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Hi all,

I got some new 3DO games yesterday, so I decided to test them. However, my 3DO did not want to comply.

Previously I've had issues with the sound on my 3DO, with the sound getting very quiet and muffled over time, which I put down to a faulty capacitor.

Last night however, I was having issues with the power on my 3DO. The first time I powered on the console the power light went red, but then refused to go green to show the system was working.

After messing with it a bit, it powered on as normal. However, after powering it off between games it would sometimes need to be turned on and off a few times before it would respond and power on properly.

Eventually the power cut out completely as I was playing a game - the console just died totally. It won't turn on at all anymore. No lights show turn on, no disc spins - it's completely bricked.


I opened the console to take a look (and to rescue my disc which was now trapped) and I noticed a lot of sticky gunk of some sort around the power unit (or whatever the thing is called the plug goes into!).




I also took the opportunity to check the capacitor for sound just in case - assuming I got the right one, there are no visible signs of leaking, so is it possible my previous sound issues were due to power issues too?




I suspect this isn't going to be something I can fix, but any suggestions are welcome!

It's hard to tell from a pic, but that goo stuff could be an epoxy used to secure those wires. That sort of thing isn't uncommon, although this would be an example of a messy job.

As far as the cap goes, a cap doesn't have to be leaking or exploded to be bad. Can't tell from the top-down view, but is the top bulging at all? That kind of swelling is an indicator that a cap is bad (and possibly about to start leaking). But again, a cap can be bad without showing any signs.

I haven't had a chance to reopen my 3DO yet and check, but this guy was having some power issues due to faulty capacitors:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?lc=W_8BVu ... 61UfudJ7fY

Could it be possible that faulty capacitors would stop my 3DO from powering on at all?

Edit: I have a multimeter, could I do some sort of testing to see if the caps are working? I'm clueless on this stuff unfortunately

Do not test them; simply replace as many capacitors as possible and periodically check if the machine works or not.

Audio capacitors may be non-polar type, for now I would advise to just replace caps related to power circuitry.


Cheers,
Oge

alienjesus wrote:Edit: I have a multimeter, could I do some sort of testing to see if the caps are working? I'm clueless on this stuff unfortunately

Oge wrote:Do not test them; simply replace as many capacitors as possible and periodically check if the machine works or not.

I half agree with Oge.

You'd have to pull the caps to test them. And if you're pulling them, you might as well replace them with new ones instead of putting the old ones back in. Caps are super cheap, and it's not extra work since you'd have to pull the caps anyway.

I wouldn't periodically check, though. If it were me, I would just replace all of the electrolytic caps in one shot and then check. No sense on doing half a recap job. If you have ONE bad cap, they should ALL be replaced.

Also, Console5 takes the annoying part out of the recap job: http://console5.com/store/panasonic-3do ... p-kit.html