caps apply to what (like video, audio, gameplay, power, etc..)? I wouldn't mind opening it up and looking to see if (1) all caps appear to be new (recapped) and (2) if the "gameplay" caps have some residue or other stuff around them.

Thanks for the response!

[rxmage]

Great info here:
http://console5.com/wiki/Turbo_Express

Does it have the slow load times with both batteries and the adapter?
DC jack can get flakey. Low voltage could potentially cause this.

Good luck
Chad

[SignOfZeta]

While I've never heard of this problem before, it does sorta sound like a cap issue. Something is taking too long to saturate before passing the voltage on. Check polarity of the caps...I guess.

Sorry, no idea.

[Flynn]

Thanks for the quick replies!

I guess I'll have to check out the caps (polarity and all). I have looked through the console5 website for info, but I haven't found anything like this.

I've also tried the system with both the AC adapter and fresh batteries. The results are the same.

I had wanted to get this modded for region-free, but not unless it works as normal. I wonder if it's even worth a re-recap.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[Flynn]

The problem of the slow loading of the game has been solved. I believe, as some have mentioned, that it was some kind of interference. The solution: While I was poking around in the TE, I noticed the solder joints on the RF shield covering the ICs were sloppy and large. I decided to clean them up and noticed that, at least, 1 joint had overflown to touch a part of the main PCB (one of those small holes/test points). It must have been touching something else (like ground, if the RF shields are grounded) and caused some interference with the system. Since that was the only thing I did while I was in there, I've got to believe that was the problem. Games load fast and fine now...

Thanks for everyone's help!