Close calls

[Trium Shockwave]

A little while ago I tried to turn on my Famicom and got nothing. No signal at all on the TV. I double-checked I hadn't done something dumb like put the TV on the wrong input, reseated all the connections. Still no dice. I very hesitantly did the lick test on the power supply. It hurt. Power supply OK, tongue a little sore, Fami still dead.

I grabbed my handy toolkit including screwdrivers and one of these nonconductive nylon things Apple officially calls a "black stick". After getting the logic board out, I noticed some debris on the board. Most concerning was a little piece of styrofoam that most have gotten in through the cartridge slot while it was in transit. This bit of foam was sitting on the pins for the PPU. Nonconductors like styrofoam + electronics = bad news. I cleared that out along with some other debris (hair, a bit of paper, assorted dirt). Hooked it all back up, still nothin. Reassembled the machine, intending to take it to work and see if our resident hardware tech and vintage gaming nut could help with it. Hooked it up again just to make sure and... now it works again. So, I'm not quite sure how, but I fixed it.

Anyone else ever have any close calls with their Famicom?

[133MHz]

My bet's on a cold solder joint.

[Trium Shockwave]

Would the ambient temperature of the room affect how well a cold solder is working? It was fairly cold in the room when all of this happened.

[133MHz]

Yes sir, remember how old faulty TVs often fixed themselves when they warmed up? (or viceversa - the symptoms became worse as the unit warmed up) This is because the cold solder joints expand when warmed and contract when cooled, making and interrupting contact with the circuit board.

Since you took your Famicom apart, fiddled with it, and then put it back together, my guess is that all that manipulation you did moved whatever was disconnected back in place.



BTW, my TV is starting to fail due to cold solder joints (brightness fluctuates wildly until it warms up for about 5 minutes), but since it's pretty big, heavy, and it's ceiling mounted in a special fixture, I'm not taking it down to resolder it until it fails completely (I need at least two more people to help me bring it down!)

[Trium Shockwave]

I guess the most likely culprit here given the symptoms is one of the solders for the power switch? I'll see if it gets any worse, and just not let my living room get too frigid anymore. Unfortunately, I have a bit of a hand tremor so delicate work is beyond me. I'd have to get one of my more solder adept coworkers to do it.

Thanks for the input.

[Lorfarius]

Seems I just had one with my Twin Famicom  Couldn't get it to work until I had a bit of help from 133mhz. Japanese adaptor seems to have blown and ended up sticking a Universal plug into with the wrong polarity. Luckily it didnt damage the console.