About

When I found out in the early 2000s how cheaply hosting space could be had, I jumped on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, I’m uninteresting and talentless so I use the place for miscellaneous filehosting.

25 thoughts on “About”

  1. Hello, I see that you have some expertise when it comes to the Super Nintendo. I recently purchased a Super Famicom that works almost flawlessly. The only small issue it has is that it outputs a slight buzzing along with the normal audio and I’m not sure what I can do to fix it. If you have any advice you can give me I would greatly appreciate it.

  2. It’s kind of become almost a joke these days that folks will immediately blame everything on bad capacitors, but in this case, buzzing in the audio is one of the few issues that really can be caused by bad caps. I no longer repair SNES consoles as often as I used to a few years ago, so my memory is fuzzy, but I’ve definitely had a few of them with buzzing in the audio that I fixed by recapping them. I didn’t see the issue that often, but in looking at some old notes I wrote to myself at the time it seems that apparently I solved the issue on at least a couple GPM-02 boards by replacing C61.

    As long as you can solder, it’s worth a shot. There aren’t that many electrolytic caps, so you may as well buy a kit from console5 and replace all of them at once, especially since the caps differ depending on the board revision. So even though I can say that C61 was the culprit for me on a GPM-02 board, that wouldn’t really be useful information for you if you have a different board revision. They have a kit for SHVC consoles and one for all later revisions. They’ve also got a list of all the capacitors for all the board revisions.

    If the console with the buzzing sound is an SHVC board and you happen to have another known working SHVC console you can swap the known good sound module into this one and see if it makes a difference. This is something you can try even without soldering, since it just requires a Phillips screwdriver and a 4.5mm gamebit driver to open the console.

  3. Hello smile citrus, I saw your post about the orange and black analog for the ps4.I was wondering if you could sell me the motherboard with the orange and black analog sticks attached.I’ve been looking everywhere for these analog sticks and I would greatly appreciate if could look into this for me,Thanks James

  4. You can find them on Aliexpress. I usually buy the green and blue ones, but I’ve also bought some of the orange and black ones from the listing below and they seem to be identical to the ones on the JDM-055 boards:
    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32886096224.html

    There are also a number of other sellers who also have them for sale and they’re probably all totally fine. I just haven’t personally bought the orange and black ones from other sellers so I can’t say for certain whether they’re good or not. But here’s a pretty good price on 50 of the orange and black ones:
    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32647985040.html
    I haven’t bought from that particular listing before, but I have bought the blue and green ones from the same seller in the past and they’re always original and excellent quality.

  5. Hello it’s James again,I meant to ask you if you could sell me a PS4 motherboard with the orange and black analog sticks attached.I’ve been having some difficulties trying to solder some I have,Thanks

  6. Hey, I’ve got an SNES 1-chip-02 that “works” it fires up and loads games passes all the burn in tests. The problem I have is the image is very dark and yellow. It’s as if it’s missing a color, I swapped the RGB encoder chip with a known working one, I even removed it with chipquik to prevent it from overheating, no change. I swapped the caps and I checked for broken traces and I can’t seem to find any. Both RF and Composite do the same. You ever experienced anything like this before?

  7. Hi SmileCitrus, I’ve be looking for information on fixing my PAL SNES but I can’t find info anywhere. It powers up fine but outputs black and white fuzz – I can just about make out the image. Sound is fine.
    I’ve tweaked the red trim pot next to the oscillator but I can’t get anywhere near a picture and I’ve put in a new oscillator – twice! because I just didn’t trust it.
    I’ve tried other games and it’s the same result. I’m in the US but I think TVs are all beyond the PAL NTSC hurdle. I called the TV manufacturer and they said they didn’t think it mattered – it would auto detect.
    Wondering if I need to change the trim pot?!
    Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
    Oli

  8. Hi, I’m sorry about this, but I don’t know much of anything about getting PAL systems to work on North American TVs. I don’t have any PAL consoles myself so I’ve never tried it.

    Are you using the multi-out on the back of the system? If you’re using the multi-out connector I think you’ll need a PAL video cable. I don’t know whether NTSC composite or S-video cables will work with a PAL SNES. But I do know for sure that NTSC RGB SCART cables are wired differently than PAL ones so they’re incompatible with PAL SNES systems. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same is true for composite and S-video cables.

    Also double check to be sure there isn’t an option somewhere in the menus of your TV to switch between NTSC and PAL.

    If you’re using the RF jack rather than the multi-out then it’s possible it might just have some dirt or corrosion built up. Spraying some electronic contact cleaner inside the RF jack sometimes helps with this. I use Deoxit D5.

  9. Hey SmileCitrus, would you accept a job to repair a black screened SNES? I would mail it and paypal you. You seem to be the expert on it.

  10. Hey SmileCitrus,

    I’m trying to fix a used SNES I bought online. I did some cleaning and checked the board and all looks well. However when I plug in the SNES with a game I get a blank screen. After some testing and troubleshooting, and inadvertent fidgeting of the cables, I got the game to show on the screen, albeit off-center and fuzzy, though the sound was fine. I also noticed the AC / DC Power Input Jack Port is broken, though the system turns on, sometimes a hit on the cord shuts it off. I’m in the process of replacing that now.

    My question, do think this could resolve the blank screen/pulled cord fuzzy screen, or would the multiport also need to be replaced? I tried looking online, but I couldn’t find anyone selling replacements for the multiport. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks, stay safe and happy new year!
    Nick

  11. Hi,
    Unfortunately I’m not 100% sure what the issue is. It’s not something that I’ve commonly seen. If you have a photo of what the game screen looks like on your TV that might help.

    I don’t think there’s much of anything inside the multi-out port other than some plastic and the connector pins, so there’s not much there that can fail. Does it looks okay visually? As long as there’s not a lot of rust or dirt in there then it’s probably fine. I’ve only seen problems caused by bad multi-out ports when they had pretty severe damage, like lots or rust or when someone had jammed something in there and physically messed up the pins.

    The broken power jack shouldn’t be any issue. I’ve never seen a broken power jack on an SNES cause any kind of problem other than how you said the console shuts off suddenly if you hit the cord.

    Is the video good enough to attempt to play a game for 5 or 10 minutes? If so, test out some games and see if they work without crashing and without any glitches. If you have a rom cart like an Everdrive, FXPAK, or SD2SNES then try running the burn in test rom. If any of the tests fail then it’s either a CPU or PPU problem. If either of those are the issue, then you’ve most likely done all that you can do for this console, since you can’t fix bad CPUs or PPUs, only replace them. But you can only get replacements from other SNES motherboards. Since there’s no sense cannibalizing one good console to fix another, it’s usually not a practical repair to do.

    On the other hand, if it passes the tests and your games seem to work then it’s probably not a CPU or PPU issue.

    Wavy lines in the video is usually caused by either a bad power supply or a failing 7805 voltage regulator. But I don’t remember ever seeing a console where the video was off center, except for a few unusual ones that had some surface mount components physically broken off the bottom of the boards. But those were just bare motherboards that I received loose in a box, so unless your console has been dropped or something like that, it’s not likely to be the problem.

    Sorry I can’t give a more definitive answer. I haven’t repaired SNES consoles in a while, but generally a good rule of the thumb is that when tested with a known good game, a known good (clean) cartridge slot, and known good controller ports, then if there are gameply glitches, if games don’t load, if games crash, or if the controls don’t work correctly, then it’s a bad CPU. If games run without glitches but are visually distorted, then it’s more likely to be a PPU issue, but could still occasionally be the CPU.

  12. Thanks SmileCitrus,

    I have a new power jack coming next week. As soon as I finish the replacement, I’ll take a photo of the screen. Let me know the best way to get it to you, or please send me an email directly and I can reply with the photo.

    Thanks again,

  13. Sure, you can email it to me at smilecitrus [at] gmail [dot] com. Just replace the [at] and the [dot]. Or you can upload it somewhere like imgur.com. Whatever is easiest.

  14. Hi SmileCitrus,

    Sorry for the delay, I was waiting on some parts to finish the repair. I was able to get the SNES working, however the video display is all messed up. You can see it here: https://imgur.com/a/O2Wkl86

    The SNES-2-HDMI cord I’m using is bad, which is why its in black&white, however, the image distortion is being caused by this bad SNES. I tested the cord with another perfectly fine SNES and it works as expected, just only in black&white. The image is from the opening of Link to the Past.

    To me, I would think this image distortion is maybe being caused by a bad chip responsible for image processing? Any ideas would be helpful. I have included a picture of the circuit board as well. I don’t see any issues and I gave it a light cleaning with 91% isopropyl alcohol and a soft toothbrush, but curious to see if I missed anything. https://imgur.com/a/OSFfpXg

    Thanks!

  15. Hey, thanks for the photos. That’s really helpful. Unfortunately though I still can’t say for sure what’s wrong with the console. Based on everything you’ve described though my first guess would be that PPU1 is bad. Your motherboard has CPU-B, which almost never fails, so it’s unlikely to be a CPU issue. Plus the game seems to have booted and looks like it’s running fine, other than the visual distortion, so that’s another reason to assume the CPU is good. PPU2 C is also less likely to fail compared to the earlier versions of that chip, so my guess would be that PPU1 is the culprit causing the problem. But honestly that’s just my speculation. I’m not experienced enough to be 100% sure about that.

  16. Thanks, well the shell is in great shape so I’m going resell this as is on eBay and see if anyone else wants to take a try at fixing it. Appreciate the help!

  19. Hey, I have a bunch of dead boards and in need of some SNES PPU’s. Anyone selling? or know where I could source them? Thanks 🙂

  20. Sorry, I don’t have any spares for sale. If it’s just PPUs you need though then your best bet would be to buy some broken SNES motherboards and take them off those. You may end up with a few bad ones, but the majority are usually fine, even if the board it came from was badly damaged. CPUs though are another story, haha.

  21. Hi Smilecitrus!

    I have a Japanese Super Famicom which has display issues and the game kinda locks up,
    For example when I play Street Fighter 2 Turbo, the main menu screen is tiled and blocky and when I navigate by pressing the up and down buttons I hear different sound effects instead of the usual ‘chime’ noise.

    I also have Donkey Kong Country 3, when I boot this game up, the intro shows Kiddy Kong and Dixie Kong bouncing on mid air but it’s meant to be the Rare logo,

    Can you fix this?

  22. Sorry, but that sounds like it’s probably a bad CPU. The only place to get another CPU is from another Super Famicom or SNES, so there’s nothing that can be done to repair the console without a donor CPU. Plus, Super Famicom consoles are still cheap, so the cost to hire someone to repair it would be way more than the value of the console.
    I’d suggest looking over the motherboard for any obvious issues such as corroded traces due to liquid damage. If it looks good visually then you can assume the issue is probably the CPU. If you have a flash cart you can also run the Burn-in test rom.
    While I wish it were possible to fix every SFC/SNES console, I’d honestly suggest just trying to find a working Super Famicom with a cracked shell on eBay and swap motherboards. You could then sell the cracked shell with the bad motherboard for parts. Just be aware that there are two different versions of the bottom shell. The ones with four black feet on the bottom only fit SHVC motherboards (the ones with a removable sound module). All other board revisions use the version of the bottom shell with only two black feet on the bottom.

  23. Hi, I came across your site while browsing online. I’m not sure if you can help me, but I’ll ask anyway. I have a 3DS with a motherboard model CTR-CPU-01 that’s been damaged by someone who tried to repair it earlier. So, I decided to replace it with a board from another console, but the only one I found is a T/CTR-CPU-01 model. Do you think both motherboards would be compatible?

  24. Yes, it’ll work fine. All motherboards for the original 3DS console are completely interchangeable.

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