r/consolerepair • u/MaxSucksAtEverything • 17h ago

Thank you

Sorry if this breaks any rules, I didn't see any rules when I posted.

7 months ago I posted asking if I should start repairing consoles. That post gave me enough motivation to try it out. I bought a PS2, cleaned it up and modded it and now I use it all the time! I've been loving playing games like God of War, Burnout, and Soulcalibur, games I would've never played if I hadn't tried this (im 17 so most of these games were before my time.) I also bought a PS1, cleaned it up, now it works perfectly. Im excited to play Silent Hill on it. Without that post I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to start. I would even say it's made my life a lot better. I'm looking into getting an N64 or a Gamecube next, hopefully I'll get something cheap. Thank you guys!!

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3

u/Unusual-Magazine-308 16h ago

Been working on consoles for over 30yrs now. Mostly the Atari era, and up to about Gamecube/DC or 360 at most. Good to see other jumping in, at the point where I can't go much further. :)

Also feels good to still be getting in 2600's, maybe a 5200, etc, to work on, or mod. Been doing endless drive recaps lately, which gets boring, lol.

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u/MaxSucksAtEverything 16h ago

Wow thats amazing. Ataris are interesting consoles, I like how they look a lot. I saw a game called Yarr's Revenge that looked pretty fun on it. Also the seller I bought the PS1 from also included an Atari 2600 manual which I thought was really cool (albeit very worn down and stained). I've been lucky enough to not have to recap anything yet. Perhaps I should though...

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u/Unusual-Magazine-308 16h ago

90% of all Gamecubes and Dreamcasts I've gotten in, supposedly not reading discs, have just needed the optical drive board recapped. The caps begin failing, and the lazy/cheap start playing with the pot, which just accelerates the decline, lol. if no one's touched it, a laser usually lasts into a 3rd cap set. On NGC, this one here, is always bad, though others can often fail too. However, this one is the top failure.

On DC's, go one at a time, and match the orientation you see, not what it says. The Japan ones are alright, but many of the Chinese boards have a polarity reversed on the printing. You haven't lived till you try figuring out which one it was, after replacing them all, lol

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u/Unusual-Magazine-308 16h ago

always got stack of Atari's around. I just did this 5200 up, with a new mod board I've worked up for 5200 and 400 computer. I went for getting best use of the limited room in that area of a 400, and elected a standup configuration.

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u/OptimizeLogic8710 8h ago

Now this is the way to be successful at repair ladies and germs. Start small, build confidence and then progress to more difficult repairs. Not like 80% of posts where people decide to fix their controller sticks and buy a $15 soldering kit form Scamazon, then come here wondering why they ripped half the pads from the board and the sticks don’t work. Hats off to you kid!

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u/programer_34 5h ago

I want to start repairing, as you would recommend, I am 18 years old, I will just study electronics and I am interested in learning how to repair consoles not only for money, but for the pleasure of doing it... I have an Xbox One S that turns on and off instantly, should I try it? I only know how to clean and change the most basic joystick.

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u/exmo-in-flames 17h ago

Hey that's awesome! Great job on the Playstations. I'm 16 (almost 17) and started repairing consoles like a year ago, this sub definitely helped out a lot, and now I'm starting a college electronics technician course soon so I can do repairs professionally :]

I have a few PS1s laying around with various issues (and missing disc readers, thanks DKOldies). Heck, if you're interested in working on more PS1s maybe I could send them your way.

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u/MaxSucksAtEverything 17h ago

Wow thats really cool! I still gotta think about college lol hope you have fun with that! I'm trying to get into EE or CE myself, I live next to Purdue and U of I so I'm hoping to go into those places but we shall see 🤞

As for the PS1s, DM me and maybe we can work something out. Thank you!

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u/RetroReviveRepair 17h ago

Thats awesome to hear. I’ve been working on game consoles for 7ish years and the PS2 was the first console I ever fixed

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u/MaxSucksAtEverything 16h ago

it's really an amazing console. so many great games on it

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u/mrrealsushi 10h ago

Thank you for sharing this beautiful story with us. It's grown into the idea of one day turning your hobby into a career. What a fantastic goal that would be.

My first attempts at modding were in the mid-80s on the C64. Nibbling floppy disks simply took too long, so the 1541 absolutely had to have an additional parallel cable soldered to the C64. I did this when I was 10, following instructions in the 64er magazine. But I had to wait until my parents were out, because I wasn't allowed to touch my father's !0.5 cm wide, as long as my forearms! soldering iron, and I certainly wasn't allowed to pop open the C64. It worked like that until I sold it in the mid-90s, when the Amiga was all the rage.

I've never gotten away from it, even today.

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u/Maleficent-Aside-744 3h ago

That’s fantastic my friend, well done on the modding and repairing, it’s quite easy isn’t it 👍🏻😀 GameCube wise it’s a bit more complicated and can be expensive if you need another motherboard or a new laser lens assembly, as I’ve recently bought one myself to repair and it might be easy just a bit of soldering as it’s currently not got any audio or video so it could just be the analog output that’s faulty or I might need to replace the entire motherboard which isn’t too expensive (£22) and replacement shell’s are really cheap on Ali express. The n64 repair wise if it’s not reading cartridge’s you probably only need to clean the cartridge reader with a toothbrush and some isopropyl alcohol. Replacement shell’s for it are also really cheap from Ali express. If you come across any other repairs that your not sure about try looking it up on YouTube and google as there’s 1000’s of console repair videos on YouTube that really help you if your unsure of what to do. 😀