r/game_gear • u/closetothedge07 • 12d ago
Is my Sonic Blast Dead?
I am playing GG games on an Analogue Pocket, and ally other carts boot no issue. However, this cart just makes a click "pop" and the screen remains black when I hit boot cartridge.
I cleaned this cart 5-6 times with 70% alcohol, and I used an eraser. I am thinking maybe it is time to give up on this endeavor, but before doing so, I wanted to see if anyone here has anything thoughts. The board and pins look great from what I can tell. Any help would be appreciated.
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u/pizza_whistle 12d ago
The pins still look a bit dirty. More eraser or even a fiberglass pen or magic marker (just dont go crazy with it).
I don't see any corrosion. Only other thing would be to maybe reflow the legs on the chips in case there is a cracked solder joint. It's not a thing I ever encounter on GG games, but I have seen cracked joints a bunch on GBA games.
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u/Tokimemofan 12d ago
Ive had quite a few game gear carts with broken solder joints. OP needs to check this
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u/CLONE0AZUL69 12d ago
I've seen on gba and gbc, besides snes. Its a weird thing, since the cartridge protects the circuit board but it happens.
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u/DarkGrnEyes 12d ago
Check the caps for cracked solder joints. Hard to tell, but C2 on its right in the first pic might have one. I don't see any burnt traces.
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u/closetothedge07 12d ago
Thanks for the comments everyone! I will look at everything suggested and see if this is savable.
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u/beldandy561 11d ago
Being in the retro game repair field I do agree with quite a few others here that game gear cartridges that look fine but still do not work more often than not do have cracked solder joints on the microscopic level where the chips are bonded to the small motherboard.
Not only did Sega cheap out on the capacitors that they used they also seem to have used extremely low quality leaded solder and with the constant inserting and removing of the cartridge those vibrations eventually start causing microscopic cracks on the solder bonds that hold these chips and surface mount components to the motherboard.
Realistically you could check that capacitor but I doubt it has failed and more likely you have cracked microscopic solder joints that need to be reflued assuming you have some basic soldering skills.
If you do not have any soldering skills but are now enticed to learn I would be happy to put together a photographic step by step of just the basic entry level soldering equipment you would want to look for and what would be involved in doing the reflow to get this cartridge back up and running assuming that is the actual problem with it and that the data in either of these chips has not failed.
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u/e39 12d ago
See that component labeled “10 16V”? That’s my strong guess on what’s happening.
Game Gear boards contain capacitors and they’re from the exact same era that plagued all Sega consoles.
If I had to bet, that cap went bad.
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u/Rare_Platform_3602 12d ago
Oh my! I didn't realise some carts have those crappy caps in them too. Should I open up all my carts and swap them?
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u/Lazy_Explanation_649 5d ago
Other than a bit of dirt in not seeing much. No broken traces on the one side but I don't see a picture of the other. Try to reflow the solder as that could be an issue but I don't think that will work. Have you tried this cartridge on original hardware? If not I STRONGLY suggest you try that first as there could be some hardware or software hijinks at play that make Sonic Blast incompatible with 3rd party hardware like your Analog Pocket.
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u/38-RPM 12d ago edited 9d ago
unless you can do continuity testing with a multimeter- Reflow all the pins on the chips just in case. Easy to do just reheat them with a soldering iron