Help w/ general problems & repairs for all systems

[Quintracker]

Correct me if I'm wrong but for NES systems the mass majority of them only need a good cleaning and/or new connector, right?

What about other systems? Is there usually a quick and cheap fix for consoles like snes, genesis, playstation, dreamcast, saturn, etc.?

[chadtower]

Probably not. None of those systems had a huge design flaw like the connectors on the NES. It's also coincedence (or perhaps not) that the NES flaw is something that's not soldered down and can be replaced by nontechs. You can't do that type of thing with a CD drive...

[bargora]

I've seen folks post about adjusting the laser voltage potentiometer in the optical media systems to fix non-reading PS1/PS2 systems, which would seem to be relatively painless. But then, I've never tried to do that myself.

[omnedon]

I've done the pot adjust many times successfully.

What the thread starter is asking for is far too huge to consider typing with my hunt and peck typing skills.

Almost all systems and /or controllers have some weakness. When you include controllers, were talking 30 plus categories of common failures.

Most of what I've learned, I've learned from system FAQ's, and Googling issues.

[CrazyImpmon]

Other common failures with CD-ROM based system is a burned out motor and broken spindle. Also Dreamcast has a tendacy to spontaneously reset, which could be fixed by cleaning the posts that connect the power supply board to the mainboard and bending them just a bit to make a tighter contact. DC also suffers blown controller ports but there's a FAQ on fuse replacement at Gamefaqs.com

Power supply also burns out especially if they were left plugged in too long. But aside the various game controllers, NEis probably the one with highest failure rate around.

[Quintracker]

Thanks for the answers so far. It seems there are too many possible problems for other systems for me to take a chance on one (that and my lack of money). It's too bad cause the guy has a ton of 'broken' systems laying around and collecting dust.

On a side note if anyone has better repair skills than me and wants to try and fix some shoot me a PM. I know for sure I can pick up nes systems at $5 each, and then every step up in the system scale adds $5. So snes and genesis would be $10, etc. The guy will give me a discount if I buy a bunch of systems at once too, so those prices aren't set in stone.

Thanks again guys!

[omnedon]

Well, shipping would likely make me buying busteds prohibitive. For me, a guy who does buy busteds I pay a flat rate of $5 or less for busted common systems (pretty much anything NES and newer with a few exceptions). I would pay nothing for broken PS1's, Gennies, SNES's, and N64's as they are too numerous. Oddball systems like 5200's, 7800's, 3DO, etc are exceptions .

The only busteds that really peak this repairer's fancy are Pongs, Atari 2600, Intelly, Vectrex and ColecoVisions. FYI

[Quintracker]

Next time I'm there I'll check on the systems, but I don't think he had anything older than nes. It could be posible that there are some in his warehouse.

[CrazyImpmon]

I could take a shot at repairing some of the systems. I've had experiences and a number of schematic diagrams. Now if this place was near where I lived, we could just skip the shipping charge and pick it up directly. Otherwise the shipping charges may not be worth it unless you can find a Vectrex and it's not the problem with brightness knob.

[Darth Vader]

Playstations aren't that hard to repair either (as long as you have spares for parts). I wouldn't bother repairing one with the model # SCPH-1XXX. Those are the oldest ones and aren't designed the best. Replacing the lens for a playstation is pretty straightforward, just takes a little time and patience.

Danny