*REPAIRED!* Baseball Stars 2 Recovered (old post: Repairable? Lost cause? (NES Game))

[Tanooki | 4,931]

Over the weekend, someone the week before remembered to keep their word more or less and the result was a selection of NES games.  They were not pretty and I felt even a need to sanitize the outside before driving off.   Anyway they all needed a good clean inside and out, but two of them stood out worse on the inside, sadly this one seems to perhaps be dead?

It looked like something leaked up into it, but nothing was obvious with the board, just inside the plastic shell itself (sticker side.)  I've supplied images of the front/back of the board and a couple screens though not the best.  Colors on the title is like 4 color CGA, the menu black and white.  I guess it works, but really it's not usable as it sits.

I've tried multiple depths of nice to utterly harsh cleaning of the pins so that's ruled out.  I tried 2-3x over reflowing the solder on every single contact for the little bits up to the chips.  It hasn't been made worse or better for it.  It is possible some moisture got into the CHR data chip and wrecked it?  Thankfully Baseball Stars 2 is a cheap game, but it would be nice to save if it can be.

 

I used the PCB pics over on bootgod, and the only difference I saw were some solder filled VIAs that mine lacks, could it be that stupid and simple?

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Tanooki

[CMR | 519]

The trace for pin 71 looks kind of funky.  Pin 24 trace looks like it might have a bad spot on it too, but other than that, I don't really see anything.

[Tanooki | 4,931]

@CMR I see what you mean with 71, I don't see it though on 24 in the images I supplied.  I'll have to pop the cart open and take a look with a jewelers loop I have I guess.  I wouldn't mind scraping some mask off and a little flux/solder as a drag test to see if I can see a change.

Did you mean 26 and not 24, I kind of see how it looks kind of smudged/off.

Edited May 17, 2023 by Tanooki

[Tanooki | 4,931]

@CMR you may have caught it. This is more than just suspect. 3x zoom and using my 10x-20.5mm Triplett and here we see this. Took a second image cleared it and it’s gone gone. 
 

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Tanooki

[Vectrex28 | 366]

Yup, that looks like a broken trace to me. Use a multimetre to probe the part on the board side and try and locate where that goes. Then a solder bodge wire from that point to the pin by scraping off some of the solder mask, soldering it to the now exposed copper and you're good to go!

(EDIT: Furthermore, it looks to be on the CHR side, and seeing as it messes with the graphics that's an extra clue that it might be it!)

Edited May 17, 2023 by Vectrex28

[Vectrex28 | 366]

As a sanity check, just to be 120% sure that is indeed a broken trace (It most certainly is), when you locate the point where that trace goes, try probing it from the pin side with your metre. If it does not beep - congratulations, you've got a winner

[Tanooki | 4,931]

@CMR @Vectrex28

Winner winner chicken dinner  

I didn't use the multimeter not really good with them.  By the time you mentioned it I had been working with a tiny piece of wire and trying to get it to adhere, and got it, then did the other side.  I stripped some insulation off a thin wire I had which was fiddly, but I got it down.

Verified to work, it's repaired, put a tiny wider strip of electrical tape over that bridge to keep it safe and masked over. The excess on the bottom was sliced of a little cleaner too, this was before a full clean up but it's good and covered.

Baseball Stars 2 restored!

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Tanooki

[CMR | 519]

@Tanooki Nice work!  You were right. I did mean pin 26, but it looks like you figured it out.  I was counting from the wrong direction.  I've heard finger nail polish works as a good solder mask.  You don't have to be a technical whizz to fix stuff.  Most of the stuff I fix, I figure it out with just a visual inspection.

[Tanooki | 4,931]

7 hours ago, CMR said:

@Tanooki Nice work!  You were right. I did mean pin 26, but it looks like you figured it out.  I was counting from the wrong direction.  I've heard finger nail polish works as a good solder mask.  You don't have to be a technical whizz to fix stuff.  Most of the stuff I fix, I figure it out with just a visual inspection.

Thanks and yes, that does work I've seen it before, but I don't think I have any of that around here except in some pretty pastel colors as my daughter has some.  I could consider unscrewing it for that as it's better than tape.

It wasn't the first time I've done this, and the last go around was even more taxing due to even smaller spaces to work with.  I had an utterly wrecked Link to the Past GBA cart.  Multiple pins looked like moth eaten swiss cheese and the top on one of them was chomped as was the trace some from rot, had to run a wire right from the pin remains to the leg on the actual chip.  As you can see kept the covering on that piece of wire for obvious reasons.  The pins were so gone I fluxed and tinned new pins over the shattered remains to get a good read.

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Tanooki