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Recap guide

Recap the Amiga CD32 and CDTV

CD32 SMD electrolytics are known to leak, and the factory polarity marking on a few through-hole parts is wrong.

Open the interactive checklist Tick off each capacitor as you replace it. It saves in your browser.

Worth a recap. Reports say it is a common and useful fix on this machine.

Which board do I have?

Boards changed during production. These notes come from the linked sources, and many are only partly documented, so check the board in front of you.

  • CD32 mainboard (Medium confidence). How to tell: One restoration article says there is only one known production variant. Capacitors: Many SMD caps plus three large through-hole caps C281, C408 and C811; 47uF 16V parts leak most; two 1000uF 10V through-hole audio caps were fitted backwards at the factory. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: no. Source

Where to start

Clues from write-ups and forum threads, not a diagnosis. Low confidence means one thread or one repair; high means several write-ups agree.

  • 47uF SMD caps (High confidence). One restoration names failing 47uF 16V SMD caps, and another recap found leaking caps while replacing all 31. Source
  • Polarity pitfalls (High confidence). Several write-ups warn about polarity. One names C408 and C811, and another notes earlier bad repairs with wrong polarity. Source
  • Finding values (Low confidence). One restoration shows how values were worked out from a board photo and the Amiga PCB Explorer. Two others point to a cap list and map on the Console5 wiki. Source

Tips, tales and maybes

Found in write-ups and forum threads. These are other people's reports, not tested by us. Check part references and values against your own board.

  • Tip: Solid-electrolyte option (Medium confidence). One CD32 write-up replaced SMD caps with tantalums and through-hole ones with polymer aluminium parts so nothing can leak, after finding the 47uF 16V SMD caps leaking and two 1000uF 10V audio caps fitted backwards from the factory. Source
  • Watch out: Yellow tantalum and the missing red channel (Low confidence). A restoration notes a yellow tantalum degraded by nearby leakage and that tantalums fail short. A missing red video channel was suspected on the 4066 chip, which a recap would not fix. The author says through-hole caps were often fitted the wrong way round at the factory. Source
  • Tip: Gentle desoldering on leaked boards (Low confidence). A video summary for two CD32s recommends low-temperature solder, ChipQuik and tweezer lifts, and warns against snip-and-rip because it can take pads with it. One of the two units was fully dead until recapped. Source
  • Tip: C281, C408, C811 and the wiggle method (Medium confidence). A CD32 recap names three large through-hole caps, C281, C408 and C811, with C408 and C811 possibly assembled with wrong polarity at the factory. The author separated SMD can caps by wiggling with pliers, used lots of flux, and still had composite shadowing afterwards, which a composite to S-video converter improved. Source
  • Story: CDTV cleanup note (news item pointing to a blog) (Low confidence). A Commodore News item says three CDTVs were cleaned, had corrosion removed from the motherboard and their electrolytics replaced, with 3D-printed parts and metal reshaping. It only links to the full write-up, so details are thin. Source

Before you start

  • Boards changed during production. Check your board number against the guides before you order parts.

Guides we used

This page and the interactive bench are built from these. They have the photos and the full detail, so please read them and support their authors.

The capacitor list

We have not checked a capacitor list for this machine yet, so none is shown. Follow the guide above for your board, then add the capacitors in the interactive checklist and it builds a shopping list for you.

Skip the sourcing

While you are in there

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Steps, tools and safety

The steps, the tools in top, middle and budget picks, and the safety list are the same for every machine, so they live on one page: How to recap, step by step.

Values are shown as published in the guides above, and boards changed during production. Check the board in front of you. A recap involves hot tools and, on some machines, dangerous voltages. You do it at your own risk.

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