Problems with dismantling a SFC console

[Yukima]

I'm feeling very, very stupid right about now... (and forgive me if this post comes out incoherent - it's 3 in the morning over here and I'm tired)

I'm currently trying out the Retr0bright process for de-yellowing my Super Famicom console, and have opened up the unit, taken off the top casing, and soaked it in a solution of 3% hydrogen peroxide and Oxi Clean. It worked, and after about 10 hours the top is finally its original shade of gray (or close enough).

Now I'm trying to see if I can de-yellow the bottom, and that's where the problems come in. I've removed all of the screws holding the unit's circuit board and other electronic guts to the bottom casing, and I'm almost able to remove the bottom, except for one small area - under the sound chip, and almost exactly where the extension port is located. For some reason the electronics in that spot just won't come off from the case. Is there another screw that I'm missing somewhere? (I'll try to take pictures of it tomorrow so people can get a better idea of what I'm talking about)

Hopefully anyone here who regularly takes consoles apart or swaps cases or circuit boards could help me out? ^_^;

[Hobie-wan]

I don't have a Sfami, but a picture will probably help if someone else hasn't been dismantling them.

Oh, and you did take before and after pics to share, right?

[Yukima]

I had to put everything away today because we're having a family gathering tomorrow and my workspace (a.k.a. the kitchen counter) needs to be cleaned up. I had to put the unit back together so no pieces would be lost during the move back to my room, and I'll take it apart again once my relatives leave (next few days) and take pictures of the inside - specifically the problem area that won't budge even after all the screws were removed.

I did take pictures of what the thing used to look like, and I will take a picture of how the top looks like now in comparison to the bottom. They'll be up within the next few days, hopefully.

[jfe2]

Hopefully someone can help you out. But yeah, even if you don't have before pictures, try to post some afters. I have a yellowed SNES and a few carts that have some yellowing on them, and I was thinking of trying the retro-bright solution on them.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Did you remove the screws on both sides of the the cart slot? Those literally hold the entire board into place.

Also, on earlier Super Nintendo and Super Famicom systems the sound chip is actually on a separate board that connects similar to a cartridge and you have to pull the sound chip off, then unscrew the rest of the board's assembly followed by finally removing the board from the case bottom.

Also show us some pics of the RetroBright in action, I've been wanting to try it out with a yellow SNES myself but have been a little hesitant given that I don't want to accidentally wreck my spare consoles.

[Yukima]

Did you remove the screws on both sides of the the cart slot? Those literally hold the entire board into place.

Also, on earlier Super Nintendo and Super Famicom systems the sound chip is actually on a separate board that connects similar to a cartridge and you have to pull the sound chip off, then unscrew the rest of the board's assembly followed by finally removing the board from the case bottom.

I removed all of the screws I could see, including the screws on the cart slot. Since the board under the sound chip wasn't coming off, I was suspecting that there was at least one screw under the sound chip. But I wasn't sure if the chip was supposed to come off or not, and I didn't want to inadvertently break something... The sound chip DID seem a little wobbly after removing the 2 screws on it, so maybe if I try pulling it off...

lol... now I want to go ahead and re-dismantle it right now and take pictures of it already... but we're so busy with getting stuff ready for relatives right now that I can't get to it (I got called away to rearrange a lot of stuff in the kitchen halfway into making this post and just now came back )

I'll see what I can do tomorrow or Monday or whenever...

[Hobie-wan]

I thought to answer like MM said about popping the sound module off as the older SNES were like that, but I have no idea if the SFami is the same, so was waiting for pictures first.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I thought to answer like MM said about popping the sound module off as the older SNES were like that, but I have no idea if the SFami is the same, so was waiting for pictures first.

The Super Famicom and Super Nintendo are exactly the same console internally, plus the fact that all the sound modules I've removed from every American SNES console is branded with the Super Famicom logo instead of the Super Nintendo logo is just further evidence to it.

[Yukima]

Yay, back again!

I finally did get everything dismantled - it was as Mod_Man_Extreme said: the sound module was removable, and there was one more screw located under it that I removed, and then I could remove the whole board. Thank you for letting me know!!

As for pictures, I've been taking some as I went along, and I'm planning to make a new thread with them once I'm completely done with de-yellowing. Hopefully it'll finish by tonight - there's only about 2 hours of daylight left as of now, and I needed the sun's rays to make the process work. My handheld UV light's batteries died the other day, and we're all out of batteries. And hopefully the H2O2/Oxi Clean solution is still strong, since I had to stop and wait an entire extra day to continue (stupid clouds and stupid nor'easter-wannabe storms that last the whole day... )

*sigh*

I'll see if I can finish this by tonight. If not, I'll just post what pictures I have, and make another batch of solution to use next week. It'd better be sunny - if it rains one more day I'm going to scream. Virginia has had ENOUGH rain for this year.