Another Mega Drive 2 with a bad DC-in socket? I know, I know. These are supposed to be the easy repairs. Naturally this particular console decided it needed a secondary fault as well.

The machine was completely dead when I started, so the loose power socket seemed like a sensible place to begin. Once I’d removed the casing and that delightful sharp EMI shielding, I had a reasonable look at the board. The plastic casing was dated February 1994, with several of the chips marked from late 1993. One of my newer Mega Drives, then!

The solder joints around the DC socket weren’t looking particularly healthy. The centre connection had a visible crack, which would certainly explain why the thing had no power. I added some fresh solder to the three connections and checked that I hadn’t created any shorts. And there we go, a red power light! That’s a good start.

Unfortunately, getting power was only half the battle. The video signal was behaving strangely, and trying to start a game resulted in a lovely collection of white screens, missing pictures and random resets. Excellent. I’d managed to repair one problem and immediately discover another.

Pac-Panic was my test cartridge, along with the Mega EverDrive. Neither was particularly cooperative at first. I did wonder whether the voltage regulator was responsible, so I checked its output. With approximately 8.15 V going in and 4.92 V coming out, it appeared to be producing the expected supply for the console.

That pushed my attention back towards the cartridge slot. I’d already suspected it might need cleaning, although naturally I’d managed to get distracted before actually doing it. After a bit more fiddling, the machine started showing signs of life. Not entirely satisfactory signs, mind you.

At one stage I had a working picture but only the right audio channel. Moving things around changed the results, which made that cartridge connector look increasingly suspicious. I cleaned the slot and carefully adjusted the contacts to give them a little more pressure against the cartridge. They seemed rather loose, possibly from years of use.

A final test with Pac-Panic produced a proper picture and stereo sound, followed by the Mega EverDrive booting successfully too. So we got there in the end! The DC socket needed its solder joints repaired, and the cartridge slot needed some attention before the console would behave itself. Two problems for the price of one. My favourite sort of bargain.

I also ended up playing rather more Pac-Panic than I’d intended. That’s the trouble with repairing game consoles. Every successful test seems to require another fifteen minutes of playing games to make absolutely sure everything is working.

Anyone up for a gaming weekend of epic proportions? There is still an alarming amount of retro computer hardware here that I need to sort through and decide whether to keep, pass on or scrap. There will be plenty more in the new year.

Speaking of which, happy new year from everyone at McRetro.net! And a big thanks to everyone who subscribed through the channels linked from McRetro’s channel page. At the time of this post the YouTube channel had reached 121 subscribers and around 12,800 video views.

You give me the motivation to keep making videos. Well, that and the enormous YouTube pay cheque that should arrive in approximately three years if everyone enjoys the ads enough. I know ads are bad. I hate them too. Be strong for me!

Update: No more ads! All monetisation disabled mid-2015!

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