Author Topic: Help me, My PC Engine is dead............. (Read 427 times)

easterislandnick · « **on:** September 10, 2006, 02:44:18 AM »

Hiya, I bought a scart modded white PC engine about 5 months ago from ebay for about £10 which was an absolute bargain. Every so often it would show a soild white screen when I put a new game in it but if I inserted it again it would be fine. The problem has got worse and now no games work, just a solid white screen!!!!!!! Ive just got PCKid 2 and am desperate to play it!! Has any one else had a similar problem? Can it be fixed? Is it dirty contacts? Any help would be much appreciated!

cheezio · « **Reply #1 on:** September 10, 2006, 03:58:45 AM »

solid white screen is what i get if either:

a - there is no game in the slot
b - contacts are grubby

it sounds like your connections need cleaning, thats all. Maybe just on the game carts, but if the machine is very old then it may be dusty inside?

try cleaning the games first, as opening your console may damage the rgb mod (as you dont know what they did inside the machine) - but it all may be ok, just depends how good a job they did on it.

Vanquish · « **Reply #2 on:** September 10, 2006, 04:58:04 AM »

try to do not insert te hu cards to the limit. It could work

easterislandnick · « **Reply #3 on:** September 10, 2006, 07:17:10 AM »

Ill give it a clean, whats the best thing to use? Is white spirit OK?

guyjin · « **Reply #4 on:** September 10, 2006, 09:49:53 AM »

I have no idea what 'white spirit' is - is it Rubbing alcohol? If so, yes, that's good - use a cotton swab on a stick (do they have q-tips in the UK? :p)

cheezio · « **Reply #5 on:** September 10, 2006, 08:20:17 PM »

we have cotton buds, are they the same as q-tips? (small white plastic stick with cotton balls stuck to each end).

dont go dowsing the games in lots of fluid! could break em.

Keranu · « **Reply #6 on:** September 10, 2006, 10:41:18 PM »

Yes those cotton buds you described are what q-tips are out here in America. Sometimes we call q-tips cotton swabs.

easterislandnick · « **Reply #7 on:** September 13, 2006, 09:46:18 AM »

Ive tried cotton buds and contact cleaner but no luck. Ive also tried to get hold of a screrwdriver to open it up but maplin (our version of Radio Shack) doesnt carry any thing that can unscrew the security screws. Apparently they are very old. Looks like Ive gotta get another one, its sad, I was quite attched to it

cheezio · « **Reply #8 on:** September 13, 2006, 10:43:23 AM »

does the console still boot up to a white blank screen when you turn on yes?

if so that suggests things inide are still ok... so there may still be hope.

to get screw bits to open it up look here:
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=80&products_id=7461&PHPSESSID=fd36a8a07d5dbe02cc882d44abcad78e
or here
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Nintendo-Gamecube-Gamebit-screw-security-4-5-mm-Bit_W0QQitemZ200025808672QQihZ010QQcategoryZ20389QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(ebay search GAMEBIT - 4.5 size i think, same as snes etc - dont get the smaller ones used for N64 carts)

the screw bits are very cheap - but you need a screwdriver handle part to clip them onto (or strong fingers may do).

hopefully its just lots of muck inside the console - good luck!!

Digi.k · « **Reply #9 on:** September 13, 2006, 11:43:54 AM »

sounds more like the 1 amp fuse is blown..

Its a bit tricky to replace since you need to remove the heat sink and soldier it on to two wires...

SignOfZeta · « **Reply #10 on:** September 13, 2006, 02:50:12 PM »

Quote from: "Digi.k"

sounds more like the 1 amp fuse is blown..

Its a bit tricky to replace since you need to remove the heat sink and soldier it on to two wires...

If the fuse is blown you don't get a white screen, you get nothing. At least, I'm pretty sure about that.

Digi.k · « **Reply #11 on:** September 14, 2006, 03:08:14 AM »

yea thats right, just get nothing if fuse is blown.

if there is a white screen... then either the connectors need cleaning or maybe one of the chips inside might be damaged??

I got a pc engine which was badly packaged off someone on ebay, just put in a manila envelope with stingy piece of bubble wrap.. it turns on and all i get is white sceen nothing else.. .

since its a scart modded maybe the soldering has come loose on some of the wiring

easterislandnick · « **Reply #12 on:** September 18, 2006, 09:32:15 AM »

Well Ive taken it apart and no luck in cleaning it! All I get is a white screen

I've bought another PC Engine but it's in pig ugly shape (really yellow and modded to the RF output so the picture is pretty poor!) which I paid twice as much for as the old SCARt one!! My housemates Dad was an Army electrician who used to repair hospital electronics so he's gonna have a look as he was pretty good with VCRs and SNESs.

If he has no luck I was considering swapping he cases over, removing the RF mod on the working one and soldering on the scart mod from the broken one. I've never done this sort of thing before. Is it stupidly hard? I'm up for the challenge!

BTW Thanks for the advice everyone! Im a bit green at all this sort of thing and it's much appreciated!

easterislandnick · « **Reply #13 on:** September 25, 2006, 11:46:05 AM »

I've opened it up and Im confused, what do all these wires mean!!!

If you look at the picture above (sorry about the quality) the wires got to -

Blue to the top left expansion port pin (the expansion port is facing south and Im looking at the bottom of the machine.)
Green to the middle far left expansion pin.
Red to the Bottom left Expansion Pin.
Brown is going next to the red, second from left on the bottom row.
White to the top right pin.
Yellow to the Bottom right.
Orange is running to the first connection under the R161 transistor (?) on the middle right of the board.
A Black wire is running to the connection above the plus sign directly above the end of a white line thats labelled RF on the right bottom section of the board.

There is also a separate blue wire running from under the heat sink to just above the middle left of the expansion port.

To make me even more conused there is a thin (one strand) of wire running from 23 just to the top left of the expansion port across the board to a junction just above the second right connection of the top row of the expansion slot. This wire is glued to the board, maybe for insulation.

This doesnt look like any scart mod I can find on the web!!!
http://www.gamesx.com/rgbadd/rgbturbo.htm

Any one got any ideas on this one because Im confused. The mod was originally done by a company called micro medi in the UK. Can I remove this mod and apply it to the RF modded/composite PC Engine?

Cheers!!!!

cheezio · « **Reply #14 on:** September 26, 2006, 12:02:08 PM »

white (RIGHT) and yellow (LEFT) look like the audio wires.
green looks like its the green signal.
red is the red signal.
light blue is the blue video signal.

brown is the composite video signal.

the remaining signals you need for RGB are 5v and ground. I guess black is ground, but you should test with a multimeter.

on the pbc, the pin two to the right of blue is Vout (5volts), you could use this rather than the existing if you wanted to rewire. You should also trace the wires to the scart end, and check which wires go where (google scart pinout if needs be).

hope that is some help...