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Recap guide

Recap the Famicom Disk System

The drive belt is the main failure on the Famicom Disk System. The one detailed refurbishment we found recapped three boards as preventive work, without values or evidence of failures.

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

Check first. A recap is not always the answer here, so look at the guides before you order parts.

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.

  • Disk System drive HVC-022 with RAM adapter HVC-023 (Low confidence). How to tell: Board names are silkscreened: drive power board FMD POWER-02 and RAM adapter HVC-FMR-03, plus a small head position and write protect control board. Capacitors: The write-up shows old electrolytics removed but gives no values or counts. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. 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.

  • What one refurbisher recapped (Low confidence). One refurbishment replaced three electrolytics on the RAM adapter (HVC-FMR-03), then recapped the FMD POWER-02 board and the drive control board. It does not say which caps had failed. 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.

  • Watch out: External adapter polarity and voltage (Medium confidence). A NESdev thread says the FDS needs a 9 to 12V DC supply with the ground on the inside of the plug, opposite most consumer supplies, and that wrong polarity can do serious damage. One poster reported a regulator exploding after a NES adapter was used on a Famicom. The official HVC-025 is 9V 400mA. Source
  • Tip: Belt and error codes before capacitors (Medium confidence). A reference page says the proprietary drive belt is the usual failure and standard floppy belts are too large, and lists Err. 02 as low or dead batteries, Err. 07 as sides reversed and Err. 27 as a disk surface problem. It says nothing on capacitors, so check these first. Source
  • Tip: Reset head start position after belt change (Medium confidence). The refurbishment says after fitting a new belt on the HVC-022 drive, the head start-position adjustment must be redone, particularly to cure Error 22. The three boards recapped were the RAM adapter, the FMD POWER-02 and the drive control board. 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

Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These links only search by name. Disclosure

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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