Problems with a US AES system I picked up recently

Cylotron

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Hello,

I picked up this system recently off of eBay and it came with 3 games(Ghost Pilots, Samurai Showdown and World Heroes Jet - all 3 US cartridges).
Anyway, I hooked up the system and noticed that the video output connector seemed a bit loose. I ordered a replacement cable off of Amazon. Once I got the system hooked up, it makes the usual Neo chime.. although the screen either starts off all blue(and stays that way) or no video at all. If I “jiggle” the video connector, the video kicks in and works fine(but will occasionally reboot on it’s own when I do this).
I decided to open up the system and found some sort of ground cable that had been clipped. It looks like all the capacitors are okay.. but there’s hot glue residue in various places. Here’s a couple of photos I took.

Does anyone know anyone reputable who can repair this system? Possibly even do the video mods and install the UNIBIOS chip? I’m in Encinitas, CA.
 

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Cylotron

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Here’s some photos of the underside of the board:
 

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max 330 mega

The Almighty Bunghole
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Nothing looks wrong here. Learn to solder if you think some of those solder pads look suspect. Applying heat for a few seconds will reflow them
 

Cylotron

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Ah yes... the old Xbox trick. Although nothing beats placing those old iMac boards in the oven to fix the GPU issue. heh. Okay, I will give it a try. thanks
 

Hawwa

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Properly resoldering the GND posts on the video connector could fix the issue. In one of the imagesnyou can see there's a gap there due to bad soldering.Screenshot_2021-12-16-08-18-46-433.jpeg
 

Cylotron

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Properly resoldering the GND posts on the video connector could fix the issue. In one of the imagesnyou can see there's a gap there due to bad soldering.View attachment 54372
That's the power switch.. although do you mean these 2 need to be connected together?... or just more solder needed?
 

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max 330 mega

The Almighty Bunghole
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Make the left most one look like the right most one. See how the right most one fully circles it's pin? The furthest left one has a gap and does not.
 

Hawwa

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That's the power switch.. although do you mean these 2 need to be connected together?... or just more solder needed?
You're right.

No, do not connect them, it's what max 330 mega stated, try to get the GND pins surrounded by solder. Even the one in the right is missing some but the one on the left is missing most of it.

As to the video connector, I don't see problens there but try to gently wiggle the pins to see if there's any cold solder joint in there. It may seem OK but the solder could be separated from the board and you wouldn't know unless you wiggle it. And once you're in there remove the flux residue with IPA.

Try then and check if video is repaired.
 

Hawwa

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Happy to hear it.

BTW, what fucking hour is right now in California to be soldering Neo Geo stuff?
 

Heinz

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I'm sitting here wondering how that joint was soldered so badly from the factory. Assuming that's the case.
 

Hawwa

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You know, SNK was sloppy and blah, blah, blah but I doubt that welding is factory made.
 

Neo Alec

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Could have been a bit corroded. It's probably normal for some of these solder joints on the DIN connector to get worn out after years of plugging and unplugging cables.
 
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