Question Portable 64 Repair?? Please help!

[Jakesirwalski]

Hello all, I have recently bought this machine from somebody off Ebay,

It was supposed to be 100% functional, and turns out it is not at all.

I can get the games to work 1% of the time. Sometimes it works in phases, but for the most part I have to reinsert the game over a hundred times for any successful boot up.

The screen works, the buttons work, everything works great but the n64 engine itself.

I am about ready to give up on this thing completely, I am heart broken and very disappointed.

Does anybody have advice? Anybody willing to repair this thing?? This forum is my very last hope.

I'm so upset.

Thanks.

 

[Gman]

Without knowing what it looks like or what is going on inside, it is impossible to diagnose from that description. Have you tried contacting the person who built it?

 

[Jakesirwalski]

Without knowing what it looks like or what is going on inside, it is impossible to diagnose from that description. Have you tried contacting the person who built it?

Do you not see the pictures I have posted under the thread?

I have no idea who originally built it, and will never find out. The guy who I bought it from has no contact information of course. :/

 

[Gman]

Do you not see the pictures I have posted under the thread?

I have no idea who originally built it, and will never find out. The guy who I bought it from has no contact information of course. :/

I see the pictures of the unit, but no internals. There are 3 pictures that are not showing up I believe

 

[Jakesirwalski]

Here they are.

 

[Gman]

The wiring is quite bulked up. I don't think anyone can pinpoint the one exact issue from the pictures. There is certainly a few things that come to mind.. cartridge slot wiring, board bent expansion pak, floating components, broken wires, those cheap phone batteries etc..

 

[Jakesirwalski]

The wiring is quite bulked up. I don't think anyone can pinpoint the one exact issue from the pictures. There is certainly a few things that come to mind.. cartridge slot wiring, board bent expansion pak, floating components, broken wires, those cheap phone batteries etc..

So you think it's garbage? :/

 

[Stitches]

So you think it's garbage? :/

It's not a unit most of us would keep, let alone sell.

 

[Madmorda]

My advice is to contact eBay. Just because the seller says no returns does not mean that they don't have to accept returns. If you start a return through eBay, and the seller doesn't respond, eBay will likely still give you your money back.

That said, now that you've taken it apart, that may not be an option anymore.

Have you tried cleaning your games with ipa?

 

[Jakesirwalski]

Getting my money back is not an option unfortunately.

There seems to be absolutely no hope in this. It's better off in the trash if nobody is willing to fix it.

Such a waste of a beautiful design. At least I gave the portable thing a chance, but I'm already retiring from this idea.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

[Madmorda]

Getting my money back is not an option unfortunately.

There seems to be absolutely no hope in this. It's better off in the trash if nobody is willing to fix it.

Such a waste of a beautiful design. At least I gave the portable thing a chance, but I'm already retiring from this idea.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Please don't trash it lol. I haven't made an n64 portable, but if nobody else more qualified is willing to give it a shot then I'd be willing to take a crack at it. Someone obviously put a lot of work into it (although I heavily question the Samsung batteries) and I'd hate to see it stay broken.

 

[Jakesirwalski]

Please don't trash it lol. I haven't made an n64 portable, but if nobody else more qualified is willing to give it a shot then I'd be willing to take a crack at it. Someone obviously put a lot of work into it (although I heavily question the Samsung batteries) and I'd hate to see it stay broken.

It was made before 2012 apparently.

When I first got it, it did work pretty well. But a day or two later, it became extremely difficult to get a game to work.

I found that slightly squeezing the bottom left corner made the games work 100% of the time, then it completely stopped working for me hours later. so here I am now.

So obviously it has potential to work 100%

BUT I feel like since the inside is so complicated, it'll cost more to fix than what it's really worth, yeah?

I really appreciate the offer.

 

[Jakesirwalski]

Yes the games are clean. I have not tried cleaning the cartridge slot yet, but I don't think that's the issue considering I had every game I own work flawlessly in it's "working" phase (when I did the slight squeeze on the bottom left corner of the shell, near the headphone input).

 

[ShockSlayer]

I mean unless you know what the issue is, there's nothing wrong with running through the obvious stuff.

 

[Jakesirwalski]

I mean unless you know what the issue is, there's nothing wrong with running through the obvious stuff.

You mean it's worth being looked further into?

 

[Madmorda]

I found that slightly squeezing the bottom left corner made the games work 100% of the time, then it completely stopped working for me hours later. so here I am now.

To me, this says either loose connection or a short. If it's a loose connection and you find it, it could be an easy fix. If it was a short of some kind, it might be fixable or it might be damaged. It could also be the things Gman mentioned.

cartridge slot wiring, board bent expansion pak, floating components, broken wires, those cheap phone batteries etc..

The batteries really stick out as a red flag, although that's not necessarily causing the issue.

 

[Jakesirwalski]

To me, this says either loose connection or a short. If it's a loose connection and you find it, it could be an easy fix. If it was a short of some kind, it might be fixable or it might be damaged. It could also be the things Gman mentioned.

I have a good feeling there is a loose connection involving the n64 motherboard.

The batteries really stick out as a red flag, although that's not necessarily causing the issue.

how difficult would it be to upgrade the batteries?

 

[Nold]

Are the batteries even connected to a protection-board? or are they wired directly to the power switch? You def. need to check the voltage(s)..

Also, the cooling "solution" looks quite bad to me.. even if the n64 doesn't need that much cooling, if i compare it to my N64p (which used a similar heatsink) it'll easily heat up to >80°C.. I could keep mine at about 70~75°C using a fan, this unit doesn't even have some vents in the case..

But IDK how much heat the chips can take before dying.. poor little N64

 

[Doom]

sheesh what a mess. Honestly this probably isn't worth the time. With all that spaghetti wiring you'd probably have to start all over. The case isn't that great either (apologies to the make, was probably good design in 2012) to warrant fixing.

At best you might be able to sell it to a new, inexperienced modder that wants something to start off on for $50-75.

 

[SabelToothTiger]

Ooof I remember seeing this listing, you can always try to remove all of the wiring and use this machine to learn about portablizing. I wouldn't consider it a lost cause as the components, especially the case, is already made for you. Maybe just need to upgrade the battery to today's standards but it is maybe a weekend job tops.

Edit: Assuming of course nothing is fried, you need to start testing voltages and such as others have stated