Should I buy a non working PC Engine Duo?

[Gypsy]

Yeah the sellers you don't want to buy from are the ones that sell refurbed units. If they are selling a busted one, it's probably well f*cked. Just check their item history and what else they have up and it should be apparent.

As mentioned by the last two posters, yamatoku has problems, but they do not repair systems.

[LowRes]

I'm happy to report my PC Engine Duo finally arrived today and surprisingly both the Hucards and CDs are working.  The audio is really low and the video cuts in and out sometimes so I think I'll be good once I replace all the caps.  Working on replacing the caps now.  Was very happy to hear the music from the Snatcher Pilot disc I was using for testing   can't wait to have it working 100%

[Winniez]

Great to hear.
I can't recall what the item was but I remember buying something listed as "non-working" from Yamatoku and it worked just fine. I also bought few Super Famicom controllers listed as "working" from them and one had a dead PCB, they did send me a replacement though. So it goes both ways with them but their testing is really not that thorough.

[wilykat]

Defective and non-working system are crapshoot. You have no way of knowing exactly what the issue and whether someone tried to repair before or not.  I picked up a Duo-R 2 years ago very cheap because the seller reported video problem.  It took me a while to figure out the nature of the problem as it didn't show up when I played HuC games or some CD games.  Only games that required System 3.0 card (or ROM in Duo) showed problem which pointed to RAM chip used by System 3.0 ROM.   http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=19474.msg416018#msg416018

Once I found the exact issue and fixed it with a piece of wire, it has been working flawlessly since then.

[LowRes]

I'm finished!

Replaced all the caps including the super cap, did the jailbar fix, greased up the laser gears and rails, PC Engine Duo working perfectly   I got lucky this unit had nothing wrong with it but bad caps. 5 pads got lifted from removing the surface mounted caps and had to be repaired but everything is working great now.  I also accidently melted the top of the switch for the cd door, but cds are loading regardless, not sure how but I'm not complaining.  I'll have to try to find a replacement switch if possible

I played 3 stages of Dracula X so far, I'm gonna sleep good tonight knowing the system is working perfectly lol.  Very happy tonight!

Thanks to all you guys for the help and advice

[Necromancer]

Congrats!  Another one saved and put to good use.