Your desoldering gun technique is almost perfect...Apparently you are supposed to only go in circles around the pin while not touching the pad. Probably your most epic repair!

Just in time. Merry Christmas everyone. Sitting here drinking hot chocolate in 75 degree weather watching vince

Awesome repair. Capacitors can test good using a tester and still not be in spec. They might become faulty under load. Just a thought.

A one hour video Vince!? It's a Christmas miracle. Best present ever.

Could be a host of things. Replacing 30 year old caps wasn't a bad idea anyway. Excellent repair. I have learned more from your repairs than just about anybody out there.

Who else wanted to see Vince put all the old capacitors back just to prove that it wasn't the old capacitors. But as they were likely original I suspect many were faulty, just impossible to test under load. Another piece of retro tech brought back to life.

Your genuine explosion of joy when the Sega Logo showed up on the screen just made my day. Thank you very much for your videos!

As a kid, this was my first gaming system. To be honest....i wanted a NES. (parents back then thought that all video games were the same) BUT years later I realized that this system was great. The card port was for stuff like the 3d glasses, and a few games. I still have the card adaptor for the 3d glasses, but the actual glasses I dont have anymore.

Was I the only one shouting at my screen when Vince powered the Sega up without the heat-sink on the voltage regulator? I was waiting for the volt-reg to go bang, lol. *_Merry Christmas to you Vince and family plus everyone here, from me (Robz) in Scotland._*

Great to see the old Master System being featured. At the time this came out in the 80s, Nintendo were very much playing second fiddle in Europe, while Sega reigned supreme. The Master System has the best 8-bit version of Space Harrier without a doubt. Lovely old console and they tend to be very reliable too, with most problems being related to dirty contacts on the cartridge port.

In my experience, caps are usually bad to a degree on vintage equipment, so once I've checked for obvious visible issues, and that the correct supply voltages are there, I swap out electrolytics almost as a matter of course. Old caps can appear to test OK and yet still be bad.

Update: I've resurrected a 5.1 PC surround sound system, a Kenwood radio and a video card. Thanks to you, Vince, I went out today and bought my first ever soldering equipment. Between watching your videos and my brief previous experience soldering/microsoldering, perhaps now I can resurrect some dead electronics I have laying about.

@31:30 a trick you can sometimes use to make it easier to follow a trace is to shine a torch through from behind the board to view them in silhouette.

I had a lot of memories with the Sega Master System. I remember owning the second version of it with Alex Kidd built in and had a lot of fun.

I wouldn't necessarily trust capacitor testers as my understanding is they can leak and not always show as faulty on the testers. Jim's radio shop and Mr Carlson's lab are good sources of information about capacitors. Mr Carlson even made a better tester because testers often show faulty caps as good.

Awesome repair, its nice to see these classics saved from the trash heap. It was cool to watch your troubleshooting process and to be honest when I saw how easy that tool made taking the chips I excliamed out loud Why don't I have one of those! Great video looking forward to more.

For cleaning vents and other holes in cases, I've found a spray with a garden hose works very well. Great job on the restoration! As for those memory chips, one of them, with the MPR- prefix in the part number was the game ROM. The other, as you looked up, was RAM. Position on the board WILL matter because although Data and Address lines are shared between the chips, they will have separate lines for bus arbitration signals, especially Chip Select. This is also why you shouldn't expect every single pin to be continuous on those chips.

Holy mother of god! i have a same model master system that's doing the same thing and its been driving me bonkers for years, my first and favourite console, Thank you Vince for this amazing gift!

Hey a bonus video! Merry Crimbo Vince and family

The sawtooth sound you heard when you first started audio probing was the video sync. Unmistakable. And yes, modern TV's won't play audio with no video present. Part of the input select/noise mute logic that's been present since CRT's incorporated OSD's and blue screen for no signal instead of static or blank raster.

Fantastic repair Vince =D I bet it was that trace, and the resoldering around the RAM and ROM there (could be the electrolyte though as you say) =D Thanks for the mention =D So pleased you fixed this! Have a wonderful Christmas! Great to see you get the Duratool there - invaluable when working with through-hole components!

what a great christmas present, an hour long mmv video :)

When you pulled the chips out you reflowed the solder and also masked any cold solder joints you had. If you do a lot of single layer board repair you should learn how to through hole repair. Everyone is a critic. You did good.

You sure have come a long way vince since the firs time I started watching you years ago! You have taught me lots and hope you the best in the future!

Long Vince videos are my favourite to watch before bed!

Vince: * removes heatsink * Me: I hope he doesn't forget to put that back on before turning it on for too long Vince: "I can kinda smell a burn-y smell" Me: uh oh. Vince: "oh, it's the regulator, hope I haven't managed it" Me: "Me too, me too" I haven't finished the video yet but I thought it was funny :)

THIS is cool stuff! Seen loads of repair videos on various pieces of hardware, but this is one of the most intriguing ones I've ever seen. The Master System has one of the most interesting histories and legacies of any piece of hardware. Despite its lack of success in a lot of places, the PAL regions had the longer lifespan, especially Brazil where they released stuff up to 1996, which is something!

Another air punch moment! Well done Vince Good luck with your new desolder tool

these are the kinds of videos that really got me hooked on the channel :) and by the way, your ps4 pro is subjected to TORTURE with about 90 to 95% intake choked, and less than ideal space for exhaust

I got a Duratool station many years ago, and it's a godsend for removing chips etc. I found that using solder wick took far longer, and was far more likely to rip up pads, mainly due to the amount of dwell time needed. You might find that some stubborn solder joints (ie. on large ground or power planes) will be easier to desolder if you hold the PCB vertically, so the desoldering station isn't working against gravity. You also don't need to put very much pressure at all on the pads. With the nozzle barely touching the pads, you can still wiggle the pin to free up the solder around it. That avoids the scuffing of the PCB around the pins / pads. ;) On really stubborn solder joints, I've sometimes had to hold the board vertically, use the desolder gun on the underside, then use the normal iron to heat the pin from the top side of the board. The Duratool (Zhongdi) used to come with a plastic solder container, which got a bit "melty" after a while. They changed all of them to the glass containers now. Much better.

Happy Christmas Vince and thank you for all your awesome videos. Entertaining, easy to watch, inspiring and I love learning from them.

Well done Vince repairing this excellent system, i love the master system & have fond memories of owning one of these back in the early 90's, some cracking games were available for this Alex Kidd, Outrun, Double Dragon, Rtype, maybe wrong but this master system may have been packaged as the master system plus which came with the lightgun included in the box as i have this version, take care all the best for 2022 looking forward to many more videos

Always love your video Vince and always love to see the good 'ole Master System. About the background going black, that was common for a lot of SMS games and one of the selling points for the Mega Drive/Genesis. I remember an old magazine article with pictures showing the difference between the two systems and in particular R-Type on both systems. It specifically made a big point about how the Genesis didn't have to go to a black background for the boss fights. Cheers!

That was a great video repairing the master system. My childhood was playing the Sega consoles and arcades myself. Glad to see people show their passion for these old systems and get them working again. I Definitely subscribed to your channel. Keep up the good work brother 👍

A few suggestions Vince on what is another amazing video. (1) Build yourself a simple signal tracer - even an old amplified speaker but with a crocodile clip and a test probe on leads wired into it, plus a series capacitor will save you a lot of faff in the future. (2) Get a smaller soldering iron tip for that chip work, at least half the diameter of your current one. Ideally put it on a separate iron, as if you are like me you will get fed up changing tips and try to use the wrong one! (3) Wear a wrist strap or ground yourself before handling those ICs that you desoldered from the PCB. Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a very happy and safe new year.

We've all had a soldering stand moment ;) Thanks for the videos Vince and all the best.

Well done Vince, very painstaking repair😀👍. Maybe time to bring together a ‘tools & techniques’ video perhaps? I’m seeing a lot of great learning coming through as the year has gone on and it might be useful to have a ‘getting started’-type video which could be useful to new folks getting into repair. Have a great Christmas!

Hi Vince, thanks for the great video! I hope one day to be as good as you are at fixing things.

Great! I'm so glad the repair was successful, it's a nice christmas present. Thanks Vince.

What an amazing fix. This system brings so many memories. I used to play double dragon all the time on it. God knows how many times I have beaten the game :)

Nice fix. I'm going to treat myself to one of those desoldering guns in the new year. I removed some video memory from a Megadrive recently and it was a nightmare. But I did get the console working. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to yourself and everyone.

Another Great save from the landfill. You have to remember that back then it was 8 to 16 bit processing and really slow, Jeepers that unit is going back to the Ara of just 2 years after I graduated from high school - But I must say Well done Vince...

Another great fix Vince, I'm sure the story behind those caps will be an interesting one. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Happy Holidays & Great job. Man that SEGA Master System looks Amazing. The design and intro screen is so underrated! I'm going to pull mine out and play some Golden Axe Warrior today.

Hi Vince, like your videos.. as mentioned earlier in the comments the holder for the de-soldering gun should clip into the bracket on the right hand side of the main unit. Keep up with the brilliant vids and Happy Christmas to you and yours.

I agree I used to love the Master System back in the day. I've got the exact (date 15 October 1988) same one boxed and it still chugs away nicely.

I bought a clone of that desoldering a year ago and it is fantastic. It´s a bit tricky, being prone to clog with lead-free solder, but eventually, I managed to sort it (adding leaded solder and/or flux does the trick), and nowadays I couldn´t pass without it. The other thing I discovered very late is those almost needle-thin-ended multimeter probes. Really cheap on Aliexpress and mate, those are a real game-changer. For these 80s boards they help, as they pinch and stay nicely in the place where you lay them, but working on smaller SMD boards they are extraordinarily helpful.

Merry Christmas Vince! That was a brilliant watch that 👍🏻 it's so good to hear your reaction when you fix something!Well done as ever 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Love this video Vince. The mighty Master System lives to play another day. Strange one though as you say those caps look stock, and with the screws missing I'm wondering if someone has been in there before and just not managed to sort it. Finding that trace would be beyond most people who open up a system just to push things around, so that and resitting those chips following a clean could have been all it needed. Great video as always, you should put up a link to the desoldering gun, I'd be happy to use a link from you that gives you some credit for the recommendation.

Usually on old 8 bit consoles the background changes the black when a large enemy comes on screen because the enemy is large enough to exceed the console's sprite limits and they have to use the background layer to draw most of the enemy.

This is the best Christmas gift by far!!! Will we have a 2 hours video on the new year's eve!

Merry Christmas Vince. Another great video as always! Looking forward to what you put out next year.

This has probably been mentioned, but the expansion slot in the front could have a card plugged in to allow for 3D glasses. Maze Hunter 3D comes to mind but there were others

Excellent video, buddy. Loved watching the process behind the repair. I'm glad it seems you didn't remove those chips for nothing. I also didn't know that about the smell of the capacitor electrolyte.

Merry Christmas Vince and Family! Good repair video to watch while wrapping gifts.

5:53 that zoom in was epic!

Merry Christmas Vince. Thank you for the long video Cant wait to watch.

a merry christmas vince and family ,thank for all the content over the years .i always look forward to watching your video,s . p.s have great new year :)

I love your videos! A very practical approach to repairs. No fancy equipment either!

Very nice fix Vince. I still remember the first time i played alex in miracle world... epic memories. Merry Christmas to you Sir

Good vid as always :) I remember there was someone selling 3d print replacements of the Master System's D-pad if you ever fancy changing the loose one on your Controller. I think it was on Ebay but I'm not sure. Merry Christmas :)

Thank you for your videos a merry christmas and a prosperous new year hugs here from Brazil

Nice to see old Sega console coming back to life 🙂 Got a soldering tool set as a Christmas present 😃 More powerful soldering iron & soldering gun, than my old soldering iron, so should help a lot in those jobs.

I'm a new subscriber, and i'm loving the fault finding you do particularly because you're so honest with any mistakes (we all make them), but as a suggestion, get some IC Chip sockets!!! loads of arcade and computer repairers would tell you that any time you have to remove a chip, install a socket! its best practice and stops anyone copying your work and heat stressing/frying chips. You've never come across fishy solder I see! Ive had it load of times. I used to do AV installation and there are plenty of makes of solder that has high electrolytic content in the flux that is impregnated in the solder. that stuff was pretty much outlawed in some places (California for instance) as its a carcinogenic! This looked like a memory issue to me from the word go... i've seen enough arcade repair videos to appreciate the errors you were having. It makes sense that reflowing the solder helped. the fishy smell was probably the solder became less conductive, probable because 1988 flow technology was using old solder with high elecrtolytics content. Keep up the good work!

Good video. Thanks for all your entertainment and display of preserverance. Regarding the price: I just paid 100€ for a faulty Atari Jaguar with Cybermorph... No Controller, nor cables or Power Supply. Red Screen of Doom. Expected the usual dirty Slot. It wasn‘t. After some regretful thoughts I started measuring stuff and eventually found the fault. All on my own. Imagine the yes moment, when it finally came back to useful life! Just two questions remain: Have you played Atari today? And when my new Controller arrives: Where did you learn to fly? Merry Christmas.

Still have my system practically brand new in its original box from when I bought it WAY back in the 80s'! I also have the light gun and the 3D electronic "shutter" glasses that you plug into it to play some 3D games, all in their original boxes too! I never could get into it because of the lack of games they made for it here in the US. The Nintendo just completely clobbered it with its enormous amount of games! Too bad as it was/is really a cool system and looked sleeker than the Nintendo, in my opinion anyway. Congrats' on fixing yours! I felt your joy when you turned it on and it worked! 👍👍 PS: Holy crap...I just realized that it almost 6:30am where I am and I'm still up! Good morning and Happy Holidays everyone...off for some z's I hope now! ❤❤

You sir, earn a sub! The Sega master system was my first games system! Good work on restoring it back to life!

Top tip for the master system, Use a MegaDrive/Genesis controller, Works perfectly, A and Start not used, B is 1 and C is 2, Much better controllers and miles more comfortable.

Great video Vince! Happy belated Christmas to you, and A Happy New Year to you and your family xx

I look forward to seeing more from you in 2022 Have a fab Christmas a a better new year

Merry Christmas bro yeah my version had Alex Kidd on great memories playing that game with my old man for hours trying to beat each other. All the best for 2022 mate.👍🏻

Excellent video as always Vince. Merry Christmas.

Amazing video as always hope you and your family had a fantastic Christmas Vince

Hey Vince. That MOSFET looking component that you said was getting hot is called a Linear Regulator, they work by dissipating excess power as waste heat by design in order to regulate a higher voltage to a much lower one, and thus tend to run very hot and need a heatsink for any prolonged operation. These components are known to be very inefficient in comparison to a buck converter or switching power supply. This is just a heads up for any future repairs, and have a great Christmas Vince.

"Do you know what? It smells a bit burny." I don't know why but that absolutely cracked me up. haha Great video Vince and Happy New Year! :)

Nothing like a bit of vince on Xmas morning

Great Repair Vince, I own a monster of a Yamaha AV Receiver which wouldn't Power On and did a bit of research and someone had commented that one of the capacitors needed replacing, I took it round to my Brothers and he checked the Capacitor and he believed it was ok, He changed it anyway for a Capacitor of the correct value and Voila, It fired up and has been working ever since! :)

"Yessssssssssssssssssssss" awesome fix Chris keep in mind that the caps can fail under voltage. Season Greetings from down under, Australia.

Thank you for the great content this year Vince. I have learnt so much! HNY...!

Great Video! Love seeing this old console back up and running!

Vince, that holder for the de-solding station is supposed to fit to the side of the unit. Great piece of kit those, use mine a fair bit, the only down side is it's a real pig to undo the gun chamber to remove the old solder, & getting it back in place is even worst. Have a nice Christmas.

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas Vincent! Keep up the good work fella and stay safe into the new year!

Great video and my favourite system too. A very merry christmas to you and your family.

Ive got that desoldering station, paid £90 for mine in the summer on ebay. really handy, not that I often have to desolder stuff, but when I do, its so much easier and quicker

A very interesting video, you amaze me at your unorthodox way of troubleshooting Electronics and yet you always seem to have results, well done. Just a note on measuring ESR and capacitance, this only give you a guideline to a capacitors condition. Only an LCR metre can give you a true picture to the condition of the Cap. An LCR metre can measure dissipation factor and q angle.It's good practice to re-cap When an electronic device is so old. anyway the name of those capacitors says it all Wang. throw away

My first console. Great fix! I guess we can’t know if the caps were at fault, from the way the video is edited, it looks like you recapped it before reinstalling the RAM. Always hard to know the fault when multiple fixes are done at once. The fish smell and corrosion definitely makes it seem like some caps leaked.

I just compared to my MS2, your D-pad is definitely shot! Some games feel slower than others because of the 50hz conversion for EU markets. Maybe you can do a revisit with this one and install a 60hz mod 😉😉 Merry Christmas Vince!

3 months old when this came off the production line. The SEGA I had was the Mega Drive, still regret putting it in the bin during a clear out where I just put everything in without much thought! Most chips also have a specific way around - they can be damaged if they go the wrong way

Cat Pee ??? I'm so glad you invested in a real solder removal tool Vince. I've been using one for years and its worth its weight in gold !!! I usually add fresh solder even if there was leaded solder in use originally. You can add the solder as you de-solder each pin. Also add some fresh solder to the tip to protect it after use, those tips can be expensive.

I really enjoyed this fix and I'm glad you got to relive some kid days. Ain't nostalgia wonderful?

Merry Christmas, Vince!

Merry Christmas Vince to you & Family 🎄❤️

Thanks for the vid Mate. Merry Christmas.

good job mate and merry Christmas

excellent fault finding as always great fix and awesome to see altered beasts working again :)

Great video, thanks and Happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas My Mate VINCE!

Niiice, thanks for the videos, Merry Christmas!!

hi! I got the same esr meter and i noticed with small cap like this some time it says they are good but in fact they are not. I got similar issue with my old subwoofer for my home theater. Nice video take care hope the best for you for 2022.

Nice work! Something like this, needing to work between and possibly under the chips, personally I would have removed the chips, repair the traces and then socket the chips just because I can. Still nice work Vince. I enjoyed this and the length. You got the 'fish' and the 'chips' although neither edible on here! 😂