I recently picked up some consoles that had been stored in a garage for about 10+ years. Most of them work, but there were one or two which don't. One of them is a model 2 Saturn, it has had the main fuse near the power connector blow. Is there anything I should look for (apart from the obvious short/etc) before I replace it? Is it normal for one to ruin due to hot weather/bad storage? The other console is a PAL SNES - it cannot boot any game, but does power on to a black screen when a cart is inserted. I have looked over the mainboard and all appears fine from a visual point - as well as checked the 7805 for proper/consistent 5v output. I also cleaned the cartridge connector and tried games which had also had their edge connectors cleaned. Any other things I should look for that might've gone bad?
Is that Saturn NTSC? One problem is 240 volt users blowing their fuse. They do NOT have region friendly power input, a fact importers sometimes learn the hard way.
With mains PSU's like the one inside your Saturn, there's normally a blue or grey filter capacitor/ surge suppressor on the Live and Neutral feed (usually right near the fuse or AC in socket). If it goes bad the fuse will blow. A bad rectifier or reservoir capacitor can also lead to the fuse blowing. With the SNES, look for corrosion on the Multi-Out connector, it should be nice 'n' shiny. If the connections look dirty, give them a clean. With the power off, hit the reset button rapidly around fifty-odd times to remove any corrosion there. Also try leaving the system powered up for a couple of hours, then reset it again a couple of times.
I'd start with giving the SNES cart connector another overhaul. It's harder to get those things clean than you'd think, especially as the actual contact strips (or whatever they're called in English) are hidden away pretty good in the connector. Perhaps it would be possible to clean them with some fine abrasive agent, for example a chrome shining agent. Just make sure it's not corrosive, you're never gonna be able to clean out all of it from that connector, there will be residues left. Other than that, I'd check the solder points for tin plague. Small solder ponts can very well disintegrate more or less completely over ten years. Of course I don't know how cold that garage got, and how much lead/other metals (that inhibits tin plague) the solder contains, but in the colder parts of the world, tin plague could be a real problem. As for the Saturn, I'd just the same checks you did, change the fuse and then try to fire it up. My experience is that fuses in home electronics blow more often from transients in the electrical network etc, than from internal problems. I assume that you've cleaned the consoles thoroughly and kept them indoors for a few days to give them time to dry up completely before testing them. I would if I had any consoles that's been stored ten years in a dusty, damp garage anyways
Thanks for the tips guys, I will try a few things out tonight and let you know how I go. As for tin plague, I doubt that'd happen as I am in Australia (heat would be more of an issue).
Forgot one thing, check the electrolytic capacitors for leaks, bulging topside, etc aswell while you got the SNES open. Anything that looks odd basically. I'd almost go as far as calling electrolytic caps perishable, they don't age well, and it's definitely not impossible that one or a few caps in a ~15 year old console has gone to the other side. You're not gonna catch dried out caps (which the most probable failure) this way, that won't be visible on the outside, but a check is easily done, and there are other possible problems that can be spotted.
Saturn was fixed by simply replacing the fuse, no problems so far, ran it for a few hours. The SNES is another story.. it appears to have some kind of pcb rot near the WRAM chip where the cart connector is. Some pins have broken/worn away traces to vias (near the cart connector). I repaired about 8 of them but I think there are other issues elsewhere I'm not seeing.. I might just pass it on to the next person to repair, it's going to be a lot of work!
