The Blog

Sega TeraDrive WDL-330P Hard Drive Capacitor Replacement

Nix McRetro // 18th July 2013 // Hacks, Repairs, Sega

One day I’ll use surface mounted electrolytic capacitors… one day, just not today! Close call on the most faulty (bad blocks!) of all the drives, but we were able to recover thanks to vias in the PCB. Not my best repair job ever…! Continue reading

Sega TeraDrive WDL-330P Hard Drive Overview

Nix McRetro // 18th July 2013 // Sega, YouTube

Just some poking around at how these hard drives were put together, nothing terribly exciting but figured the internet should have more on these WDL-330P drives. Continue reading

Damaged S-MIX on a SNES SNSP-CPU-02 Mainboard

Nix McRetro // 13th July 2013 // Nintendo, Repairs

Damaged S-MIX on a SNES SNSP-CPU-02 Mainboard

As you can see there is a hole blown through the S-MIX chip at U10. The following repair attempt will proceed in the next few weeks. +---+--+---+ 1OUT |1 +--+ 14| 4OUT -1In |2 13| -4In +1In |3 12| +4In VCC |4 11| VEE +2In |5 10| +3In -2In |6... Continue reading

Super Nintendo Serial UP15971140 PPU1 Trace Repair

Nix McRetro // 11th July 2013 // Nintendo, Repairs, YouTube

Here we go repairing the traces that were corroded away by an unknown liquid - probably many eons ago. Step by step I solder the three broken traces back to their correct connections and bit by bit we restore the SNES to life! Continue reading

Super Nintendo Serial UP17548016 Capacitor Replacement

Nix McRetro // 11th July 2013 // Nintendo, Repairs, YouTube

We are recapping a 1CHIP SNES today and here’s the process I follow and, as a general rule, follow whenever I do some recapping. I personally prefer electrolytic radial to electrolytic SMD. It doesn’t look as pretty, but it should last a little longer than their SMD counterparts. Just look... Continue reading