JVC X'Eye Power But No BIOS [PICTURES]

Hey everyone, I recently obtained a non-working JVC X'Eye and am determined to fix it. The console must have been sitting in a closet for years. When I got it, there was a dead nested spider, so the first thing I did was clean it out.



-symptoms-
I'm using an official JVC X'eye power adapter, and when I try and turn on the console, the power LED's light up, and if I have the laser assembly connected, I can hear a feint 'click', so I know that power is being distributed across the board. That's about as far as it gets though, and it never reaches a BIOS splash screen, etc. Neither the Genesis or CD portions are responsive.

-what I've done-
I bought a cap kit off Console 5 and replaced each of the caps. One thing I need clarified is that I have these positioned properly. I took note of how the previous caps were installed, and I assume that the circle part of the PCB marking for each capacitor is negative (?). Can someone take a look at this example section of caps and make sure I have these placed properly?

-areas of concern-
I've looked over the board and didn't notice anything too serious. There isn't widespread corrosion or rust on the board, but there is an area of concern around the LC331632M-12 RAM chip on the board. As you can see in the photos below, around a section of the pins is some considerable corrosion. I manually bridged these traces with some kynar, and all of the pins seem to re-connected (for the lack of a better word). Someone pointed out, though, that there's a chance the corrosion didn't stop at the edge of the chip and that there could be corrosion beneath the chip.

-detailed pictures-
If yall wouldn't mind skimming over these pictures and letting me know if anything sticks out, I'd greatly appreciate it. Please request any additional photos of specific areas that may be useful.

Corrosion

Spoiler

Main Board

Spoiler

Capacitors

Spoiler

 

From looking at that picture only two traced were broken. So not sure why you have so many wires, I'd verify those are connected right as well. I'd agree that there may be corrosion under the chip as well.

The whole area on top of the cart connector seems like an issue if that's rust. The IC to top right of the top of the connector has dirty pins too.

 

Thanks for the input, Good. I'll double check my connections and remove the unnecessary wires. I checked the cartridge connector and it was just the photo angle I guess, because the contacts actually look clean. I cleaned up the IC above the top right of the cartridge connector, which was indeed pretty dirty, but there aren't any damaged traces.

Does anyone know which chip is for the BIOS?

 

Everyone seems to be buying broken X'Eyes at the same time... lol. As far as Tofu said, thats all right. As far as the BIOS goes if you need to replace it, if you joing "Club X'Eye" on Facebook, we have a member on our page who performed a BIOS swap for a readily-available chip that looks pretty good.

 

I requested admission to the group! And yeah, I can imagine a lot of people see buying "as-is" X'Eyes for the chance of getting a console on the cheap. It's certainly a gamble, though. Good to know about the BIOS swap. I'm still unsure how to go about diagnosing whether or not the BIOS is faulty or not. Is it a pretty common issue? I suppose a symptom of a faulty BIOS would be it not booting.

 

You have been added by me, lol. The BIOS is not a common issue, but from what you describe and if you fix what Tofu said, it most likely is that.

 

Appreciate it. The question is whether or not I should be the one to remove the corroded IC in question or not. I'm confident that I could get the IC off the board via ChipQuik or something similar, but not sure about getting it back on there. I need to see if I can find a diagram of that specific chip and see what traces run underneath. Tomorrow I'll get everything a bit more cleaned up and triple check that theres continuity on all those traces/legs around the IC.

 

Sounds like a good plan to me!

 

Update: So I cleaned up the wires around the chip, actually ran the wires from two of the legs on the IC to the bottom of the board (followed the traces), and still nothing. One thing I will note: the cartridge connector may indeed have some sort of rust on the pins, but I got a credit card and wrapped it in a fine cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol, and inserted it in and out of the slot and it looks clean. There's no corrosion to the pins, it just looks like they may be slightly brownish. I'm not sure what color the cartridge slot pins are supposed to be, though.

I also highlighted the area beneath the RAM IC, which is where there could POSSIBLY be corrosion underneath. I may buy a ChipQuik set and remove that IC and see what's going on under there.

Underside of the RAM chip

Spoiler

I want to make sure that I don't ruin this thing, though, and make it worse than it already is. If anyone here is both experienced with similar repairs, and wants to make some money, I'd rather put this in the hands of a professional.

Kind of hitting a wall, though, and all I can think of is removing that RAM chip and checking for corrosion. Any other ideas?

Re-ran wires

Spoiler

Best photos I could take of the cartridge slot (click to enlarge)

Spoiler

 

I have to suggestions.

First try reheating each pin for that IC. Might be broken solder.

Second is, the wiring is much cleaner, but sure fire way to make sure you have the right connection is to scrape away the green enamel from the trace and use the shortest wire you can to jump only the broken potion.

Chipquik will be great for this. For putting it back in just put a small amount of solder on each pad. Then place the chip on top and heat as many pins at once.

 

This is just me guessing, because I haven't looked into it. I don't think you'd want to use Chipquik as a solder for installing a surface mounted IC. If I remember correctly this solder will already start melting at around 60 degrees, so that could probably lead to problems later on.

Better to do it the correct way, as demonstrated in this video:

 

Chipquik it's absolutely not recommended for soldering, it's too "fragile" due its composition.

 

Guys. Chipquik is for removing ICs. It's desired because of its low melting point. It stays molten for a bit and allows you to remove the IC in place of not having a hot hair station.
Not meant for installing anything.

 

Then I misunderstood your previous post

 

I had an Xeye with the same problem for 2 years now and I haven't found what the hell is wrong with it. In the end I give up until I get the feeling of trying again.

 

Resurrecting this thread. This has been sitting in my closet ever since, and am now looking for someone experienced with repairing X'eye to physically take a look at my console. I'll obviously pay for the diagnostics as well as time and repairs.

Thanks!

 

i would of tryed to repair the traces as per my ms paint picture i just made lol
is also resolder all the pins

 

This is the kind of work I am very good at. I did a similar repair for a CDX for another user on this forum last year. Unfortunately, I am busy as all hell at the moment with a backlog of repairs I need to do and my line of work pays peanuts. But if you can be patient and want to drop me a PM I can try and help you out on the cheap in a month or two.

-Segasonicfan

 

I'd remove the chip, clean it up (and could be traces running under that chip to those legs as well). Then patch it up, it's a trivial job.

 

not sure why you would say this. Removing this chip requires some reflow work and repairing those traces requires some really solid SMD work, fine tools, and a lot of precision and skill (that took me years to develop). I teach soldering classes and I know it takes students a long time to reach that level (it did for me).

-Segasonicfan