– Retrodrömmar
In this post I will show how to repair the Super Nintendo (SNES) power supply. I am working with a psu for a PAL SNES unit. This psu also fits the PAL Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). If your SNES is not powering on properly, you will want to check if your psu is functional. To do so, use a multimeter set to measure “AC”, and…
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The Playstation 3, released in 2007, was released in two variants, just as the Playstation 2: a fat, and later, a slim variant. In this post, I will take a look at a common problem with the fat model: a noisy cooling fan. This include investigating causes, and potential fixes. Playstation 3 disassembly If you ever plan on disassembling the Playstation 3, you will notice…
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The RedOctane X-Plorer is possibly the best guitar controller ever made, suitable for games such as Guitar Hero, Band Hero etc. I spent many hours with this controller, together with my two favorite GH games: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and GH: Metallica. So, when I found a broken RedOctane X-Plorer for ~$5 in a charity shop, I was pleasantly suprised! The guitar had…
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ScummVM is a neat little application that allows you to run classic point-and-click adventure games on a variety of platforms, including Dreamcast. That means, you can run your old favorites such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Leisure Suit Larry, on your Dreamcast! To do so, you need to create a Discjuggler CDI-file (see, guide for burning cdi-files for Dreamcast). In this post I…
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I rarely like to to major modifications to original old hardware, with a few exceptions. A couple of such exceptions were a paint job of a Game & Watch Donkey Kong in horrible condition, and a VGA-mod of an original Gameboy. In this post, I will to some modifications to a Super Nintendo (SNES), which I bought from a local seller. As seen below, the…
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The Gameboy Advance (GBA) was released in 2001 as a successor to the Gameboy DMG-01 / Color series. The handheld unit is basically a handheld Super Nintendo, with backwards compability with original Gameboy games. As the GBA ages, weaknesses in its design are disclosed. In this post, I will take a look at the following issues: Broken power switch (and fuse). Distortions from volume wheel….
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The original Xbox, launched by Microsoft in 2001, is still a popular console to run homebrew games and emulators on. However, as with any old hardware, the console’s weaknesses are starting to show. One of those weaknesses is the optical drive, a common source of error on old video game consoles. One common errors are that the DVD-tray is stuck, and won’t eject. Another common…
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This information is based on http://theinstructionlimit.com/installing-ms-dos-6-22-on-a-486-without-a-floppy-drive-using-a-cf-to-ide-adapter and is more of a note to self. Anyway, as a retrocomputer enthusiast I often find myself in the following situation: I have a compact flash to IDE adapter with a suitable CF-card. However, I do not have a floppy drive on the retrocomputer that I want to install MS DOS to. Furthermore, I also need to install Ontrack…
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I have a tendency to buy broken Gameboys on Swedish eBay for around $20-$25, and then fix them. They usually suffer from two faults that are easy to repair: corrosion on the battery connectors, and vertical lines on screen. However, in some cases, the screens are beyond repair (if they have dead horizontal lines, or damaged flexible PCBs). Then, a VGA mod may come in…
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I bought a Compaq Contura 420C laptop for a fairly good price at Swedish eBay. The downside? Both hinges were broken. It seems like this is a common problem on these old laptops. In this post I will show how I repaired them. It is by no means a pretty fix, since I lack the tools to weld metal pieces together. But it works. I…
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