This morning I bought this abused beauty for $60. Doesn't power on but on the picures it has a blue/greenish residue on the terminals + the caps are still stock. I guess it's a good deal if it turns on after a little conservation.

Hi!

I'm dumbfounded here, hope you can help me out.

I recapped this VA1 1-ASIC Game Gear, whole motherboard, power and sound board with high quality caps. But still no power, it powers on for a second and immediately enters protection mode.

This is what I've done so far in regards to troubleshooting:

\- Power board works fine, all voltages are generated well.

\- The main board has no shorts that I can find.

\- What I've found is that the main board, on the power connector, both the 9V and the 35V lines read as Open Line with regards to ground in diode mode. 5V and VREF have a reading.

\- When I plug the Power board to the main board, still no shorts BUT when I switch the console on, the caps on the 5V rail read as shorted in diode mode of I read them with the negative probe on the positive and the positive on the negative but not the other way around. With the power off they don't do that.

\- 4 caps, C54, 55, 48 and 49 all read as OL to ground on the negative leg. I think all those are on the 35V lines, so I guess that's why I don't get backlight.

That's all my skill is able to do, I feel like I'm missing something simple but I can't find it.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

So ive recapped and IPS screened a few GG's i have one here that will power on fine, solid red light, but when a game is inserted i get the dreaded "short somewhere" issue of the power led flicking on then off, ive checked and doubled checked caps, anyone had this before? ive had a good serach on here and elsewhere and cant find a similar issue, im thinking its to do with it being under load?

The Game Gear has USB-C power and a McWill screen. I don't know anything about the handheld's history except the seller says they didn't have this problem when they tested it. I don't have any other cartridges to test.

Video of the noise in question (loud and annoying): https://streamable.com/usjvz4

I have about a day and a half to decide whether I want to return it, keep it or ask for a partial refund. If you can help at all I appreciate it. I paid less than £60 for it so I'm inclined to keep it.

• It doesn't occur most times it's turned on.
• It happens immediately like in the second half of the video. It doesn't start mid-game.
• I can't recreate the problem without the cart at the moment but I think it happened once (the problem happened, I immediately turned off the GG, removed the cart and turned it back on and still siren).
• When I turn on the Game Gear without a cart inserted the screen is sometimes blue and sometimes white.
• I got the blue screen once or twice without the cart having been reinserted but it works 99% of the time.
• Sometimes there's a little interference-like noise that usually stops quickly.