In need of some Sega Game Gear parts for a future project I spotted an auction on eBay for “sega game gear bundle, spares” and the description:
Parts only, some sound boards, battery covers, pcb’s everything you see in the picture.
No returns, not working, uk postage only.
Any questions please ask.
I ended up winning the auction for £5, potentially an absolute bargain baring in mind I just paid £4 for some Game Gear battery covers.
I was not put off by the potentially suspicious placement of the battery covers in the buyers photos. I suspected they had deliberately scattered them to disguise damage or missing components. I could also tell from the photos that someone had attempted to recap / repair these and I guess failed or at least stripped vital components.
I only need the outer case for my project so it does not really matter.
When the package arrived this is what I had actually purchased.
- 12 x sets of battery covers
- Some buttons / screws
- 4 x rear section of the enclosure.
- 2 x front section of the enclosure complete with PCB and LCD
- 4 x sound boards
- 4 x power supplies.
What is curious is that 3 of the sound boards have been recapped and one stripped and ready by someone who knows what they are doing. The sound boards are £10 each on ebay.
Also the main mother boards have all been recapped and done fairly neatly.
After some further testing I realised that one of the main motherboard works perfectly but the LCD has black vertical lines. Most likely a duff LCD. The other motherboard seems to only stay powered on for half a second and dies, despite been recapped.
A quick google of “game gear power comes on briefly” leads me to believe that the cause of this is likely to be blown backlight tube.
I am confused why someone with the skill to recap all these boards did not tackle this to see if there was a good Game Gear somewhere in all these spare parts. Particularly as they had dismantled it to the extent where they put a sticker on the inside of the screen saying one of them had a bad LCD. That sticker is inside the case.
So this Game Gear actually used a Florissant tube, tiny but exactly the same as those you get in offices. It’s under this hear shield and accessed by removing the screw in each corner.
To remove the part then it needs to be desoldered at either end, and it just comes away.
So this is the part along with the reflective heat shield.
I accidentally pulled the speaker wire off while doing this so then soldered the black wire back in to place.
However I did this around the wire of my solder iron! Doh!
So after reassembling the device . .
A working Game Gear.
Aside from the fact I do not have any of the screws to hold it together. 🙁
That was a fun little unexpected project, that still leaves me with the parts for my next and a bundle of parts.