Did I fry my Super NES?

[BAD PIXEL]

Long story short: I put an SNES game, without the plastic casing (so just the board) into the SNES, turned the power on and nothing - no power light, no screen image, nothing. I can't think of anything, except that maybe using the game without the casing caused the problem, maybe shorted it out? Anyone have any idea as to WTF is going on?

[Xonticus]

Unlikely, you probably just fried the game board if anything. Have you tried other games?

[AARST]

Yeah, most important question is if you've tried other games.
The only thing that may have happened is you put in a game that uses the normal amount of pins (as in, no SuperFX support) and it wasn't centered correctly. This would misalign ground pins and possibly fry the game, but not the console.

[BAD PIXEL]

Yeah, most important question is if you've tried other games.
The only thing that may have happened is you put in a game that uses the normal amount of pins (as in, no SuperFX support) and it wasn't centered correctly. This would misalign ground pins and possibly fry the game, but not the console.

It actually was StarFox with the SuperFX chip. I'd try another game, but I don't even get the power light to come on. It's like the SNES isn't even plugged in. I've even tried another power adapter.

[BAD PIXEL]

After some some research, it's sounding like the pico fuse on the SNES is blown out. This can happen by doing something as simple as putting the cart in with the power on. Does anyone have any experience with replacing these? Is it a total pain in the ass, or something a soldering novice could do?

[Ziggy]

You could do it, it's not that hard.

mmmonkey is offline right now, otherwise I'd link you his guide.

I plug games in and play them with out the plastic all the time. Are you sure you didn't plug the game in backwards? The top of the PCB (where all the chips and whatnot sit) is suppose to be facing the BACK of the console (away from you) when you plug it in. Again, you would assume this would fry something on the cart and not the system, but I guess anything is possible.

Fuse is pretty easy to replace. You might have a hard time finding the fuse in the package the SNES uses, it's a 1.5 amp pico fuse. A quick Google found them on eBay and even a site selling "SNES fuse" replacements. Worst comes to worse you can just get a standard fuse housing like this...



And then solder in new fuse holders for it. I've seen this illustrated in guides before.

[BAD PIXEL]

Hey thanks for the info. I don't have much experience soldering, but it sounds pretty easy, and I can practice on something else first. I'll see about hitting him up for the guide. I did find a 1.5 "SNES fuse" which should work.

I really don't know what happened. I tried out the Star Fox game involved on my portable SNES and it works fine. There's a possibility that I had the board reversed, but I'm usually pretty good about keeping the top of the PCB facing the back. It's possible, would at least provide some explanation. I would have much rather it fried the game, instead of the fuse on the system.