Project Genesis - Repair

The first step in Project Genesis is to try and repair it. After all, if I can't repair it what good would it do to perform maintenance or "mod" it? Right away I know I will need a new power cord as the power cord that came with the system was cut.


For testing purposes I can use my bench power supply. Before I even try and power it up, I opened the console and immediately found additional problems. There were two blown traces on the top of the circuit board, and two more on the bottom. The two on the bottom were right where the power comes into the motherboard, and the two on the top were near the on/off switch. Here's a picture of the damage on the bottom of the motherboard. It was hard to get a picture of the top side so there's no picture of that damage.


To repair the traces on the bottom side I decided to solder the power wires onto the first component after the break. As for the traces on the top side, it was easier to solder some jumper wires onto the underside of the board.



With so many problems related to the power, I suspect the previous owner tried to use the wrong power cord with the Genesis. Either the polarity was backwards and/or the voltage was too high. This cause several traces on the motherboard to blow. The big question is was anything else damaged on the board? With the traces repaired I was finally ready to test it so I would soon know. I connected up my bench power supply, put a cartridge in, and turned the system on. It worked on the first try! So the Genesis is alive. I can now order a replacement power supply and get ready for the next task, maintenance.