REPAIR GUIDE - TurboExpress: Total capacitor replacement chart

[farankoshan]

My TurboExpress won't even boot up anymore (no sound, no audio, and seemingly no power). Will a total replacement of the caps solve that problem?

[BlueBMW]

Its possible... but if it is because of caps, its very likely you'll have to repair some traces and maybe some other components that have been damaged by leaked capacitor fluid.

[farankoshan]

I will begin the long road to raising this baby from the dead.
Hopefully, my efforts will not be for naught.

[BlueBMW]

I will begin the long road to raising this baby from the dead.
Hopefully, my efforts will not be for naught.

If you fail, one of us can surely fix it

[farankoshan]

Hey thanks, BlueBMW!

I do hope it's capacitor-fixable for now.

(Is it just me, or is Red Ghost's chart and diagram lacking...?)

[BlueBMW]

(Is it just me, or is Red Ghost's chart and diagram lacking...?)

Lacking in what way?  It shows all the capacitors that tend to fail.  The solid surface mount capacitors dont have the same problems that the aluminum electrolytics do.

[farankoshan]

Does anyone know where I can source a replacement for the transformer that powers the screen lamp? Mine shorted (due to cap leakage) and I'm not sure where to find a replacement...

[BlueBMW]

The best bet would be from a junk express / gt.   Shoot username Duo_R a pm.  I seem tobrecall he may have a few completely dead or severely damaged expresses.

[phipscube]

This is a fantastic Guide!! I recently bought a PC Engine GT and it had very weak audio and washed out colour. I did a full cap replacement and its now working great! nice loud audio (I used 47uF caps on the audio section) and much nicer colour The only thing that i'm a bit gutted about is the screen has a dead pixel appear after I did this. I was very careful with the top shell/display but for some reason when I assembled the unit the dead pixel was there. Not a REALLY big deal as it's not noticable when playing, but i'm a bit of a perfectionist so it bugs me a bit when the screen is black.

[BlueBMW]

Finding an express without a dead pixel is hard.  They almost all have at least one dead pixel.

[phipscube]

Ah ok, I thought I could have done something to make it appear. Just coincidence I guess

[thesteve]

of the 5 i think, expresses i have worked on, only one has a dead pixel. PS. its one of mine
even TZD listed dead pixels as common, and nothing to be concerned with

[BlueBMW]

So that's where all the good expresses are..   stevs been hoarding them

[farankoshan]

please send one my way... hehehe.

My Express is now just a glorified bit-tunes player for Turbografx music...

[thesteve]

i only have 2, 1 with a perfect screen.
the other perfect screens i have seen were units i fixed for others. (all the ones fixed for others)