Repair Reference
This is a free, always-current repair reference for the consoles I restore and sell. I keep detailed working notes on every machine that crosses my bench - what fails, how to confirm it, and how I actually fix it - and this section is where I publish the reader-facing version. No login, no purchase, no paywall. When I learn something new about a console, or correct an old assumption, the page here updates with it.
Each console gets its own page: the common failures and how I diagnose them, what the hardware is doing inside, the mods worth knowing about, and the parts I reach for. Where a repair calls for a specific board photo or a bench measurement, I shoot and measure it on my own hardware rather than borrow someone else’s.
These are living documents, and they get better with feedback from other people who work on this hardware. If you spot an error, or you know a better way to do something here, please reach out by email at store@consoleartisan.com or through the contact form. If your correction or improvement makes it onto a page, I will credit you for it.
- Famicom Family and PAL NES Repair Reference
The deltas that matter on the Japanese and PAL siblings of the NES: the DC power-polarity trap that kills a Famicom, cleaning the 60-pin connector, replacing and re-aligning a Famicom Disk System drive belt, expansion audio, and RGB/HDMI mods. Companion to my NES front-loader reference.
- NES Front-Loader (NES-001) Repair Reference
How I diagnose and fix the original front-loading NES (NES-001): the blinking light, the 72-pin connector, no-power faults, video noise, plus what the hardware is doing inside and the mods worth knowing.
- NES-101 Top-Loader Repair Reference
How I diagnose and fix the top-loading New-Style NES (NES-101): why a bad cartridge gives a black screen instead of a blinking light, what the jailbars really are, the soft-failing 7805, the one capacitor that matters, and the AV mod that turns an RF-only console into a sellable one.
- Sega Game Gear Repair Reference
How I diagnose and fix the Sega Game Gear: dead and dim screens, no sound, the recap that every unit needs, the power-jack polarity trap that tracks region rather than NTSC/PAL, and how to tell the board revisions apart before you buy a screen kit.
- SNES / Super Famicom Repair Reference
How I diagnose and fix the Super Nintendo and Super Famicom: why the board revision decides everything, the dead-power and no-picture faults, the bright vertical line, audio imbalance, the 1CHIP quirks that are not faults, plus region conversion and the RGB mods worth knowing.