Recap AES

atman

n00b
Joined
Jan 25, 2018
Posts
29
I dont know what to do.

How are the lifespan of the AES caps?

My AES works great, but I'm a bit concerned about cap leakage in the long run.

Should it be recapped?

Another thing I always wondered about, those SMC never seems to be included in cap kits, and there is very little talk about them. Are surface mouted caps lasting forever or are they not containing any corrosive liquids?
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
15 Year Member
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Feb 13, 2005
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22,333
Wouldn't worry too much but if you like soldering why not? should be a quick little exercise for you to reduce your boredom levels (clearly...)

SMC? surface mount!? they're not electrolytic!
 

atman

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Jan 25, 2018
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29
Wouldn't worry too much but if you like soldering why not? should be a quick little exercise for you to reduce your boredom levels (clearly...)

SMC? surface mount!? they're not electrolytic!

Well, its more that I've seen how my PC Engine Duo looked like, and it was not pretty. Different systems have different level of quality components.

Worst seems like the PCE Duo and Genesis CDX.
 

ChuChu Flamingo

We have purposely, trained him wrong, ...as a joke
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Nov 23, 2010
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Surface mounted capacitors can indeed leak, and often times you don't even see the damage to the pads or underneath until you desolder it. Laseractive paks and PC Engine Duo/Turbo Duo are big offenders of this and are quite a pain to repair. If there is damage to the pads chances are you will pull a trace and have to patch.

A lot of those systems were made around the time of a well known capacitor plague from what I've read. Essentially a lot of subpar capacitors/bad batches were made. It is why almost every Game Gear need its capacitors replaced and Sega Genesis Model 1 CDX etc/Pc Engine Duo & Turbo Duo/Laseractive Paks and more often do as well.

It isn't uncommon from what I've seen to have to replace capacitors on Neo Geos, namely in the audio section on MVS and AES systems. The first symptoms that usually pop up are hissing/popping then low volume.

I have a Game Gear that has this problem pretty bad, going to recap it soon as I have the caps. Not sure if this applies to all caps, but a good way to tell if they leaked other than a visual inspection is to smell them. My game gear reeks like vinegar/fish oil. Just my 2cents.
 
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tobisham

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May 18, 2017
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I recently change all capacitors of a Turbo Duo, fixing very low audio and CD spinning but not reading. It was a quick fix, I didn't expect bad caps to be only culprits. It is well known, as said above, what systems are prone to failure because of bad caps. Fortunately we should not worry about AES/MVS, I've never encountered a case.
 

MobiusStripTech

Mr. Big's Thug
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Posts
201
Personally I recap all of my systems because I can. If it has SMD electrolytic caps I definitely make sure it's recapped immediately. I have had to do recaps for multiple MVS due to low or no sound. Not so much on the AES.

If you can do it yourself, why not. If you have to pay someone then it's basically up to you and your wallet. But definitely replace the caps on 90s consoles that had SMD electrolytics. They are probably already leaking and eating away at your board.
 
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