Super Nintendo (SNES) repair! Bad colors, diagnosis, and chip swap!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ต.ค. 2020
- The Super Nintendo is one of the best consoles of the 16-bit era, but earlier hardware revisions of the console are prone to failure. In this week's Fix It Friday, we repair a SNES with bad colors by replacing the PPU2 chip. We go through diagnosis, testing, and finally the chip swap.
Resources:
240p Test Suite:
junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php?ti...
SNES Burn-in Test Cartridge ROM:
tcrf.net/SNES_Burn-In_Test_Cart
Check out my website at 1uprestorations.com/ if you have any consoles that you would like to be repaired or modified!
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Great video - you covered all the important details without skipping essential bits, but also without over-explaining the obvious. A tricky balance to get right!
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! A lot of people don’t know about these problems with older versions of the Super Nintendo, so I wanted to make a video that explained how to diagnose and fix these consoles
The first troubleshooting video I've seen of a retro console using an O scope. Great work.
The test shorting across between green and blue was the real tell-tale sign that it was that particular chip. If it was something on the line pulling that line low it wouldn't have shown blue in the green when doing that, and instead would have made the green disappear while doing that.
I wish that I had shown the shorting a little better in the video but at least it’s visible when I started to probe the lines with the oscilloscope. It was definitely tricky to film because I didn’t really have adequate lighting
Super informative, I like that you showed us your thinking process along with the schematic, I'm starting to learn basic electronic repairs and schematics look terrifying to me!
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it! Schematics can look intimidating at first but with some practice it will get easier to understand them
I came here because a SNES I bought has a yellowish tint for every game. I knew the plastic shells would yellow, I didn't know the display would yellow >_< This was super helpful! I'm not sure I am ready to crack open the SNES to try and fix it. But I subscribed so I can learn more about repairs. Thanks!
Subscribed! Excellent video!!
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Super nice content! Thank you!
Awesome, glad you enjoyed it!
Wow dude everything's so retro, even the soldering station has that big 80s moustache
I love chip quik! What kind of hand probe are you using for your Rigol?
I have to check but it was the standard probe that came with the oscilloscope
Nice vid, do you know if there are possible wram chips on the market to switch the old ones out? I have a problem with specific games (SOM, SOE) that will Boot but have problems like no key input works or black screen after first initial screen
Great! I have another problem, I do not display the back picture, those Mario runs the front pictures are present, but there is no background.. what do you think it might be?
nice work thank you
very good video. i have a smiliar problem, and i now have what to do for test.
i changed the quarz cristal thinking he do the problem, but that change dont fix the problem (slow lost color until gets b/w video)
Great video! What do you think might be causing my sprites not to be showing up? Could it just be dirty or the SNES itself?
Really hard to say without looking at it. But I would start with a good cleaning.
I have a SNES where the expansion audio left channel pin doesn't output any sound. So, it means I do not get stereo sound with the Super Gameboy or SD2SNES's MSU-1. I only get sound out of the right channel. Sound/music directly from the SPC700 is still stereo and goes through both channels. Think this is something you're able to fix?
A friend linked your video to see if I had the same problem with my snes but it seems a little different. When I got the console it was black and white. I adjusted the crystal and now have color but I don't have the color red in game and the 240p test suite is showing that I have color it's just yellow and burn in test rom didn't work for me. Would you have an idea as to what that could be?
I had a 1-chip believe it or not with a bad RGB signal, I don’t have an oscilloscope so I don’t know for sure which color the color seemed yellow tinted (perhaps blue was bad) it also had a bad RGB encoder. I should have the video of that repair up next week, I got other repairs to edit before that.
It’s definitely nicer when it’s the RGB encoder that goes bad and not one of the larger surface mount chips. Good thing you got it fixed!
@@LIRetroGaming tell me about it, I pulled the large chip from a snes jr that I already was using for parts. I previously pulled APU chip to save a 1-chip that had a black screen. The junior doesn’t have the little post in the power port so I couldn’t sell it like that, and as far as I know they don’t sell a replacement for the junior.
Yes I think you are correct that there is no third-party replacement for that power port on the junior. Hopefully someone designs a 3-D print for that at some point!
I have an SNES that is missing the background layer for Super Mario World and A Link to the Past and is completely black in the background. Would a faulty PPU chip be the culprit? Or would it be something else? Great video!
Thanks! To me that sounds like it’s probably the CPU that has a failure. Fortunately you can follow the steps in this video and replace the CPU using the same techniques!
@@LIRetroGaming Thank you so much! I’ll have to look into that then.
@@LIRetroGaming where do you find a cpu lol. Seems impossible to find one.
Hi I have a snes that has power but no video , any suggestions? Do you have a place to send in for repair. Local place has no idea how to fix because they said they normally don’t work on snes
Huh, didn't think I'd get recommended a shvc repair.
Mine's not got the color problem, the burn in cart's got sprites being left-right jittery, the the princess fine, up until the last frame, where she's missing every other vertical piece of herself, and the scrolling level bit keeps crashing and restarting.
It'd be nice if some place had working PPU's, etc for sale
That sounds more like a cpu problem than a PPU problem. But unfortunately the only source for these chips right now is from other boards that have different types of damage. I really hope that someday an FPGA replacement chip could be developed. That would fix a lot of SNES with this problem
Subscribed!
I have a super Nintendo that also has color issues and would like to know if you could fix it as well for me?
Great video. I’m curious, would it be theoretically possible to diagnose and repair PPU2 itself? If not by you, could *someone* repair a microprocessor like this in theory, like if given unlimited resources? Or are they dead once they’ve failed?
I’m a hardware noob so forgive me if this is a dumb question 😅
No worries, it’s a good question. All of the logic elements inside a chip are permanently etched when the chip is created. Once an element fails, I don’t believe that there is any way to repair it. Although it certainly would be awesome if that was possible!
Hi why didn’t you show how you soldered the mew ppu chip?
Also am curious at how the ppu blue color could,ve get damaged.
I need to use my microscope to do the soldering and it does not have an attachment so that I can film at the same time. I’m not sure how the blue got damaged but I assume that some component within the chip failed over time
@@LIRetroGaming that’s pretty interesting, maybe the chip’s blue color did get damaged trough heat overtime over the years,and since nintendo’s consoles never had any heat conductors on those chips itself, i would be not surprise if those chips do suffer freat heat overtime, remember how warm those cartride connectors will can get after playing a long time?
Also if you open those old console you may find some crumble parts of those chips wich may be not only cause by heat but also by the extreme hard work those chips had to perform overtime, remember that no matter how tiny those transistors are, they still had to switch back and forth from one place to the next ,and i will not surprise if such motion inside those chip will cause heat overtime,it’s magic what they do in front of our eyes without any notice whether it’s generating graphics,sound or register our control presses,just woow.
Nothing short of pure genius as usual.
The flash cartridge you used for testing what is it? I'd like to get one myself to use. Did you have to download anything to the flash cart?
It’s called the sd2snes and it lets you play any snes rom. I was using the official snes test rom that was used by Nintendo. It’s called the snes burn in test
@@LIRetroGaming if I understood you correctly I'd have to purchase the sd2snes and download the SNES test rom which is called the SNES Burn in Test?
Great video, i have a 2-chip snes with weak red signal, i checked the av out and that´s not the problem maybe it's the ppu 2?
yes, it's possible that it's the PPU2
@@LIRetroGaming but I check the s-enc pin 11 (pr in) and C16 continuity first
I wish was a place to get new PPU chip replacements from. I have 3 SNES systems with defective PPUs now.
Same here, I wish there were modern replacements for that chip
It's really sad to think about all those SNESes (and all other retro consoles and computers) that went to "recycling" with so many useful parts still in them.
Maybe one day we'll be able to make chips just like some parts can be 3d-printed today, or custom PCBs that now can be ordered for cheap or machined at home.
Where did you get your burn-in test cartridge from? Do you have a link?
Yes you can get it here and then use a flash cartridge like the sd2snes tcrf.net/SNES_Burn-In_Test_Cart
Very thorough on your video but I’m not mechanically inclined to do this repair. Do you offer these services ??
Yes I can do this repair but I would also need a chip from another donor snes
I have a burn in cartridge... most games have a black screen... a couple load the opening text, but then goes black like the rest... The burn in test cartridge works correctly on my good SNES consoles, but in my broken one, the menu opens, the clock ticks down, i got the burn in test to run, all pass except the APU
What happens with those broken SNES when you try to load a regular game?
I'm having this same issue, did you ever find a fix for this?
@@woogieboboogie Nah. I'm pretty sure one of the sound chips are bad because the burn in cartridge says the audio processing unit is bad, and on my particular SNES there are two chips. My guess is one of those chips needs to be replaced but I would mostly be taking a shot in the dark at this point as to which one without better test equipment. I also didn't swap out the chips just yet because I didn't have the tools or soldering skills at the time to do it safely. I could probably do it now though since I have both. I am thinking I should get some better diagnostic equipment so I can determine for certain what the culprit is.
@Long Island Retro Gaming
Hey I have a super famicom which does not output any video or audio, if I connect a cart or not, the screen does not go black. I have already opened and cleaned with no luck. Still no signal (Not black screen of death)
Do u have any tips?
That sounds like maybe it has a bad voltage regulator or a bad fuse. Can you test those parts with the multimeter? The fuse is quite easy to replace
I'm having issues with my SNES locking up video within certain seconds or after leaving a game menu but music is playing. What would cause this and how would you troubleshoot this?
Question to anyone that may know. I tried to change the cpu and the ppu1 in a snes unit and I know the chips are good. When I switched on the unit after I soldered the new chips the unit was working fine for 7-10 mins and then it died. The pictures was distorted and then black screen. I let it cool down and switched it on again. Now it was fine for about a minute and then black screen again. The third time I switched it on it immediately projected black screen. Does anyone know why???
Hey quick question any idea on how to fix a snes that plays the game cart but the video is upside down?
That’s the first time I have ever heard of that happening! I’ll look into it and let you know if I find anything. Maybe the CPU?
@@LIRetroGaming thanks so much for the advice; there’s a video on my channel now if that helps. I’ll check the cpu!
I did the burn in test and I think I need to replace the CPU and PPU but I cant find anywhere selling these chips online? where do you buy the replacement chips?
Unfortunately they are not available. The only other place to get them is from a donor super Nintendo. I got mine from one that had water damage - The chips were fine but the circuitboard was ruined from the water
@@LIRetroGaming thanks, wish me luck !
So you soldered all the 100 pins of the PPU back onto the circuit board?
Yes I did! It’s time consuming but it feels good to see it come back to life
My Snes 1st generation have blank screen but with game sounds what the problem chip ?
Have you ever had a SNES that had random button inputs? I have one that has screwy graphics in some places and random button inputs. My gut says it has to be the CPU going bad (early onset dementia), but I also have a Mega Drive that's always holding start too. I've never seen anyone else who had this issue.
Have you confirmed that it’s not the controllers? If it’s the console then you can follow the schematics on the console5 tech wiki. I think the cpu ultimately handles controller inputs
Great video, but I don't get why you're using ChipQuik
I always thought it was just when you're de-soldering chips with a soldering iron
In my experience when using hot air chips can be easily de-soldered without ChipQuick or flux (I've seen some people using flux before applying hot air).
With double-sided PCB like the one used in SNES the danger of using hot air is that parts on the other side will start falling off if you heat the PCB up too much, but I think there are a few ways of avoiding it. Like using the right temperature for shortest time possible, or placing the board on the wet towel (so that the towel cools down the other side of PCB).
Older electronics doesn't need high temperature when unsoldering parts because it uses lead-based solder.
Soldering the chip back with solder paste and hot air probably would be easier as well, than doing it pin-by-pin with the iron.
That technique you describe is also perfectly good. I just like chipquik because it’s fast and easy to clean up. I don’t have to worry about excessive heat affecting other components as well. But both methods I think are perfectly fine, I just really a matter of personal preference
@@LIRetroGaming I see, makes sense, thanks for your reply. I think it's a good option for board where components are mounted on both sides.
My SNES is missing sprites and I'm not sure if it's PPU related or RAM related. Any advice on what to look for?
Missing sprites is probably an issue with the cpu or maybe the PPU1/PPU2. It’s not common for the ram to go bad
@@LIRetroGaming well, I noticed the PPU2 was shorting and found some solder was discolored. Ended up ordering new PPU2 chips (rev C) and components to get the recap done, a new fuse, and new VReg, along with a tube of thermal compound for the VReg.
Where can I find the CPU for the SNES? Donor boards on eBay all have unreliable CPUs that are not revision B.
Be alot better if you'd move your camera.
Exactly what I’m thinking, at least you can tell where your hands need to be knao
I have a SNES with no audio/video. I replaced the fuse (it blew) but I'm not 100% sure where else I can test. Good RCA, good game cart (tested multiple) Would you wager the PPU2 chip is the culprit here?
Capacitors are most likely to fail. Those fail all the time and will need to be recapped. Mine blew a fuse when I was trying to test it out (must've been a short). I ordered new components to recap the system, replace the blown fuse, replace the VReg (did that on my SHVC-CPU-01 board), and I ordered a pair of PPU2-C chips for both my SHVC-CPU-01 board (even though the PPU works, but are known to fail) and SNS-CPU-GPM-01 board (original smoked).
I was looking for new PPU chips, but those are HARD to come by :/ almost as expensive as buying a new SNES all together haha I can check the caps though, thanks!@@RetroPCUser
@@Cain532. I found a pair for $40 on eBay (2x PPU-2 C) + S&H, but I got the last ones since my SNES needed one and my other SNES is fine, but I'll replace it in the future in case it goes out.
First comment, heck yeah! Love fix it Fridays!
Hello, I have a super famicom and I also used that snes test, but I got this error "DIV 16/8 ERROR"
That might be an issue with the CPU. The test cartridge is very helpful but not all of the error messages it sends are documented
Artemio (or Gillian Seed from SD Snatcher) looks so creepy without blue @3:11!
Yeah I really should have said something but he totally looks creepy when the blue is missing from the video signal!
What about issues with glitched it graphics on my super famicom junior?
Hard to say. You should try running that diagnostic cartridge because it can be quite informative
I just got a snes that won't take controller input, I am really stuck
Got any idea?
Hard to say without looking at it, but it could be the controller ports themselves or possibly a few other components leading up to the CPU
Would you be able to fix my snes 🙁, ive had it since 1997 and it wont turn on 😭. System has no yellowing and looks really good 🥺
I can try to fix it for you, contact me at 1uprestorations.com and I will try to fix it
Yeah I have a super Metroid game cartridge that some of the game is glitches out like it is not right could this be the game or the console
Very hard to say. I would say that you should test the cartridge in another system, or open it up to visually inspect everything.
Yeah I was looking it up and some one said that it was the PPU1 chip or PPU2 chip but that is a great idea to test it out in another SNES
I just got other games in and I tested them and they were fine with my SNES so I’m thinking that it was the game all along
Where can i get that chip replacement?
The only way to get one of those replacement chips is to extract it from another Super Nintendo that is broken. Hopefully someday a replacement can be made so that you don’t have to extract these chips from other SNES
@@LIRetroGaming thank you for your response, I enjoy your videos, keep posting!!!
Love your video bro love this Shit
I think the SNES Motherboard is in good condition however the PPU2 Chip is in bad shape.
Why dont you just use solder paste?
That also works very well but I hate cleaning it up
@@LIRetroGaming jeah, but you'l have 2 clean no matter what with isoprop
This is true, it just takes much more work to get rid of the solder paste. Like I said solder paste is perfectly fine to do use but I have my preferences
It's a shame your hands were in the way through most of the technical parts.
It’s ok to be left handed
Definitely! I wouldn’t want it any other way
That soldering camera angle though