So, I got a super cheap Famicom AV, which was sold to me on the premise that it was completely dead, which it was, but I thought why not try and fix it. Despite the steps I've taken to revive it, I can only get a grey screen out of it when I turn the console on. Here are the steps I've taken so far: - socketed the CPU and PPU just so they're easier to work with - tested the CPU and PPU on another console and confirmed they work fine - the pad for pin1 of the CPU had been stripped. The pin is AD1 and appears to connect to the resistor right next to it on the board - the pad for ground on C41 had also been stripped. I just connected it to the edge of the board. - Q1 was missing. I replaced it with one from another working console. - C20, C40 and C41 appeared damaged. I replaced them, but the capacitors I used in C40 and C41 are physically larger than the previous ones. The board indicates they're supposed to be 0.01 which I assumed was uF, but I might be wrong. - Replaced the LM7805 and main capacitor - Cleaned the cartridge slot, although it wasn't really dirty at all Any ideas that I could try to get the board running?
Here are some spots I would investigate. The Bottom arrow, that trace looks cut 100% from the picture. The other areas, I'd clean up and make sure nothing is bridged. I've accidentally bridged a near by trace with a pin. So go through each pin and make sure there is no continuity next to traces that are close. Sometimes the flux makes these areas hard to see.
I cleaned up the areas mentioned, but couldn't find any bridges or shorts. I did notice that the pad for pin 4 of the CPU was in a bad state as well. It appears to just go to pin 13 of the cartridge slot, so I wired it up hoping that would fix the problem, but unfortunately not :-( The search goes on...
I've checked whatever continuity I can within reason and also checked that the PPU and CPU are receiving the correct voltages, which they are. Next thing I'm going to try is to fit a Hi-Def NES to see if the issue is somewhere in the video output circuitry, which I suspect it might be.