The "what piece of retro crap died today" thread

[vestcoat]

Tried and failed to fix my Power Base converter today.  It's been cranking the sound effects way louder than the music and I've heard they have capacitor issues, so I figured replacing the three electrolytic caps would do the trick...Nope.

Could it be the disc caps?

[thesteve]

disc caps rarely fail.
corrosion is much more likely

[BlueBMW]

I've been working on a broken NEC branded laseractive.  So far I've repaired the power supply board thatvhad gotten cracked.... straightened the bent case (which was causing the tray to jam) .... swapped out the entire laser / tray mechanism that had a single non replaceable but essential piece broken...  now all the mechanicals work but it wont read / spin up discs 

Next up... laser swap and spindle swap.

[TheClash603]

5 disc Sony DVD player, tray doesn't spin.

Yeah, this counts!

[BlackandBlue]

My turbo duo decided to stop playing cd audio. Guess it's time for a cap overhaul. Guess I'll put it next to my turbo express that has no audio

[blueraven]

My coffeemaker melted, and started on fire!

The espresso side of it died a horrible death last year, so i guess this was coming

Nothing like the smell of burning plastic to get your attention.

[SuperDeadite]

LOL!  After upgrading and getting my Fresh also speedy and awesome, the HDD died.
It's been making odd clicking noises for awhile and Ultima Underworld would never boot
from HDD anyways, so I'm not too surprised by this, just hillarious that it happened about
3 hours after upgrading it.

Thankfully the HDD is optional, as the games auto-boot from power on, and even Towns OS
will run straight from CD.  Only thing I've really lost is Windows 3.1 which i never use anyways.

[SNKNostalgia]

Gotta fix the region switch mod I made for my Neo Geo CDZ. At least it is stuck in original Japanese mode, but this sucks for older games with no language selection like KOF95. I like reading the SNK Engrish and no censorship.

A while back I had to repair my Neo Geo CDZ power supply as well. The board inside was cracked and I had to solder a thick gauged wire from one connection to the other. Beats having to hunt down a CDZ PSU. I make sure it's unplugged when not playing the system just in case.

Other than that, my stuff has being doing ok actually. A couple years ago I did the cap swap and new laser on my US Turbo Duo. Later on my original SNES acted all weird with mode 7 effects, the cursor on Final Fantasy 3 went all over the place and then it died. I replaced it, then my PSU had a wire short and had to replace that.

[BlueBMW]

I've got two Laseractive Sega pacs, one US and one JPN, that both died a horrible capacitor leakage induced death.  I've tried and tried to track down the trace or via that is keeping them from booting, but alas I am near the end of my patience with them. 

[vestcoat]

I'm pretty bummed about losing this:


I crashed it in the Ozarks and shorted something in the electrical system.  I couldn't get it fixed and tried to make it home replacing fuses and batteries until some more stuff fried and left me on I35 in Missouri yesterday.

It was an '82, almost as old as me.  I learned how to ride on it, took it to Canada and the East Coast, and kept it running for seven years.  RIP.

[BlueBMW]

Shouldn't be too bad to find a full wiring harness for it.  It'll ride again!

[vestcoat]

No, I couldn't afford to transport it back to MPLS.   
I had a salvage company tow it away and rode home on my buddy's bike. 

[BlueBMW]

Oh Im sorry to hear that   any way you can call the salvage company back?

[vestcoat]

Yeah, but it was a $500 bike in 2004.  If I called the salvage company and got it back they'd want some form of payment for the tow and storage and then I'd be looking at hundreds of dollars in truck rental and/or gas to drive 350 miles one way, 700 round trip.  After that, I'd still have to meticulously rewire the entire bike and replace any components that burnt out.  The rest of the bike is decent mechanically, but it needs a new swing arm bushing and, sometime in the next ten years, valve work, new forks, and a new head gasket.

[BlueBMW]

It sounds like there is some sentimental value to that bike however... it might be worth it to get it even if youdont fix it for a few years.