Ok, so I have this SNES with graphic problems that I picked up a while ago. It appears to be vertical lines going through I believe certain layers in games, I've provided some pictures below. Recently I decided to try to rectify the problem, but everything I've tried hasn't worked out. https://imgur.com/a/n4w36 I've tried doing a full recap, replacing the 7805 voltage regulator (which reads at 11.2v in and 5v out), cleaning the cart slot with alcohol/toothbrush and using different games/AC adapters. This problem spans all forms of video output (RGB, composite, rf etc) on every TV I've tried. I'm just wondering if anyone may have any suggestions as to what may be the problem and/or provide solutions. From what I've gathered is that ultimately, it may be a PPU issue and thus not worth fixing. I'm just trying to see if there is anything else I can do before giving up on this and I guess keeping it around for parts.
Check the areas around your VRAM. Make sure nothing is corroded around the chips and that the traces look good. Do continuity checks.
Doesn't appear there is any corrosion or bad traces. I did a continuity check on anything that looked suspect and they all came back fine. I'll prob check some more later, but I haven't found anything yet. It does appear that there may have been a spill near the area around the sound chip at one point if that helps at all. There was some residue on the case that appeared to be Coke I think.
If it's doing it through RGB, then it's probably not the encoder chip. When you say you recapped it, does that mean you replaced *every* cap...including the SMD caps? I've replaced the surface mount caps around the PPU chips when I've had similar (but not the same) issues with some success. What revision motherboard is it?
I was under the impression all of the caps were SMD caps, at least for my particular revision of the board. I did replace all caps that I was aware were replaceable, according to console5. The revision is SHVC-CPU-01.
I believe that is a list of only the large electrolytic capacitors. I'm referring to the smaller surface mount capacitors (most of which are on the bottom of the board). This may or may not be the problem, but I would suspect the surface mount caps on the RGB lines between the PPU and the encoder chip. I don't know what these caps are labeled on that board revision, but if you trace the R, G, and B lines back from the encoder chip towards the PPU, you'll probably find that they each hit a cap before connecting to the PPU chip. I'm not sure what the correct values are of these caps off the top of my head, but this is where I'd look first.
Sorry to bump a week old thread, but this is almost definitely one of the PPUs. I'm not 100% sure which it is, but I would start by replacing PPU1. I recently had a system with a very similar problem with vertical lines on the left side of the screen that was fixed by replacing PPU1. If you have a flash cart, try running the burn-in test rom to see what, if anything, fails the tests. However, even if everything passes the tests it could still be a bad PPU, since these kinds of relatively minor problems don't always cause a test to fail.
Is there a way to open up the chips PPU, SWRAM, or ENC-A or B to fix them? I hear people just finding them on other snes boards and scrapping systems. That just hurts me to hear multiple systems getting trashed just to have one working system.
Not really. However, I'd rather have had cobbled together two working systems from four broken systems than be stuck with four broken systems. I'd like to think that people aren't buying totally working systems just to pull a CPU or something from it...especially to fix the exact same console that they just parted out. As to the OP's problem...smilecitrus has good, but disheartening advice. I always try to check all passive components (like caps and resistors) first, but sometimes the IC in question is just dead. This very well may be a dead PPU. If it is and you really want to pursue it further, you'll need (some) dead SNES consoles, Chipquik or a hot air reflow station, and a lot of luck/patience. I've done PPU swaps. It's not impossible, but this is higher level soldering we're talking about here.
