Hardware Failure Thread of Inevitable Disaster

[Yimothy]

My PSP’s stick is intermittently drifting to the right. I’ve had a look online and some people reckon that by going to the system information screen and twirling the stick you can recalibrate it. I’ve tried, not sure if it makes any difference. At the moment when it happens I’m moving the nub in a full circle until it stops happening, which seems to be working. This is actually my second PSP, the first one did this out of the box but I didn’t notice because the first few games I played didn’t use the stick. Eventually I played a game with a lot of menus and it drove me nuts having the cursor jump around at random.

For the moment it’s bearable, but if it gets much worse I might have to consider trying to fix or replace it. I imagine I can get a PSP pretty cheaply these days and just transfer over the memory card and battery, but presumably it’s going to happen again eventually. Alternatively I could try and open it up and clean up the stick, which looks like a fiddly operation with lots of potential to make things worse. The PSP really feels like a dead platform, not just in terms of no longer being supported by the manufacturer but because the existing hardware just isn’t gonna last. I’ve got a 30+ year old mega drive that I’m still using, but when the PSP is that old will there be any functioning units left?

Anyway, I jailbroke my first PSP and used it to rip all my UMDs, so I can always play the games on emulator if the hardware gives out. I guess I could put custom firmware on my vita and then stick all the psp stuff on there?

 

[Kazin]

That sounds to me like it needs to be cleaned, but yeah, I've not opened up a PSP to do specifically that. Might be worth a shot, though.

PSP is pretty well emulated at this point, so even if the original hardware starts dying out, we'll be alright. Though, yeah, it is a shame, I always liked the PSPs, specifically the 2000s and 3000s.

 

[Becksworth]

For all the griping about joycon drifting, at least they’re detachable (well not on the lite...). We are probably going hearing a lot about analog drift on the PSPs, Vitas, and 3DS’s in the future.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I mentioned this in the ODE thread, but I have no fewer than three consoles with disc drive issues. My old faithful PS2 is taking longer and longer to boot up, sometimes requiring two minutes to start a game. It still works for now, but I'm worried that won't last. My Saturn has never been in great shape, but the drive fails to load or sometimes can't stream audio during gameplay, which is a bummer. And my Dreamcast literally shuts down the second it is asked to spin up the GD-ROM drive. There are possible solutions to most of these problems, but they typically require more money and time than I'm willing to sink into them right now. I could theoretically hack my PS2 to play games from a HDD, which would be nice, but I don't really know how you go about that. I'd love to have an ODE for the Saturn, since they are hard to emulate and there are some cool/weird exclusives on that system, but right now all the options cost a lot. Also, I don't have a good way to play the Saturn on an HDTV, and that's another problem that costs $$$ to solve. The Dreamcast is probably the lowest priority for me, and would be a somewhat inexpensive problem to fix if I didn't have a dang V0 DC (which means it isn't compatible with the cheap GDEMU knockoffs you can find on eBay). A MODE would theoretically work for both the DC and the Saturn, but they're like $300cdn and I just don't want one that much. Hopefully someone will start making cheap and plentiful MODE knockoffs, at which point I could pick one up and try it in both systems.

 

[Yimothy]

This is not exactly a hardware failure, but I recently got Curse of Issyos’s iOS port for my phone. I’ve been meaning to play it for a while on the strength of the other locomalito games I’ve played and I thought having it on my phone would let me plug away at it here and there. Unfortunately, while the touch interface is quite attractive (it looks like it’s modelled on a game boy if the phone is in vertical, or a GB micro if it’s horizontal), it just isn’t up to the demands of the gameplay, at least for me. After dying many times because my guy ducked when I wanted him to turn around, I gave up on playing touch and started trying to get a controller connected.

I’ve got an 8bitdo zero controller, an older model which can’t have its firmware upgraded. It’s got an iOS mode which I think uses the icade standard, which seems to be obsolete. It works just fine for me in R-Type II, but gets no response in Issyos. After a while tinkering and getting nowhere I tried my SN30 Pro+. It doesn’t have an iOS mode and wasn’t showing up in the phone’s Bluetooth list, but I had a look online and there’s a trick: if you go to the iPhone’s settings, go accessibility->switch control->switches->Bluetooth devices, then turn on the controller in Mac mode (hold A and press start when it’s off), then it will show up and you can connect to it. I did that, and with no further configuration it worked perfectly in Issyos and I was able to finish the level I’d been stuck on first try.

I’m glad I found a solution but annoyed that my old controller just doesn’t work. I get that it’s a niche standard and developers can’t support everything, though. I guess my complaint is with the march of time?

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I am fairly certain the latest PS4 update has caused my console to start randomly ejecting the game discs, even when powered off. It happened last week right after I downloaded the update and then put in The Outer Worlds to play the DLC. It was fine afterwards, until tonight when it kept trying to eject a disc that wasn't there while I was playing the Castlevania collection. Has anybody here had troubles after a firmware update?

 

[Positronic Brain]

It's an original PS4? Because I had a similar issue but with the power button, which is more annoying as the console would shut down completely while playing. Turns out it was static build up in the capacitive buttons - cleaning them up with an anti-static spray and a microfiber cloth did the trick. It has become a periodic thing in my house clean-up routine.

 

[Positronic Brain]

Ah, yes. I had forgotten, there’s also the expanding rubber thing in original PS4s that causes them to eject disks,

Is your PlayStation 4 randomly ejecting discs? Here’s a few fixes

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[Phantoon]

Basically what you're saying is the PS4 is idle

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Thanks, PB. I thought anti-static spray was just for clothes, though. I hope I can get this problem fixed.

 

[Positronic Brain]

Thanks, PB. I thought anti-static spray was just for clothes, though. I hope I can get this problem fixed.

It might be one of those terms that don't translate - it's a liquid used to clean vynil records and monitors that supposedly doesn't cause static electricity build-up to prevent dust from clinging to surfaces?

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Oh Ok. I was bit confused there.

I've had my PS4 since Bloodborne came out, so it's strange such a common issue would take this long to pop up.

 

[Phantoon]

These sort of things are entirely random, unfortunately.

 

[Ixo]

Our Switch Lite is having battery issues. Unplug it from the wall: 100%
One round of Tetris 99 later: Charge your Switch! It will power off soon.

So that sucks. Not sure why that started happening, but I can tell you I’m not a fan!

 

[Phantoon]

I managed to fix my 3DS shoulder button, which had given up the ghost. It really wasn't hard, just a little fiddly. I'm really pleased, now all my handhelds are working. Now I need to work out the best way to fix the displays on my Virtual Boy.

 

[Mommi]

I was hoping to finally replace my PS3 disc drive, but it looks like it's proprietary, and there are zero new replacement units, only refurbished ones. I don't really want to spend $50 rolling the dice on a potential piece of trash. I think it's time to start thinking about hacking the thing so I can get my games on the HDD.

 

[Phantoon]

Now the HDMI on my PS4 looks dodgy, the picture was dropping out. Contact cleaner seems to have worked for now, but I'm worried it won't be for long.

 

[madhair60]

I was hoping to finally replace my PS3 disc drive, but it looks like it's proprietary, and there are zero new replacement units, only refurbished ones. I don't really want to spend $50 rolling the dice on a potential piece of trash. I think it's time to start thinking about hacking the thing so I can get my games on the HDD.

I did it the other week and it is extremely easy!

 

[Aleryn]

Waiting for my old PSP batteries to grow minds of their own any day now.

 

[Mightyblue]

OG PSP batteries have a bad habit of cell deterioration (leading to rapid expansion/leaking) after about a decade almost like clockwork.

 

[air_show]

This is an issue that's been resolved for a couple months but I want to play too. A while back I got up one morning and went out to breakfast. It was raining, but not heavily, I saw no cause for concern. While I'm at the restaurant enjoying my meal there is suddnely one single very very loud burst of thunder, as if lightning struck quite nearby. And that was it. It goes back to raining gently, and all seems fine.

I go home and find my PS4, my modem, and the HDMI port my PS4 was plugged into completely fried. Everything else was fine. Microwave, fridge, the TV itself, all the other electronics in the house were fine and dandy. But the PS4 and anything it was directly plugged into got instantly destroyed. I took it to a repair place, who irritatingly told me on the phone that they would wave the service fee if they couldn't fix it and then when they ended up being unable to fix it they still charged me $25 to get my broken system back. I just ended up buying a new one, and having the internet company bring me a new modem. And started using the other HDMI port on my TV. But that was one seriously costly lightning strike.

 

[Aleryn]

That sucks. Was the PS4 and other items plugged into a surge protector?

 

[air_show]

it was not unfortunately. That may have been my fatal mistake. There is a reasoning for it, in that over the years that particular PS4 had power supply problems in the past, often times needing to be unplugged and discharged in order to turn on properly. For whatever reason the system didn't seem to get this problem when I plugged it directly into the wall (it was probably bad wiring in the house I was living in at the time), so I got into that habit. Rest assured the new PS4 is very much plugged into the surge protector now.

 

[Aleryn]

Only bright side is that it does sound like the PS4 was on the way out regarding those power supply issues. If not for the lightning murder of it I'd suggest trying a new power cable, but all moot. Sympathy; all that stuff isn't cheap by any sense of the word.

 

[Phantoon]

Had a nasty moment there, my N64 kept resetting randomly, which is apparently not an uncommon fault. I cleaned the cartridge and the contacts, didn't help. I popped out the expansion pak, cleaned that, still nothing. Finally I looked at the pins connecting the PSU to the N64. They were dark, not shiny copper. I cleaned them, and it worked!

I thought this may be helpful to document for other sufferers...

 

[Sarge]

Just had a "holy crap, it actually works" moment. I've had a dead Gain Ground cart that somehow still read out in a Retrode. Well, turns out the fix was in this thread: https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showt...red-screen&s=40ca6f5cbb65ec29e7f49b437040dcd7

Basically, I probed the pins, and the problem was on pin 8 to ground. I threw a 380 ohm resistor on there and blammo, the cart works again. Funnily enough, the same pin as the guy describing his problem. Apparently that's a common one to blow up? Anyway, I now have a working Gain Ground cart, so I'm pretty stoked.

 

[Yimothy]

Something is going on with the sound from my Mega Drive. It gets quiet, then drops completely, then comes back, then drops in and out again. Leave it running long enough and it’ll just stay off. Unfortunately I’ve got a pretty complicated setup for my console, so it’s hard to figure out where exactly the problem lies. When it started I was playing a master system game and I thought it was the FM chip in my power base FM playing up, but I switched to a different SMS converter and it was still happening. So I tried an MD game and it was still there. I had sound running from the headphone jack into the HD retro vision component cable and then diverted to my stereo because my retrotink doesn’t play sound on my TV. Unplugging the headphone cable (so I’d be getting mono sound from the console’s normal AV out) didn’t fix it, but I eventually tried headphones in the headphone jack and seem to have gotten consistent sound that way, so I think the problem is the component cable. So I guess I just need to run the headphone jack directly to my stereo. What a nuisance.

 

[Aleryn]

Weird. Those symptoms are identical to the sound weirdness of an old iPod clock radio I used years ago. Volume would go up and down and eventually fail. In that case it was a bad power supply for the clock radio.

 

[Yimothy]

Something is going on with the sound from my Mega Drive. It gets quiet, then drops completely, then comes back, then drops in and out again. Leave it running long enough and it’ll just stay off.

So I think what’s going on here is I need to recap my console. I took the component cable out of the audio circuit by running from the headphone socket directly to my stereo and the dropout is still happening. It’s possible it’s a problem with the stereo, I suppose.

It’s hard to find clear information on what exactly the symptoms of capacitor failure in a mega drive are, but there are like forty of them in there and they probably all do different things. Some of the stuff I read online says failing capacitors might take a while to warm up and then start running, or they might run ok for a while and then stop working once they get warm. The latter is a plausible explanation for what’s going on with my sound.

I don’t really want to remove and replace a zillion components from my console. I wonder if I can find someone to do it for me or a console that’s already had it done? It doesn’t look too hard, but I’m pretty bad at soldering.

 

[Mr. Sensible]

So I think what’s going on here is I need to recap my console. [...] I don’t really want to remove and replace a zillion components from my console. I wonder if I can find someone to do it for me or a console that’s already had it done? It doesn’t look too hard, but I’m pretty bad at soldering.

My understanding is that there's a cottage industry around recapping old consoles. As you mentioned, those itty-bitty capacitors can be numerous in certain consoles, so it may not be a solder job you want to tackle unless you're fairly confident in your skills and have the right equipment (i.e. a reflow/de-soldering station). Sorry I don't have any specific recommendations for services, but maybe someone else here does?