Knackered consoles/handhelds

[Mr Kipling]

^ Is it?

DC only has 4 Philips-head holding it together - I know that only too well!

Once you take the top off a PSone and disconnect the laser, the only thing in there is a simple, single integrated circuit board sandwiched by some tin shielding. I've seen more complicated looking pocket calculators!

[Treguard]

Fixed the blinking light on the NES.

Care to share how you did this? I've got the same problem.

[theantmeister]

Fixed the blinking light on the NES.

Care to share how you did this? I've got the same problem.

Here you go.

[Evander]

Got a mint Game Gear a couple of years ago for a tenner, but unfortunately even without much use the sound is now very quiet. I don't mind plugging in external speakers.

My Xbox 360 has always been a waste of space. Constant error messages, very hard to get a game to run. If it wasn't for Project Gotham 4 I'd have tossed that console ages ago.

I have a PS2 that works fine, and another one that will only play PS1 games and dvd's.

Commodore 64 will only load certain games (sadly the ones I don't like such as The Spy Who Loved Me).

I got Future Wars for the Amiga recently and when I put it in my A500 it made a horrible grinding sound and didn't get very far. Didn't damage the disk drive though. Foolishly I tried it in my A600 which did knacker that disk drive. So need to get a sodding replacement drive now.

CD32 has stopped reading discs.

Megadrive 2 doesn't have sound.

Regarding the NES blinking light, I always put the cartridge in the machine and then use my finger to wiggle the cartridge back towards me a little bit before turning it on. Works every time without fail.

[DreamcastRIP]

CD32 has stopped reading discs.

That sometimes happens to my Amiga CD32. All I have to do to get it working properly again is gently lever the CD-ROM drive's spindle upwards a bit. Even though I'm gentle inserting game discs the spindle has a tendency to slip/drop down after a while. The Atari Jaguar CD drive suffers the same issue too and can be fixed the same way. Hope that helps you!

[Pippy]

Let's see...

Atari Lynx : I tripped over the power cable while a friend was playing it, and the wall plug fizzled and sparked! Somehow it still worked for a good while. Between that and what I've heard about the AC socket having cheap components, the inside pin snapped and I was left with a non mains-powered devourer of batteries... didn't play it much after that, funnily enough

SNES : I did something or another with an import adapter and blew an internal fuse, but a friend of a friend fixed it for free, hurrah.

Saturn : I tried soldering some sort of modification to enable 60Hz on a PAL console... and turned it from a console into a black plastic box that buzzed when you switched it on. Oops!

Sega Dreamcast : This developed the intermittent reset fault, but I opened it up and fixed the problem. Gosh. A rare success!

DS Lite : Cracked hinge.

Wii : This had an overheating GPU, which seemed to be especially bad in The Godfather - green pixelly corruption all down the screen. Got it sent off and fixed by Nintendo.

I've never had any trouble with my slim PS2 or dead pixel issues with handhelds. Although, my DS Lite and PSP have some sort of crazy blotchy rot on their screens, creeping in from the sides, which makes the affected areas ever so slightly dimmer. Anyone know what causes that?

[alistair_thomas]

Dreamcast: mine suffered from the reset problem, but I sorted it with a little WD40.
PSP: nothing wrong with it as such, but the UMD drive started getting noticeably louder.
Game Gear: not sure exactly what is wrong with it, but it does not work. It powers on but has no picture or sound.

[The Laird]

Atari Lynx : I tripped over the power cable while a friend was playing it, and the wall plug fizzled and sparked! Somehow it still worked for a good while. Between that and what I've heard about the AC socket having cheap components, the inside pin snapped and I was left with a non mains-powered devourer of batteries... didn't play it much after that, funnily enough

To be fair there is a bloody easy fix to this that I could do for somebody in about 10 minutes.

[mainvein]

all of my retro stuff still works perfectly that i bought when i was younger from new (not like some of the ones from ebay bundles).

my 360 got ring of death
my brand new release day DS had dead pixels on the screen (gamestation were a bit reluctant to swap it as apparantly a handful of them are acceptable - not by me though)
had 2 resetting dreamcasts (gave one to cex and one to a mate - my original release day one still works perfectly)
amiga 1200 - floppy drive died a couple of weeks ago (never mind as i've sold all my floppies now - emulation all the way for that machine unless i get a cf card installed)

other than that i've had a great run of computers and consoles so far (watch me get home an fire up the vectrex and it explodes)

[Liamh1982]

Game Gear: not sure exactly what is wrong with it, but it does not work. It powers on but has no picture or sound.

Capacitors have blown. It's an inherent problem.

[crusto]

My 1st Atari 800XL died, dont remember what happened with the second one. Probably died, was replaced with my CPC either way.
My CPC survived until I sold it - approx 8 years
MY SMS surived just fine until I (cant remember what I did) with it - ?
Had lots of problems with my first pce, screen would go black and white once it had warmed up. Due to a dodgy pal conversion. Nothing Telegames couldnt sort once repaired it lasted fine until I sold it - 4 years
Still got and use my SMD occasionally - crimbo '91 until pres ent.
Snes, great until I sold it - approx 4 years.
My PS1, fine until I sold it - approx 3 years.
My N64, fine until sold - approx 7 years
My PS2, bought a few months after launch and still going.
360, on my 4th
PS3, on my 3rd

All the above have had or still do get heavy use.

The rest..

Wii, 2006 until now
DS, fine
PSP (bought on launch day) the first had lots of dead pixels but its immediate replacement is doing just fine.
GBA SP, bought in 2004 and doing just fine.
GB Colour, very rarely used but fine. Approx 12 years old.

I think thats all of my stuff covered. Hope I havent bored you all too much with that lot.

[Evander]

CD32 has stopped reading discs.

That sometimes happens to my Amiga CD32. All I have to do to get it working properly again is gently lever the CD-ROM drive's spindle upwards a bit. Even though I'm gentle inserting game discs the spindle has a tendency to slip/drop down after a while. The Atari Jaguar CD drive suffers the same issue too and can be fixed the same way. Hope that helps you!

Thanks, I've gave it a whirl but didn't have much joy. The discs always spin but won't load. Interestingly (or not) an audio disc brings up the menu and plays, but produces no sound.

[Carrot007]

Maybe I am lucky but the only machine that has failed me is a PS3.

I may have had others die, but I feel somewhat resonsible there. EG. GBA threw in back of car and screen died!

[sscott]

Couple of original XBOXs not reading discs/scratched or whatever, 6 button woody on the blink, 1 dead Dreamcast, 1 damaged 520ST after hosting my Rewind event (still angry!) 1 dead Amiga 500. 1 RROD on a 360. Own 50 systems and that's it.

[Treguard]

Game Gear: not sure exactly what is wrong with it, but it does not work. It powers on but has no picture or sound.

Capacitors have blown. It's an inherent problem.

I had two with the same problem, I found a guy on ebay who repaired them for a small fee. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SEGA-GAME-GEAR-AND-REPAIR-SERVICE-REFURBISHMENT-/140482783266?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item20b56d2822