Help identify (and fix?) strange Super Nintendo hardware error

Edd

Hey folks,

I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what's causing this video output problem from my SNES. This below is what it looks like:

Without a cartridge in, those bars are stable. With a cart, there's some distortion and oscillation, but no proper image or sound suggesting a game underneath it all. Fortunately, we can rule out the external connections as the source of the problem. I have a second, verified-working SNES on which I was able to test the cartridge, composite cables, and power supply. All three worked flawlessly on the same input of the same TV. I can also say that the cartridge slot is free of any obstructions.

This is the first time in a long time that I've attempted to boot up this SNES. It's been at least a year since I've used it, and since then it's been moved, so it's possible there was some kind of physical trauma I don't know about.

So, what do we think? Any theories?

WiseManTobes

Just pasting text from buddy I sent your thread to ( he buys broken Snes's and fixes and resells on ebay)

easiest solution......replacement motherboard
could be a capacitor, could be a fried IC could be a burnt trace on the board just a whole fucking lot of small parts that may have failed that boil down to find a new board

EclecticGroove

WiseManTobes wrote: »

Just pasting text from buddy I sent your thread to ( he buys broken Snes's and fixes and resells on ebay)

easiest solution......replacement motherboard
could be a capacitor, could be a fried IC could be a burnt trace on the board just a whole fucking lot of small parts that may have failed that boil down to find a new board

That's essentially just "get a new SNES", which isn't the easiest (or cheapest) thing to do.
It's at least worth opening it up and eyeballing the inside, even if the OP isn't that electronically inclined.

Busted caps tend to be obvious as they can be leaking. There's plenty of resources online about how/what to replace them with. If it's nothing obvious, at all, and they don't know/want to bust out a multimeter and such, then yeah, it's basically time for a new SNES and sell that one as scrap (with or without swapping the shells if the new one has one and it is in better shape).

Tofystedeth

Yeah if you are or know someone (like your friend) who as my dad would say, likes the smell of solder, could crack it open and see if there's any visible damage from bad capacitors or something. The SNES predates the capacitor plague, but then again it's now old enough that they might have died of natural causes. Caps are relatively easy to replace.

Edd

Thanks guys - I think that about does it for this thread. There's no visible damage inside the console, so if anyone has any advice or resources for diagnosing the minute failures that can happen on that motherboard, I'd definitely welcome a PM.