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Recap guide

Recap the Game Boy family

The original, Pocket, Light and Color each have their own board list. The ConsoleMods page points to the list for each board number.

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

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

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.

  • DMG-001 with DMG-CPU-01 to DMG-CPU-06 (1989-1999) (Medium confidence). How to tell: Board number is visible through the hole for the battery cover clip, so you can read it without opening the case. Capacitors: ConsoleMods lists the DMG as through-hole; a K-Retro DMG kit lists 2x 10uF 16V, 1x 10uF 25V, 2x 10uF 50V, 1x 22uF 10V, 1x 33uF 25V, 7x 100uF 10V and 4x 1uF 50V and does not say which CPU revision it targets. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • DMG-CPU-07 and DMG-CPU-08 (late DMG) (Low confidence). How to tell: Cost-reduced boards whose chips are covered in epoxy (glop top); same battery clip hole check. Capacitors: No capacitor difference is stated for these two; ConsoleMods only says the first six revisions are largely identical. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • Game Boy Pocket MGB-001 (1996-2000; MGB-CPU-01, MGB-ECPU-01, MGB-LCPU-01/02) (Medium confidence). How to tell: Revision can be read under the left battery spring; LCPU boards add the power LED. Capacitors: ConsoleMods lists the Pocket as using SMD capacitors; no per-revision list was found. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • Game Boy Light MGB-101 (1998, Japan) (Medium confidence). How to tell: Single hardware version, no board revisions documented. Capacitors: ConsoleMods lists the Light as using SMD capacitors. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • Game Boy Color CGB-001 (CGB-CPU-01 to CGB-CPU-06, 1998-2003) (Low confidence). How to tell: Board number is under the left battery spring, and CGB-CPU-01 carries no marking. Capacitors: ConsoleMods lists the Color as SMD; a board map for CGB-CPU-02 shows 3 mapped caps, C32 100uF 6V, C35 22uF 16V and C38 100uF 4V, and calls -02 a minor cost and layout tweak over -01. 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.

  • Quiet or crackly sound (Low confidence). iFixit answerers say a Game Boy with a quiet speaker should get a new speaker first. Check the headphone jack and the cartridge pins before you order capacitors. Source
  • Which capacitors? (Medium confidence). ConsoleMods has capacitor kit lists for the DMG, Pocket, Light and Color, and says the Color and Pocket use surface-mount parts. It does not rank which fail first. 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: DMG kit list as one poster gave it (Low confidence). A chipmusic forum post says the DMG-01 board takes 17 leaded electrolytics: four 100uF 10V, two 100uF 6.3V, one 33uF 25V, seven 1uF 50V, one 10uF 25V and two 10uF 16V, and that the negative stripe settles polarity even if the legs are already trimmed. This is one forum post only, so check your board. Source
  • Watch out: No picture or blotchy backlight after a kit (Low confidence). In a chipmusic thread about Game Boy recap and backlight kits, the first suspect for a picture that vanished or a blotchy backlight was a cap fitted backwards. Crossed ribbon pins and damaged traces came next. Source
  • Story: Game Boy Color with no speaker sound (Low confidence). In an iFixit thread on a Pikachu-edition Color that played through headphones but not the speaker, replies listed C14, C27 and C38 as audio-path caps to test, along with the amp IC, volume wheel contacts and a ground at a test point. One person fixed it by bridging a broken ground connection with wire. Source
  • Watch out: Bigger audio-grade caps may not fit (Low confidence). A DMG audio-quality project swapped the CPU-board caps for audio-grade parts and found some of the larger caps it ordered did not fit the intended spots. It is a mod writeup, not a repair guide, but it is a reminder to check height before ordering. Source
  • Story: Color with no image after a screen swap (Low confidence). An iFixit answer on a Color with no image after a screen replacement pointed at a damaged or missing cap on the U5 power regulator board, which supplies the display rails; the asker had lost the cap while soldering. It suggested measuring a matching cap (reportedly 0.1uF) or buying a replacement board, and warned that IPS kits need different voltages. Source
  • Tip: Static when turning the volume, weak channel (Low confidence). In a chipmusic thread, static on volume changes was put down to a dirty volume pot, cleaned with isopropyl on a swab, and a weak channel was sent to a solder-joint check on the pot before any cap kit. One poster said a background hum with no music playing is normal. Source

Before you start

  • Find your board number (DMG-CPU, MGB, CGB) and use that list. They are not the same.

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 ConsoleMods Game Boy capacitor page, content under Creative Commons Attribution unless noted.

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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