Damaged Gamecube board - Please help me find alternate traces

Okay, so I've been trying to solder my XenoGC to my Gamecube (using wires), but because my soldering iron (despite supposedly being good) sucks, I've ended up destroying some solder pads. For a few of them, the traces are right next to them so it's easy to scrape away and solder there instead (or at least, it would be, if my soldering iron bothered to work), but there is one pre-existing solder joint that has now essentially been murdered, so I'm looking for alternative traces to solder together to keep that connection. It looks important (it seems to be connected to "STBY", which I assume means "standby), and I *think* it is connecting two resistors together on the reverse side of the board.

I've taken some photos of a non-damaged board I have (well, it doesn't LOOK damaged, but it doesn't seem to work, either, so whatever) and highlighted the part that I need to fix in red. It's basically a black hole on the board I'm soldering to. I assume the trace next to the empty solder pad/hole labeled (C311) will connect to one side, but I'm not sure if the trace goes under the C311 resistor to STBY, or if it goes through it, and I'm not sure if this solder joint is even necessary.

I'm also a little unsure about the two solder pads marked in blue. Those two got damaged. I assume the traces from them are fine to solder to, even if it's on the other side of the printed text. That's not terminating the traces which in turn lead elsewhere, is it? I doubt it, but I thought I'd check. Also, what happens if I scrape away at the printed text my accident? Will that cause any problems if a solder joint gets on there, or is it literally just printed text over the printed circuit(s) and therefore has no bearing on the circuitry?

I'd appreciate any help that people can give me for fixing this up to get it back in working order. I've almost finished soldering this damned chip to the board, but I don't want to put it all together again, only to have it not work at all. I think I'm going to get some flux to make my life easier, but why my new soldering iron doesn't take to tinning or cleaning with ease is beyond me. I'm no soldering expert, but I know a fair bit about it, so this is quite frustrating. Anyway, hopefully I get some help, and if I do, thanks in advance.

 

Source: http://oi40.tinypic.com/zoayc5.jpg

 

In all my searching, I never came across that. Much appreciated! Now hopefully this works...

Any idea about the solder joint marked (C311), though? Since mine is "missing" and I can't just resolder it, I'm not sure it'll all work.

 

No problem, be careful to not lift any more pads - it's VERY easy to do on the GC.

 

So I've noticed. It's quite scary. :\

 

Okay, so after hodge-podging it all together (not the messiest thing ever, but it could have been much better), it seems to actually be working. Too bad this "professional soldering iron" is rubbish. Maybe I just need a new tip, but I've only been using it for a couple of days, and it wouldn't tin when I first used it, so I don't know.

I have Super Mario Sunshine on a DVD-R that I tried and it worked, and I tried my official copy of Luigi's Mansion which also worked. The only problem is that the screen whilst playing Super Mario Sunshine looks odd. The whole screen is shifted down, so that there is a black bar across the top and the bottom is off-screen. It works fine on my Wii, though. Luigi's mansion just has bars on the top and bottom (as if it's running in NTSC - I'm not really sure). All of this could just be because of my setup - my monitor has two HDMI ports and a VGA port, so I'm running it through my Elgato HD to check that the modchip works. Until I get some mini-discs, I can't check backups with the thing all closed up (and therefore, would be difficult to move it to a TV to try there).

I'm wondering if perhaps the XenoGC is forcing NTSC when it shouldn't be (my console is PAL). Any suggestions?

Oh, also, as a side-note, what is the XenoShell used for (and why does it look so bad that it's almost unreadable)?

EDIT: Now I'm just getting the "An error has occurred" message when trying to boot Super Mario Sunshine. It takes a long time to read anyway. It starts to show the credits ("Nintendo" etc.), and actually got to the screen with the title before the actual title screen (if you've never played this game, this probably sounds confusing. Because it is) once just now. Should I just tweak the laser pot, or is it possibly something else causing the problem?

EDIT 2: Did a pot tweak and also, I had the XenoGC tape down with electrical tape so that the lights couldn't be seen. Flipped it over and cut a small hole for the lights so that I can see them, and the lights confirm it's working properly. Also, Super Mario Sunshine works fine now. Apparently changing the pot rating fixed my screen issue, which is so weird. Maybe it was causing something to load into RAM incorrectly. I don't know.

My laser pot is at ~197Ω now (couldn't be bothered trying to hit 200Ω exactly. Way too much effort). Retail games and backups now seem to work great. Too bad the SD output looks horrific on my screen, and I tend to leave my monitor on max brightness, which is fine for most games, but apparently not Super Mario Sunshine (it's so washed out that it's actually kind of funny). Now I guess I'll be looking into component mods, if anything ever came of that. I know there's the infamously expensive component cable, and someone was reverse-engineering it, but I don't think they ever finished doing that. Oh well.

 

Laser pot needs tweaking but be SUPER CAREFUL with it and use a really tiny screw driver and turn it very very slightly to the right and you should get the original reading in case you need to go back to it's original setting.

 

Oh, sorry, I didn't even see your post when I made my second edit above. My bad. But yeah, pot tweaking is a pain, which is why I always use a multimeter now. It's an invaluable tool regardless, but you absolutely need one when pot tweaking, unless you like disasters (which admittedly are fun, when it doesn't cost you a ton of money).

 

197 ohms is fine if it's working for your backups.

As for the distorted images, sounds like a NTSC/PAL issue with your TV, but you seem to already know that.

Glad you got the chip installed.

Admittedly, using a Wii is much cheaper if you're planning on going the component route because the cables are so expensive. Plus from my experience, it handles NTSC/PAL conversions better.

 

hi Thomas ..............



when starting to tweak the GC POT start at 350 ohms and test if that doesnt work drop 50 ohms and test again , keep doing that till you get games to boot.


also get the 2 ISOS/Games ' Super Smash Bros Melee ' and ' Metroid Prime 2 - Echoes ' they both make the laser work a lot as in seeking and stress


let each game run for 30 - 35 mins in demo mode , you dont need to play them


if both games come through fine let the GC rest for 24 hours and test again with the 2 games for 30 - 35 mins


thats the real test , sometimes a day later games wont work and you need to drop the ohms some more


dont go below 100 ohms that will kill your laser , also i hope you have Verbatim DVD-R's as they are fantastic


btw clean your lens with Isopropyl Alcohol and if you have White Lithium Grease or Silicone Grease lube the rails before doing any of my suggestions.



i have 12 GC's and the above is what i have done..............

 

I actually only got a (working) Gamecube recently, so I always have used my Wii, and it is indeed so much easier, but I wanted to use the Game Boy Player (problems/drawbacks with it aside), and I like collecting consoles that I can use to play all the games possible, so the Gamecube is kind of a no-brainer for me. The pot tweak seemed to fix the screen issues, and I've seen other reports of people experiencing the same, which is weird albeit amusing. Well, at least it is fixed now.

I think mine was set at ~250Ω stock, but then again, some Gamecubes are set at ~500Ω stock, and others are around 250-350Ω stock, so they do differ. It's all working fine now, though, but I'm interested in testing it with those two games (which I don't unfortunately own but would like, although I know a friend who has Melee, if he can un-lose it - he doesn't exactly take care of his stuff. At all). Why, exactly, would they be the games to test? My assumption is that they're dual-layered discs and therefore pose more problems.

As for the mini-discs, I definitely want to get some, but right now I don't have any, and they're a bit hard to come by over here, so I'll probably jump on eBay and grab some. I've seen many discussions about the types and brands for the Gamecube (as well as other consoles, but it seems the Gamecube, alongside the Dreamcast, is one of the more picky ones), and Verbatim does seem to be one of the more highly-rated ones (and also one of the most common brands for optical media over here, which is a bonus).

I heard that for MOST lasers, you can kill it by going below 150Ω, but I'm not sure how true that is. Under 100Ω would definitely kill it, though.

As for cleaning the lens, I don't remember if I did that on my current laser assembly or not, but I know to be careful, because even a simple cotton bud can scratch it if you're not. Still, I've uses isopropyl alcohol for years, and that stuff is worth its weight in gold to me. It really is helpful. I think my optical drive assembly is fairly new (second-hand but in really good condition), so it should be fine without some grease for now, but if needed, I do have some. I actually got some new, different grease recently which is ceramic grease. Any idea if that is any good for the laser rails?

Oh, and just as a side note, the local hardware store says that soldering flux is illegal in New Zealand. Which Google disagrees with (or, at least, doesn't agree with), and it's super-cheap (and supposedly importable) on eBay, so I really think they're just full of crap.I mean, I'm pretty sure they still sell leaded solder (my understanding is that it can't be used commercially, such as in consumer goods, but can still be used for personal use, so I assume you can still buy it, and I believe my current solder is leaded). Anyway, I just found that bemusing (and amusing).