So I just borrowed my friends game gear (probably for good)

[Pulling Teeth]

But I've noticed that the screen only depicts the picture well if I tilt it slightly forward. Does anyone know if most of them are like this because of its age or if mine is just in poor condition?

Also, does anyone know if the psp charger fits in the rechargable battery slot? Because it looks like it would haha

Thanks alot!
-Taylor

[Pullmyfinger]

Loose connection? Open it up

[obi-shawn]

Have you tried adjusting the brightness slider? I think it is on the right hand side. I bought one a few months ago at a thrift store and it was just like that and then after fiddling around for 10 minutes I had a Duh! moment. I adjusted the slider and that was the problem.

[Niode]

Also, does anyone know if the psp charger fits in the rechargable battery slot? Because it looks like it would haha

Thanks alot!
-Taylor

Just check the voltage regulations and make sure where the power is going to (tip or sleeve). The PSP charger is 5v 2000mA.

[pompeyparsons]

Have you tried adjusting the brightness slider? I think it is on the right hand side. I bought one a few months ago at a thrift store and it was just like that and then after fiddling around for 10 minutes I had a Duh! moment. I adjusted the slider and that was the problem.

Alot of the time it's as simple as that. If that doesn't work though I agree with the sentiments of "Open it up!" If you know what you're doing back there.

[dudex77]

I had the same problem with my Gamegear when I got it and opened it which was more of a pain in the ass than anything I've ever opened before. Couldn't figure out a solution. If you get it working normally please le me know how.

[Pulling Teeth]

Thanks alot for all of the help, I guess I'm just going to have to open it up. I've been messing with the brightness slider for awhile and the only way I can get it to show picture is if I slide it all the way down and tilt it forward so I'm thinking its loose connection or something. If anyone here knows alot about opening up a gamegear up, I'm all ears, I've never opened one up before

[Curlypaul]

You need to replace all of the capacitors to sort this out. Sega used these weird square things at 15 years old they are all starting to fail so open it up and replace them. i did once find a list on google of the all the caps you need but I cant find it now, but there are loads of guides for opening them to change the caps on the sound board, like this one here There are different versions of the boards anyway so I would say open it up and see make a list of the caps you need and go down to maplins. The caps are the square things soldered to the board. You must replace them with caps with the same capacitance, which is the value donoted with the greek letter that looks like a deformed U, but the voltage on the new caps can be bigger since this a maximum level.

The square caps are both glued and soldered to the board so gentle twist them until the glue breaks and then heat up the soldered joints until it comes off the board taking careful note of which side of the capacitor is the positive - I think the square ones that sega used have a plus sign on one side but the new ones will probably be marked with a white line.

Its a small and fiddley job but its not undoable even for a big clutz like me. Not only did the screen viewing angle return to normal but the verticle lines were reduced and the picture was generally much sharper. Well worth doing if you ask me.

Oh and you will need some thing to get that security screw out of it - the one in the back of the cartridge slot. I managed to do it with a miniture socket I had but you can buy the proper tools from rob webbs and places like it.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on

[ott0bot]

I just found a game gear at a thrift store for 3 bucks. It's got the same problem, and the speaker is out as well.

I wonder if there is a how to with some pics on the method you described Curlypal. I'd give it a try.

[Curlypaul]

Heres the guide that I used, I couldnt find it before:

Game gear repair guide

This shows you the where all the caps are on the main board and what to do when you find out that 68mf caps are hard to buy.

The link in my post above has a much better explaination of how how to get the the thing open and which capacitor to replace the on the sound board - I'll bet the speaker itself is just fine.

One last bit of advice is to buy the smallest caps you can, space in there is pretty tight and while its a apart its also well worth taking the main board out of the casing and cleaning the inside of the screen. Surprising how much filth had collected in there.