RIP my beloved Supergrafx

[deubeul]

Hi guys,

while I was struggling against the last boss in 1941 my wife had the good idea to go quick between the table and the TV and hauled her feet in the Scart cable, which resulted in my supergrafx falling from 30cm on the floor and now it's dead (the supergrafx).

Symptoms:
- right after the fall, the image was frozen but music continued to play (IIRC, I powered it off right away).
- now when I power on the console all I got is a white screen without sound, same as when the card is not detected or when the slot is empty. I tried with several games, slighltly moving the card in the slot  trying to get the right position, but always the same result: white screen, no sound.

I opened the console to have a quick check and none of the chips is over heating.

Any Idea? (or condolences?)

[MNKyDeth]

This is a guess from me. But reflow the solder on the A/V, power and controller ports? Maybe something cracked a little from the jolt.

Try a different game in the system?

Any cracking on the PCB?

These are all just guess's so...

[BlueBMW]

The way the supergrafx shell holds the PCB in place makes the board more prone to cracking when impacted (I've seen it several times)  So its possible you got a small crack in the pcb.  Usually fixable with some effort.

[wyndcrosser]

Open the "guy" up and let's see.

[Gentlegamer]

After pcenginefx.com, go here http://www.divorcenet.com/resources/divorce-judge/hiring-divorce-lawyer.htm

[EvilEvoIX]

I hope you fix it soon.  Post status updates.

[mickcris]

Yeah, the pcb most likely cracked and broke some traces. I got one cheap due to this issue and was able to repair it. Some of the broken traces can be a bit hard to see.

[csgx1]

Cracked pcbs are somewhat common? Sounds like a design flaw.

Just a thought...does your Supergrafx happened to be region modded? If so, the jolt could have loosened a connection.

30cm drop doesn't seem like a whole lot.  Hopefully it's an easy fix.

[thesteve]

that system is prone to cracking
check board at stress points (heatsink mounts and where the cover touches the board)

[Necromancer]

Aww, man that sucks. 

On the plus side, you'll have a good response for a while when wifey is mad about something: "Yeah?  Remember that time you trashed my SGX?"

[deubeul]

Thanks (and lol) for your responses guys.   

For now I just had a quick look searching for an over-heating chip or a crack, but didn't notice any of those. Don't think it's a loosen connection, because the console acts as if there was nothing in the Hucard slot, no image, no sound, just blank screen.

I hope it's just a crack, I should eventually find it.
I'll give you updates, thanks again.

[ginoscope]

After pcenginefx.com, go here http://www.divorcenet.com/resources/divorce-judge/hiring-divorce-lawyer.htm

LOL I was thinking the same thing but in all seriousness I hope you figure out what is wrong with the system.  Like others have said check the av/controller port areas for loose connections.

[thesteve]

just a note, the sound continued
if it was a solid tone look for a crack between work ram/card and 6280
if the sound continued normally look for cracks around the heatsink interrupting the data bus to a 6270
also try rock-on, as its sound runs without proper video function

[wilykat]

Cracked joint between any of the chip?  Get a really good magnifying glass, like jeweler's loupe and check over all the pins of the IC. Wiggle the IC as you check for pin, you might find a pin or 2 moving when it shouldn't move.

[deubeul]

Found !



Looks like I got some chirurgical soldering to do 

The crack goes far under the HUcard slot, but only the traces from the huC6202 VPC are cut, those below seems OK as far as I could test them. Hope I'm right because I really don't want to unsolder the slot.