Death of a Console

[renegadechic]

It is a sad day in my house today. The first console I bought myself as an adult, the console that reignited my love of gaming, indeed my very favourite console ever has failed me.


My beloved Gamecube has developed a graphical fault and everything looks dark and out of focus and totally unplayable.I have invested more gaming hours into it than any other console, have had most of my favourite gaming experiences with this console and even though I have a Wii and it is backwards compatible (well my freeloader disc for playing NTSC games wont work), I am very very sad to see it go.


I am genuinely surprised it died really. I treat it pretty well and I haven't tried to mod it or abuse it at all. I don't really know what the underlying problem is but I am reasonably sure that its not a cable problem. I don't get the impression it is a laser problem either but it could be naive to think that. Cartridge consoles, despite their eroding contacts do seem to more genuinely last the test of time over optical systems. I have a Dreamcast with a dodgy GD Rom drive, which is a very common problem (still want a working Dreamcast some day).


Does anyone else have any tragic console death stories?

 

[SNESFAN]

had 3 RROD xbox 360s in a row... does that count?


my story isn't as dramatic... just me getting to the point after the second one of yelling "....REALLY!?!" at the top of my lungs at an inanimate object

 

[iprice]

I feel your loss. The GameCube is/was a fantastic little machine, sadly unloved by people that should have known better. Home to many great games.


My it Rust In Pieces.


I've had one RROD on my 360, but every other console I've owned (pretty much everything from SNES upwards really) have never failed me.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

My dreamcast developed a fault where it would randomly reset.If i whacked it it would work again.still have it and another dreamcast too.Ive also encountered 4 red rings of death on my xbox 360's and one ps3 where the blu ray drive died.

 

[renegadechic]

Yeah, I have pretty much avoided the XBox 360 since the RROD thing, although i get the impression the slim model these days is a lot more reliable. I was actually reluctant when getting into the current gen at all. I waited for the PS3 Slim, which seems more reliable than the original. The Wii seems pretty solid though. The RROD thing would have drive me crazy though and is entirely yelling appropriate

 

[iprice]

I've only had one RROD in 4-5? years of owning the machine, and using it pretty much day in/day out. I did have a scare one day though when it wouldn;t come on. No lights, no hum nothing. I seriously panicked for a couple of minutes - thinking about having to contact microsoft etc. etc. Then I pulled out the tv unit and realized that I'd accidentally pulled out the power brick cable earlier when doing something else with one of my other machines. Plugged it in and all was well. There was a huge sigh of relief I can tell you.

 

[GiraffeeDreams]

My beloved DreamCast ceased up last year, I played it no less than twice a week for the past 10 years, I almost cried but I let her go and replaced it with another brought off eBay.


I heartily agree the GameCube is an amazing machine, I no longer have one for space reasons but I played every game I had to death, and it had the best versions of TimeSplitters 2 and Burnout 2 and I bloody love those games

 

[T.T.]

do you think the problem might be a solder joint?


maybe a dying capacitor?

 

[renegadechic]

T.T., i honestly wouldn't know where to begin with checking. i would need a special tool to get in there as far as i am aware. might just be easier to buy a second hand one. i'll definitely have to have a think about it. i am gonna have to decide between buying a PAL copy of zelda twilight princess and selling my NTSC copy (possible with freeloader disc), or buying a new gamecube. it would probably work out at the same price in the end.


iprice, wow that must have been a relief! that would definitely be my preferred method of fault solving!


giraffeedreams, sorry about your dreamcast. i hope your replacement was just as good! my dreamcast was on ebay at only £20 but the drive needs some pro tweaking that i am not entirely capable of. the gamecube has so many amazing games and it is definitely the backbone of my zelda enjoyment with LOZ, Z2, OOT, MM, WW and TP all on there! the pandora does the rest

 

[moz]

The Gamecube was the first console that I bought for myself as well, it's still kicking, but I tend to just use my Wii with a GC controller for the games nowadays, I don't wasnt my precious dying on me


Also, I've had an Xbox, and 2 Xbox 360s fail on me, nothing else. That is when I built a gaming PC, less prone to fail, and if it does I would only need to replace one part, usually.

 

[DaMummy]

none of my consoles have ever been broken. ive been given a few "broken" consoles, and i stand by my statement, none of my consoles are broken. while gamecube may not have been the first console i bought myself, it was the first thing i ever put a modchip into, and spent way much more time hacking around it than actually playing the games, making the gamecube very special for me in my own way....


lotta good games i missed out on playing on it though....like LOTS!

 

[kuru]

My dreamcast developed a fault where it would randomly reset.If i whacked it it would work again.

That one is rather easy to fix with a screwdriver and pliers, see
https://www.youtube.com/embed/lOzyKXkMNNg?feature=oembed
Alternative methods are either sticking matchstick wood next to the pins you see being bent in the video, or, much nicer, adding some solder to the pins to make them a little thicker and have good contact.


There's also videos out and about on how to fix that dodgy GD drive.

 

[Asmo]

If the graphics have become dark and fuzzy (soft and blurry, not full of jagged random pixels, tearing and the like) but it otherwise appears to work, it wouldn't be Laser related and may well be a problem related to the video output, if a best case scenario. Before you give up on it, try a different cable AND each different output type (RGB/Composite/S-Video) the gamecube supports. Laser problems typically affect loading and fmv playback, but the console can still throw out a stable image, if only the startup one.


The 'dark and out of focus' description reminds me of many N64s I used to see with botched or gone-bad RGB mods, these still worked fine with composite output (and the RGB was fixable).


The only console I've had expire on me was a PS2 during a marathon rainy day session of Test Drive Unlimited. The final full circuit of Oahu race, after maybe 4 hours of previous play. 200mph, in the lead, then BANG! My PS2 died with a frightening noise. Had it back running the next day, it was just a thermal fuse on the power board, pennies to replace.

 

[GiraffeeDreams]

My replacement DC works fine, It's still a heartbreaking moment when any of our beloveds stop working

 

[T.T.]

T.T., i honestly wouldn't know where to begin with checking. i would need a special tool to get in there as far as i am aware. might just be easier to buy a second hand one. i'll definitely have to have a think about it. i am gonna have to decide between buying a PAL copy of zelda twilight princess and selling my NTSC copy (possible with freeloader disc), or buying a new gamecube. it would probably work out at the same price in the end.


iprice, wow that must have been a relief! that would definitely be my preferred method of fault solving!


giraffeedreams, sorry about your dreamcast. i hope your replacement was just as good! my dreamcast was on ebay at only £20 but the drive needs some pro tweaking that i am not entirely capable of. the gamecube has so many amazing games and it is definitely the backbone of my zelda enjoyment with LOZ, Z2, OOT, MM, WW and TP all on there! the pandora does the rest

oh yeah, I forgot about the special screwdriver, well I guess if you're feeling brave, you could try melting pens....

 

[Batou456]

Well given the year the GameCube came out it wouldn't be surprising if they were subject to that run of dodgy Chinese capacitors. That issue largely related to the dielectric being garbage leading to blown capacitors though, and thus it probably wouldn't be functional if that was the issue.


You might want to see if there's a Bookmans in your area, as they tend to dabble in older systems.

 

[T.T.]

what revision is your gamecube?

 

[craigix]

When my ZX Spectrum died it actually just made me get my act together and learn how to program the Amiga properly.


Until then, while I had an Amiga, I was still writing Spectrum games for fun simply because I understood the system and the Amiga seemed very complex - so in a way I am now thankful for the Spectrum dying when it did.

 

[renegadechic]

what revision is your gamecube?

it is a DOL-001(EUR) gamecube and from what i can tell, rev A as it has analogue and digital AV out as well as the serial port 1, serial port 2 and hi speed port

 

[Tom`]

Well given the year the GameCube came out it wouldn't be surprising if they were subject to that run of dodgy Chinese capacitors. That issue largely related to the dielectric being garbage leading to blown capacitors though, and thus it probably wouldn't be functional if that was the issue.

This is probably something worth checking. I've had motherboards, graphics cards, and monitors display capacitor-related problems. Back in 2003 and 2004, lots of 'good' brands like Panasonic and Nichicon were affected, but even now manufacturers frequently use cheap capacitors, often in power supplies where they are exposed to a lot of heat which they may not even be rated for.


My monitor (Samsung 204B, 1600x1200 display, $320 when I bought it four years or so ago) is no longer made and was not long out of warranty when it stopped working properly (backlight would quit working until after the monitor had been on for ages). Replaced all the caps on the power supply board, and now it works fine again, total cost: $4.66.


I encourage anyone who has hardware die out of warranty to check this - a few dollars and a few minutes with a soldering iron is all it takes to fix a lot of issues.