Sega GameGear Problem?

[xXPunisher24Xx]

Hey guys, I recently had gotten this Sega GG from my uncle who had not played it for a while and for some reason the screen is not showing anything. I uploaded a video to show you how it looks. I opened it up to see if anything was wrong, but didn't see anything. The ribbon cable soldering on the motherboard looked fine also, so I can't think of anything else that would cause this to happen. If anyone has any tips or know what is wrong with it, please help me!

Thanks!

The Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5reoWLgbQ4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[eagle5953]

As I recall, it's not uncommon for the capacitors to die on Game Gears after a time.

[xXPunisher24Xx]

So the screen looks like this because the capacitors may have gotten bad?

[eagle5953]

I can't see the video right now, but I wouldn't be surprised.

I would get ahold of member Tibia - she's our resident Game Gear expert. Shed probably be willing to help you diagnose your issues and get it going again.

[tom61]

I have one doing similar right now, except I can see the screen when tilted way back. Do lines appear when you move the brightness knob? Capacitors are immaculate in mine, much to my surprise after hearing that bad caps are the problem in most Game Gears.

[xXPunisher24Xx]

Ok, I hope Tibia can Help Me!

[xXPunisher24Xx]

Bump

[Harlequin]

In the interest of eliminating/identifying potential culprits, have you tried connecting the RCA to a TV and see if it turns on? have you tried more than one game? if I recall correctly the screens for the gear were kind of flaky to begin with. Maybe the LCD is shot...

[tom61]

In the interest of eliminating/identifying potential culprits, have you tried connecting the RCA to a TV and see if it turns on?

I think you're thinking of the Nomad, as the GameGear has no TV out.

[Frizo]

In the interest of eliminating/identifying potential culprits, have you tried connecting the RCA to a TV and see if it turns on?

I think you're thinking of the Nomad, as the GameGear has no TV out.

On the TV Tuner you can actually can. There is a jack on the right, put a splitter in there, bam, composite and MONO(not stereo) audio.

[xXPunisher24Xx]

Bump

[tom61]

I figure your GG has a problem with the brightness or contrast circuit.

In the interest of eliminating/identifying potential culprits, have you tried connecting the RCA to a TV and see if it turns on?

I think you're thinking of the Nomad, as the GameGear has no TV out.

On the TV Tuner you can actually can. There is a jack on the right, put a splitter in there, bam, composite and MONO(not stereo) audio.

That's an input, not an output. (might as well include this correction since the thread was bumped)

[Tibia]

It sounds like the capacitors have gone bad, to me. Have you had it open yet? Check the screen ribbon cable, first of all. If it's still smoothly curved, not kinked, and doesn't have any tears in it, it should be fine. There are at least four different mobo revisions of the GameGear, you'll have to open it up to see exactly what capacitors you need. The caps might look just fine, or they may have leaked crap all over. If they've leaked, you can use a brush to clean the gunk off.

There are step-by-step tutorials out there. Do NOT break the old caps off, though. They are glued, but they're soldered, too. You need to wriggle them enough to break the glue joint, then desolder them. If you just try to break them off with pliers, you can damage the contacts. It's not the end of the world if you do, it just means more work. Feel free to ask me any further questions, I just might be a bit slow in replying.