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SEGA Mega Drive (Genesis) 2 | BLACK SCREEN | Can I FIX It? | PART 2

StezStix Fix?

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This is Part 2 of the faulty Mega Drive consoles from eBay. This one doesn't display anything on the TV, there appears to be no signal at all and is just a blank screen.

Will I be able to fix it?

Hope you enjoy!
Steve

Support me on Patreon: Patreon: stezstixfix
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The magic things I use to break stuff;
My soldering iron: https://amzn.to/2Isf360
My leaded solder: https://amzn.to/3giGtI1
My flux: https://amzn.to/3lTrPIh
My soldering wick: https://amzn.to/3groIGn
My microscope: https://amzn.to/2VP3msU
My blue mat: https://amzn.to/3mUiIZl
My tweezers: https://amzn.to/2VOMjYc
My multimeter: https://amzn.to/2LjBgnN
My oscilloscope: https://amzn.to/3oPQQpU
My underpants: https://amzn.to/3gknvjY

PS. I'm not an expert in repairs at all. I do this for fun, and it may not be the best or safest way to go about repairing broken stuff. I'm pretty good at melting plastic though.

20 Comments

@dmartland33 4 years ago

I really enjoyed watching this Steve.
Very refreshing to see a man openly walk through his thoughts and emotions without fear of getting it wrong. Helped me realise I'm not the only one who doubts himself when taking on problems I don't always have the immediate answers to.
I'd love to see a follow up video, I get the feeling you're not going to give up on this! Thanks again. 😊

@ChumpyChicken2 4 years ago

Holy cow! I can appreciate how much effort you put into these Mega Drives. I saved up for a year to afford my one back in the 90’s..

@melissachodz 4 years ago

Was looking for ways on how to level up my repairing game past just replacing parts and learned a lot of tricks and things to buy from you and even your mistakes- thanks for doing these and not pretending like you know everything, these are my favorite <3

@KB1UIF 4 years ago (edited)

Hi Steve, that capacitor is most likely used for decoupling on a power rail and added as a modification at the manufacturers. It could be to solve a stability or intermittent issue.
You might find that it became a standard part of the PCB in later revisions of the board. This is common to see on boards as a modification to solve an issue.
Sometimes referred to as a "Bodge component". It could also have been left off of the PCB design by accident.

@boolfrog 2 years ago (edited)

meant to replay this video, my understanding is the Z80 controls sound, meant to see if the unit crashes at the point sound starts playing when compared to the working unit. There's also a diagnostic cartridge available, which may have helped. Anyway keep the video's coming they are always a good watch.

@4th_Lensman_of_the_Apocalypse 10 months ago

That blob of green plastic was probably a blob of solder mask from production.

@TheDainerss 4 years ago

I believe what you have there is a system that was once modded and someone has removed the mod then sold the unit. The cut traces, solder blobs on chip pins and the capacitor on the video output all scream a mod job. I would look up videos on how you do video mods to the system and see if you can trace back all the steps and see if something is still disconnected.

@matthewbowers88 4 years ago

I've binged a ton of your content now. This was the best and most informative by far.

@4th_Lensman_of_the_Apocalypse 10 months ago

Your silicone solder mat is lovely and clean here!

@SuperHamsterGaming 4 years ago (edited)

It looks like pin 7 on the rgb chip is a selector pin to set the chip to ntsc or pal. If you ground it it's set to pal, if you set it high it's ntsc. It's not connected to anything on the working unit because leaving it floating has the same effect as grounding it because it's not set high. My first clue was that on the pinout diagram pal has a line over it. That means it's set to low for pal. I also realized how old this video is so I'm searching your channel to see if you figured it out. And I found it

@Rob-md6ml 1 year ago

It's like listening to karl pilkington trying to fix consoles. Gold

@jasonpistorio3651 4 years ago

I'm an amateur on a budget. I'm used to watching pros do amazing videos on mods and repairs and I think I like your videos just as much. Great job, I feel like you were close.

@KipHakes 4 years ago

Mate.. this is such a rollercoaster, I can hear the frustration/ sadness in your voice

@DeathMetalDerf 4 years ago

I could more or less watch you repair just about anything and enjoy it MASSIVELY. Thanks so much for some very entertaining and informative videos. I'm even becoming more comfortable with working on some of my own gear, and you're very much a part of the reason why, and I very much appreciate it!

@makethingsbetter 9 months ago

Hi Steve from the past, I have to say you are very thorough. Although your video format may have evolved, you are still very thorough (I know this because YouTube robots are deciding which order I watch you).

@onnodraak1236 4 years ago

The reason mastersystem 2 were used to mod. Is because of the cartridge slot covers. They were easy to cut away the sides, so japanse cartridges would fit. These are round shaped at the corners in stead of European curved ones. If you look at the cartridge slot from the inside of the plastic housing, you will see cutlines were to remove the plastic.to enable Japanese, American cartridges. Therefore these system two's were the preferred system to use. This resulted in system 2 with a switch to switch between 50and 60 herz. And maybe there lies the problem with the black screen.

@rorykelly8275 4 years ago

when my megadrive had the same issue, I reflowed every joint and cleaned the cart slot with wet and dry sand paper soaked in lighter fluid folded around an old credit card,, then tightened the pins with a fine watch makers screwdriver. That did the trick. However, there was always one cartridge that wouldn't work in it, but it would in my other console. It was an Aklaim made cartridge and I read they can have compatibility issues with some board revisions. Try doing the above and try different cartridges.

@JamsterJules 4 years ago

Fair play! You're great at making content - subbed - I admire your perseverance!

@SouthwestHomesteadFixes 4 years ago

Hey just wanted to let you know I found your channel today and I must say I love it! Keep them coming

@mikec3938 2 years ago

Found your channel during some time off work and having always enjoyed fault finding and fixing things I’ve proceeded to binge pretty much all your videos.

Having started on my own Megadrive 1 with a black screen of death I feel your pain on removing the cart slot but having found broken traces underneath was quite the feeling of success! Though I did a bit more trace damage than you did.

Keep up the good work.