Mega Drive (HAA-2510) won't display, static noise from earphone jack (PICS)

Hey guys,

I bought a Mega Drive a few years ago and just now I bothered to turn it on and play Sonic 2. To my surprise, despite being shiny and apparently well conserved (and stored in a safe place), this baby won't work. Whenever I turn it on, it doesn't boot the game. The TV screen flicks but doesn't show images. Then I thought I could hear if the game is running by listening to it through the earphone jack, but all I hear is static noise. Tried cleaning the cartridge input and the cartridge pins, but to no avail. I know the cartridge works, so my guess that I have a blown capacitor or whatever that is called (I am a COMPLETE eletronics illiterate noob).

Can you guys help me to find what is causing this? I took pics of the pcb, if that helps:

full
http://imgur.com/xQli3Zp

near joypad connectors
http://imgur.com/OetBO7c

near OPN2
http://imgur.com/3jd56Nk

under the metal plate
http://imgur.com/LWqpYMs

back (ext)
http://imgur.com/0vntLII

next to opn2 again
http://imgur.com/kRZRwcs

from above
http://imgur.com/uct448A

If there's any another description or anything I can point out to make it easier to identify the problem, please, ask me!

COUNT ON YOU GUISE \o/

 

I'm sure the others will chime in shortly with suggestions but here's my guess!
Bad power socket on the mainboard, check for bad solder joints on the underside.
Maybe the Mega Drive isn't getting power consistently enough to be functional.
Any photos of the underside of the mainboard?

We'll get you there! :loyal:

 

Thanks RetroJunkie! Guess I've found the guilty...

full underside
http://imgur.com/mdXspvc

blown stuff
http://imgur.com/qDKBfOV

So, there's this blown bubblegum packing like stuff on the mobo. Is it replaceable?

 

Looks like someone tried to convert it to a PAL console and failed, it looks like a crystal for the subcarrier that's been wrapped in duct tape. Try removing it all and see what happens.

 

I removed the crystal and still no good. Should I remove anything else?

edit: ok, i also cut the red wire on the underside of the mainboard. no use. is the mega drive region locked? i am trying to boot a tec toy cartridge

 

yes the megadrive is region locked that why people do the region mod switch. I had some problem like the one you describe and it was the power adapter that was bad, I try another cheap replacement and it shows image but with a horrible sound. So if you have another original power adapter check that. Apollo mention something about a pal conversion check that too on the jp 1 to 4 solder point for the conversion.

 

Guys,

So I was checking the power supply that came with the console and it's not original. I found that the original is a 9V 1.2A, while this one here is only 0.85A. Maybe that's what making the console not to display anything?

I tried with a generic 9V 2A but it didn't even turn on. Why's that? Total noob here.

Thanks!

 

Maybe polarity ass-about on the generic one....

 

3.575611 PAL-M color carrier crystal. Japanese MD that has been converted to work with Brazilian TVs. I would put that back or at least undo the mod so it's back to NTSC.

The red wire is a sort of region mod which exploits the "one shot" behavior of the reset button.

Also, I don't know why that console has the /AS pin (220 ohm resistor at CPU pin 6) fix as it has the old YM7101 VDP and the CPU is a Hitachi chip ... But these look like factory original.