Run of bad luck with mods.

You guys ever just have a run of bad luck with modding?
I mean my past two mods have gone bad and the last one really hurt me ( I re-modded my nes toploader with long horn engineer's amp and now I have no sound or picture)

 

Dunno mate, so far all my stuff works pretty well. ( Except that SNES that I might have damaged with the power switch, but that was not even while modding it )

 

Did a 128MB RAM upgrade to a 1.2 Xbox board and now it doesn't work.

 

If you want to make sure your nes is still working remove your amp and solder a single video cable to pin 21 of the ppu plus ground,if you get a image then its still alive.

 

happens sometimes, that's life, more with repairs sometimes my MVS board repair attempts were frustrating as hell, but sometimes you just gotta take a step back cool off, relax, meditate, have fun, then go back to it later with a fresh and clear head rather than frustrated or annoyed.

 

Sometimes LEDs I install won't work, but I can just go back in and re-solder them. Gameboy mods really get me too, usually when doing backlights for DMGs I accidently cut the ribbon cables. Shit happens, but live and learn.

 

Its dead I just checked.

 

I have NES with PPU and CPU on socket. You can always try swapping out those chips. If both the chips are ok, then pretty much everything else Is repairable.

 

Thats my plan I just need to pick up a new desoldering iron because mine is dying.

 

I like to heatgun them off

 

I have a heat gun ,but that sounds like it could go bad

 

Well, What I do normally Is use a solder pump to remove most of the solder from each pin. But there is always some left and its a pain to get it all out.
I grap the chip with a DIP extractor and hold it while I heat from the undersite with the heatgun.
If you heat evenly and remove the chip as soon as all the solder is flowing this is a very fast and safe method. It leaves both the chip and the board pristine.
But as with everything, its better to try on scrap first.

Edit: One thing to beware when using heatgun is plastic parts and electrolytic caps. Those obviously do not like the be heatgunned.
But on the underside of a NES board there are no problems.

 

Using a heat gun to remove ICs is a horrible idea, you run the risk of damaging the board and you still have to clean up the leftover solder with a desoldering wick or sucker. I use a desoldering station which makes removing ICs almost trivial, and it doesn't damage pads or traces.

 

Ugghhh started on my first region free bios saturn. Sheesh that is fun, the pads are tiny and fragile. I have removed the original bios but when cleaning 2 pads lifted. Both are repaired, but on my way to work so the new bios will have to wait.

I have a desolder gun, but i wish i had a desolder station. There is really no point in me getting one as 1/we are moving house within 6 months and 2/the whole modding thing i am getting less time (& patience) for.

 

What model station do you use?
If I had something better I would not be using heatgun but I fear that for now it is my best option.


Problem is there is quite a bit of gear on my "would like" list before a desoldering station so In the meantime I use a heatgun which I feel is perfectly acceptable when used right.
The whole "using a heatgun is a horrible idea" is an exaggeration I think.
It is less risky for both the chip and the board than using sucker and wick, which takes age to do so you will probably end up applying more heat to the IC, In a non-uniform fashion, which makes it even worse. Also, you often end up with bend pins from trying to remove chip while tiny amount of solder is left and scratched board due to excessive usage of wick.
Heat gun is done quickly with zero damage to pads, trace or chip.
Ive removed PPUs and CPUs out NES and Famicoms. Ive removed YM2612 from Sega Genesis as well as SMD chips here and there. So far everything went great. No damage whatsoever.
By opposition whenever I tried to work with Pump and wick, I always ended up taking an hour and finished with bent pids and scratched boards. Im done with that.

 

De-solder gun is the key! Love (but not too much) my hakko 808!

I do have a hot air gun, but never tried to remove stuff with it. I wish i had on this saturn, hope the new bios goes on ok. Will just have to try every pin afterwards.

 

If you dont care about the original chip, best to just cut the legs and then apply a litle solder to remove the remaining leg.

 

x

 

I am going to make a goose of myself here.

Above I mentioned a region free Saturn, uh yea. I had trouble with pads lifting and traces tearing, I did the usual "trimmers" trick and snipped each leg, but I guess the "shock" of the nippers was too much. I attached the BIOS and it didn't work, so some of the traces under the chip had obviously been damaged. Not being blessed with X-ray vision forced my to remove the chip doing further damage (f*#k-t1tty-f*#k!).

I thought "I'll be ass'ed if you're going down man! MEDIC!!!!!!!!"

So I had a go at munting the chip remotely and repairing the traces as I go (I see you cringe!), but after about 4 or 5 episodes of Deadwood (Swearengen cracks me up) I got it going. I am in NO WAY proud of this work, it is an abomination,but I am mildly happy the the BIOS (I like the different intro music and beeps/chips and bops it has, I initially thought it was stuffed lol!) worked!

DEAR GODDD!!!!!!!!!



PAL SEGA RALLY



JPN Clockwork Knight



US Virtua Fighter 2



Now I know I should have done it right first time, I have done the snip 'n clip method on at least 5 or 6 Dreamcasts with NO issue, so I was least than impressed when this shit happened.

The console is a US console so it runs in 60Hz so I don't think I will bother with the 50/60Hz switch here. I dare say it would output black and white due to the whole PAL50/60 vs NTSC50/60 thing, so would need to mod the video encoder.

My original PAL Saturn has the manual 50/60 switch with a PAR 4in1 which I will keep as my primary console, this can be put away as a "spare".

I will be investing in a hot air station, but it will be put on hold. Had a visit from the real estate agent tonight and our house is worth more than I thought, so we maybe moving sooner rather than later. We have to put a bunch on storage as our house looks cluttered at the moment and a lot of my console stuff will be going away for the interim.