There’s always another Super Nintendo around the corner. This time I’ve got an SNS-CPU-GPM-02 board on the bench for an electrolytic capacitor replacement, since they’re at that ripe age of olden times.

I’d already removed the old surface-mount electrolytic capacitors and replaced the radial ones. While I was there, I also replaced the old 7805 voltage regulator and swapped the 2.5 A fuse for a 1.5 A Pico fuse. Best of all, I’d managed to get the old capacitors off without lifting any of the solder pads. Every single one survived! If you’ve ever worked on old circuit boards, you’ll appreciate how nice that is.

The Hakko desoldering tweezers worked reasonably well on the smaller capacitors, although I had more trouble with the larger ones. For installing the replacements, I found it easier to heat the solder pad and position the capacitor onto the molten solder before finishing the other connection. It was all coming together rather nicely, apart from the two 33 µF capacitors that were still on order from element14. Apparently getting those little things delivered was becoming a project in itself!

By the end of the video, the components I had available were soldered in place, but the board was still waiting on those last two capacitors. This was only a spare Super Nintendo motherboard without a proper case, and I was hoping the repairs would sort out its earlier problems. If not, perhaps it would become a circuit-bending experiment instead. Either way, at least the solder pads had survived the experience!