I Fixed It.....i Bloody Fixed It!!!

[Drewus]

As of thismorning, i fixed what was once a dead GP32.

Cleaned up some solder joints, replaced a diode and a capacitor. Resoldered a capacitor that half detached when the unit fried.

I stuck her together, put in some batteries and switched her on.................beautiful sweet GP32 tunes greeted me and i was presented with the main menu.

This alone prooves that it is completely possible to revive GP32's that have been subjected to voltage surges or polarity screwups.

Thanks for the people that helped me out and gave me some advice, now i just need to go and buy an SMC.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bingo Jesus]

Good good, nice to hear that you could fix it. Did you buy the unit broken, or did you fry it?

 

[Drewus]

Good good, nice to hear that you could fix it. Did you buy the unit broken, or did you fry it?

​

I bought it broken

 

[Apeiron]

Maybe a new business for you...revive dead one and selling them on that is.

 

[Drewus]

Maybe a new business for you...revive dead one and selling them on that is.

​

Yeah i was thinking about that. Buy them dead from various sources (here, ebay, etc...) and get them working again. Then sell them as refurbs on ebay.

 

[Drag]

what *LU was it? And if it was a FLU, does the light still work?

 

[Apeiron]

It was a lit unit because I remember him saying he got the light to work.
Now you have the inside knowlegde...*tumbleweed rolls by* mod a gp32 to take a 5v smc...j/k

 

[Dozer]

Now you'll find that the SMC components were fried too when the card you buy doesn't work .

 

[trooper]

I have a NLU that "I" fried during a moment of stupidity and forgetfulness. :rolleyes:
Where do you live ?. How much will you charge to repair dead GP32`s ?. How would you pay to buy dead units ?.

Questions, Questions.

Trooper

 

[Drewus]

The unit is a BLU. As for whether it's a BLU+ or not, i have no idea. How do i tell?

As for the SMC reader portion of the unit not working, well that was another one of my worries. I started work early and finished late today, so i'm not able to go buy an SMC to try it out. I guess i'll wait and see what happens.

I have a NLU that "I" fried during a moment of stupidity and forgetfulness. :rolleyes:
Where do you live ?. How much will you charge to repair dead GP32`s ?. How would you pay to buy dead units ?.

Questions, Questions.

Trooper

​

I live in Australia. As for repair costs, i have no idea. It cost me around $2 AUD to repair my unit, so literally nothing.
I wouldn't be interested in making loads of money off of it. Having a dead GP32 is a major annoyance, and considering that the units aren't exactly in plentiful supply it would be nice to have as many up and running as possible.

As for paying for dead units. I'd just pay out of my own pocket. Then when i resell them i'd just charge about $50 more than i originally paid for it.

 

[Bingo Jesus]

Now you'll find that the SMC components were fried too when the card you buy doesn't work .

​

I think that the diode and a resistor get fried, but that saves the rest of the unit, which is nice, especially as you can get simple components really cheap from Maplins.

 

[Drewus]

Now you'll find that the SMC components were fried too when the card you buy doesn't work .

​

I think that the diode and a resistor get fried, but that saves the rest of the unit, which is nice, especially as you can get simple components really cheap from Maplins.

​

Yeah i'm fairly positive now that the damage was only caused to a small number of components. I measured every single resistor that was in the firing line and all of them are still in perfect condition.
I'd say that the surge blew the diode that leads directly from the power input, and continued on till it reached the capacitor.
Because the capacitor also overloaded and blew, no more damage was caused further down the line.
The heat from the entire ordeal was enough to melt the inductor located directly next to the capacitor in half, yet the inductor is still functioning perfectly (the copper wiring is still intact). It was also hot enough to melt the solder off of one of the legs of the capacitor.

The unit could actually function without the capacitor in there at all, however you'd never be able to safely use the power input again.
I actually detached the power input and soldered the wires together, to save myself or anyone else that might have a go of my GP32, from ever potentially killing it again.
AC adapters might give you constant juice, but i'd rather stick with some nice simple batteries.

 

[aapje89]

nice

 

[Fishbong]

I bought two broken dramcasts, one of them was rebooting all the time, the other one didn´t read CD´s. I only had to stuck a wooden match into a certain spot of the rebooting one and it worked fine. Then i opened the second one and readjusted the drive speed (by turning a potometer) and it was also fine. I sold one of them for 12€ pure profit and kept the other one. B)