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Recap guide

Recap the Sega Game Gear

The Game Gear eats batteries and its capacitors fail early, which is why so many have no sound or a rolling screen. It has three boards: main, power and audio.

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

Difficulty: 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.

  • VA0 (1990-1993; boards 837-7398-0x Japan, 837-7719-0x US, 837-7996 Europe) (Medium confidence). How to tell: Earliest board family with a separate VDP and SCA chip and a discrete Z80; the VA number is printed on the left edge of the main board. Capacitors: ConsoleMods says it uses an older, now obsolete chip package of SMD electrolytic; iFixit gives separate cap lists per board number and says all its Game Gear caps are SMD electrolytics. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: yes. Source
  • VA1 (1992-1996; boards 837-8560 Japan, 837-9024 North America, 837-9130 Europe) (Medium confidence). How to tell: Single combined ASIC (315-5535) per ConsoleMods, with the VA number on the left edge of the main board. Capacitors: ConsoleMods calls these standard-package SMD electrolytics; iFixit has its own cap lists for 837-8560 and 837-9024 and says the audio board always has five caps and the power board three or four. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: yes. Source
  • VA4 (1993-1996, North America; boards 837-9537, 837-9537-01, 837-9538) (Medium confidence). How to tell: Different ASIC (315-5682) and relocated parts; iFixit says one ASIC on the right side of the board points to VA4. Capacitors: ConsoleMods says VA4 uses three different electrolytic types, mixing SMD and through-hole, and that 837-9537-01 adds an extra 100 uF cap; iFixit gives separate lists for these board numbers. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: yes. Source
  • VA5 / 171-7923A (1994-1996 and 2001, North America; boards 837-10766 or Majesco 171-7923A) (Medium confidence). How to tell: Reconfigured layout with a single LCD ribbon cable; marked 837-10766 or 1.71-7923A. Capacitors: ConsoleMods describes standard electrolytics and says it is less prone to leakage; iFixit lists its own caps for this board. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: yes. 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.

  • Low or no sound (Medium confidence). ConsoleMods lists bad or leaked capacitors as the most common cause of low or no audio. It recommends a full recap instead of naming single parts. The audio board has five capacitors. Source
  • Dim, washed-out or lined picture (Low confidence). One repair page blames the surface-mount electrolytics for a dim picture, ghost lines and a screen that gets better as it warms up. Source
  • No picture and no sound (Low confidence). One unit powered up with no video and no audio. A recap fixed it, but leakage had also broken a trace between two audio-board capacitors, so check the traces under any old capacitor. 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: Audio board is the hard part (Low confidence). Posters in a first-recap thread called the surface-mount audio board by far the worst part of the job and said several of those caps had leaked heavily. In one case the damage was bad enough that the whole sound board was replaced instead of recapped. Source
  • Story: No sound after recap, clicking (Low confidence). One AtariAge poster recapped and still had no sound, only a click about once a second, and swapping boards between units pointed at the main board. Four 1uF 16V SMD caps by the sound-board connector were reflowed and one removed, which stopped the click but not the silence, and the thread ended unresolved with a donor board suggested. Source
  • Watch out: No picture after recap (polarity) (Low confidence). A VA1/2 owner recapped, kept power light and sound, but lost the picture, and one backlight fuse was blown. The only answer on this iFixit page (shown via the proxy.ifixit.com mirror) said to recheck every cap's polarity against the board markings. Source
  • Tip: Turns on then shuts off after recap (Low confidence). In an r/game_gear thread (seen on the lr.ggtyler.dev Reddit mirror) commenters suggested reflowing every new joint with fresh flux, bending leads into an L so they sit flat, keeping the iron at or under about 600F, and checking that no lead touches a neighbouring part. They also said to test with known-good batteries. Source
  • Tip: Break the factory glue first (Low confidence). One commenter on a Game Gear repair thread said to gently break the glue bonds around the old caps with pliers before desoldering, and claimed a full cap swap fixes most problems on an old Game Gear. This is a single post (seen on the lr.ggtyler.dev Reddit mirror). Source
  • Tip: Leak-proof replacement choice (Medium confidence). A restoration write-up replaced leaky SMD electrolytics with tantalums for the larger values and ceramics for the small ones so the leak cannot recur, and bridged pads eaten by an earlier poor recap with wire. It warns that cap values and positions differ by board version. Source
  • Watch out: Case contact pads and wiggling caps off (Low confidence). A hobbyist write-up says the gold circles on the main board are case contact points that new solder or caps must not cover. The author also wiggled old caps off instead of fully desoldering, and admits that is far from best practice. Source
  • Watch out: Ceramic cap kit regretted (Medium confidence). A Hitman's Museum log says an earlier RetroSix ceramic kit on a no-audio Game Gear was a mistake and the unit was redone years later with proper electrolytics, after a broken run between two audio-board caps had been bridged with a snipped cap leg. This contradicts the ceramic and tantalum approach in another write-up, so treat it as one author's opinion. Source
  • Story: Components falling off the board (Medium confidence). Hitman's Museum lists a two-unit Game Gear job where leakage was so bad that components were falling off the boards. Another unit needed every cap replaced and every solder joint reflowed before it became reliable. Source
  • Story: Parts fell off during leak cleanup (Low confidence). An iFixit poster documented leaked caps corroding a section of a Game Gear logic board, with C48 and Q3 falling off during cleaning, and asked whether it was repairable. Another asker recapped fully and was left with horizontal white lines that came and went with heat, which they put down to the screen controller, not the caps. Source
  • Tip: Speaker-only versus all-channel distortion (Low confidence). An older Game Gear repair page (seen via the arcadecontrols mirror) says weak internal-speaker sound points to audio-board C7 (47uF), while distortion on both speaker and headphones means replacing every audio-board cap, and that the power board caps are generally reliable. ConsoleMods now advises a full recap, so treat this as an older opinion. Source
  • Story: Cap brand varies between units (Low confidence). An AtariAge thread on why SMD caps dry up or leak says different Game Gear units carry different cap brands (one poster named Chhsi versus Nichicon or Panasonic), and that heat and ripple speed failure. The advice was to replace the originals proactively since working ones may just be biding time. Source

Before you start

  • Board versions differ (VA1, VA4 and VA5 are common) and the main board list depends on the board number. The main board is not listed here: use the guide below for your number, then add the values with Add a capacitor.
  • One screw is a security screw. A 4.5 mm game bit opens it.

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.

Power and audio board values are from the iFixit guide “Sega Game Gear Capacitor Replacement” by Travis (Mad Motors LLC). The guide also covers the main board by board number.

Power board

The power board has four values. The 820 µF one is the largest, so give it room and check its polarity twice.

PartValueVoltsType
C522 µF35 Vcheck your board
C11100 µF25 Vcheck your board
C13820 µF6.3 Vcheck your board
C9 Only on the VA4 board marked 837-9538. Skip it on other boards.10 µF16 Vcheck your board

Audio board

The audio board handles the sound, and the same values are listed for all versions.

PartValueVoltsType
C1100 µF6.3 Vcheck your board
C2100 µF6.3 Vcheck your board
C3100 µF6.3 Vcheck your board
C547 µF4 Vcheck your board
C747 µF4 Vcheck your board

Shopping list

9 capacitors in all, grouped by value. Buy a few spares.

  • 3 x 100 µF, 6.3 V (check your board): Amazon · eBay
  • 2 x 47 µF, 4 V (check your board): Amazon · eBay
  • 1 x 10 µF, 16 V (check your board): Amazon · eBay
  • 1 x 22 µF, 35 V (check your board): Amazon · eBay
  • 1 x 100 µF, 25 V (check your board): Amazon · eBay
  • 1 x 820 µF, 6.3 V (check your board): Amazon · eBay

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

Step by step

  1. Photograph both sides of the board before you touch anything. Zoom in on every capacitor. The photo is your map when you are three hours in.
  2. Unplug it, take out the batteries and let it sit. Old power supplies and CRT parts can hold a charge. If your machine has a tube, leave the tube and its board to a professional.
  3. Open it up and keep the screws sorted. A muffin tin or an egg carton works. Different screws go in different holes, and the holes never forgive you.
  4. Look for leaks. Clean any sticky residue off with isopropyl alcohol and a soft brush. A leaked capacitor leaves brown crust and can eat copper traces. Look at the traces under it, not only the part itself.
  5. Mark the polarity of every capacitor on the photo before it comes off. On an electrolytic, the stripe marks the negative leg. The board usually shows a half-shaded circle or a bar for the same spot.
  6. Remove the old capacitors one at a time. Surface mount: add fresh solder to both ends and rock the part off, or use flux and a low-melt alloy. Through-hole: heat one leg at a time and clear the hole with wick or a pump.
  7. Clean the pads and check for lifted pads or damaged traces. Clean flux off with isopropyl. A bad pad needs a jumper wire, not hope.
  8. Fit and solder the new capacitor, matching polarity. Same capacity, same or higher voltage, and it has to physically fit. Work from the smallest parts up.
  9. Clean the flux off and look at every joint. A good joint is shiny and shaped like a tiny volcano. A dull blob or a ball is a cold joint: reflow it.
  10. With a multimeter, check for shorts across the power rails before you power it on. Use the continuity or resistance setting. A reading near zero means stop and look for a solder bridge.
  11. Power it up and test everything: video, sound, controls, the lot. If something is wrong, check polarity first. It is the most common mistake and the easiest fix.

Tools

Safety

  • Good airflow, or a fume fan. Solder smoke is not for breathing.
  • Safety glasses on. Solder spits and clipped legs fly.
  • Iron in its stand when you are not holding it. Know where the cord is.
  • Touch bare metal first, or use a wrist strap. Static kills old chips.
  • No tube, no mains power supply. Leave those to a professional.
  • Wash your hands after, especially if you used leaded solder.

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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