Here’s the first of three faulty Super Nintendo consoles I’ve come across recently. This one is serial UP17388130, and although the picture looks perfectly fine, there’s absolutely no sound coming out of it. Not ideal when you’re trying to enjoy a bit of John Madden Football ‘93!

I’ve hooked it up to the television for a quick demonstration. The game runs, the graphics look alright, but there’s not a peep from the speakers. I suppose we could play the whole thing in silence, although that takes away some of the excitement. Not that John Madden needs much help in that department!

After opening the console, I found that this is a 1CHIP motherboard. My first thought is to replace the electrolytic capacitors, particularly the surface-mounted ones. I’ve encountered plenty of troublesome capacitors in other hardware, so it’s a reasonable place to start. Whether that’s actually the problem here remains to be seen.

There are several capacitors to replace, including the smaller surface-mounted components and a few radial electrolytics. I’ll get some fresh parts ordered, fit them and see what happens. If we still don’t have sound afterwards, it’ll be time to investigate the audio circuitry a little more closely.

One nice discovery is that parts of the casing can be swapped around using the plastic retaining clips. With three faulty consoles on the bench, I might at least be able to assemble a couple of decent-looking machines out of the collection.

Fresh capacitors first, more troubleshooting if required. Hopefully this one will be making some noise again before too long!