Had a brutal week with a dead capacitor on my Genesis model 1

Spent three evenings last week trying to figure out why my Sega Genesis would boot to a black screen with sound. Turned out it was a 10uf cap near the voltage regulator that had leaked and corroded two traces on the board. Finally fixed it by scraping the solder mask and jumping wires, but I went through a whole tube of flux getting there. Anyone else dealt with capacitor juice eating through PCB traces on their old gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver_ward141mo agoProlific Poster

I read somewhere that some of those old caps had a formula that was basically designed to fail after 15-20 years. Real shame because the rest of the console is built like a tank.

nathan_webb1mo ago

I used to think capacitor goo was no big deal, just wipe it clean and move on. But after reading about your Genesis model 1 having that 10uf cap eat through the traces, it changed my mind completely. I fixed a Dreamcast last month where the cap juice had actually traveled under the solder mask and lifted two pads right off the board. That stuff is practically acid once it starts leaking, and it just keeps eating until you cut it out. Now I always check the area around the voltage regulator on these old consoles, not just the obvious spots. Makes me wonder why they didn't use better caps from the factory, but I guess planned obsolescence was real even back then.