Game gear problems and causes

[scoobypaul79]

Hey all, new here, just registered to try and find out some info on GGs. Now, I know this will have been covered in multiple posts, probably over the last 300 years, but I'm having trouble collating info. Never fixed a console in my life till today. I bought 5 burgered GGs on ebay and decided to have a shot.
I've spent the past 5 hours, desoldering and soldering. First thing was a sound board. Done in 30 mins. Tested in one with a bad screen and it was fine. So, I decided to have a go at the main board.
The one I started with had a brown coloured screen with about 6 horizontal black lines. I did all the caps, admittedly not very carefully and then tested it. No joy. I'd put one back to front! On putting it in correctly, I found that the screen had some of a picture, but still loads of lines and unable to see what the picture was.
Anyway, removed the caps one by one and put them into one which worked (more carefully this time) and voila, one refubed main board.
My questions;
What is the most likely cause of the horizontal lines? Could I have damaged a pad and caused it myself? Or maybe broken something?
I have another 2, which light up but have absoolutely NO sound or picture. Is it worth repllacing the caps, or is there something else at fault?

I haven't soldered since high school, and even then I did minimal work. I think I did well to finish one! So, I'm not really wanting to do anything major, but I don't mind if something else needs fixing as long as it's within the realm of possibility for an amateur!

Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading through more posts!
Paul

[djlooka]

I have fixed half a dozen of GGs and they're a good starting point to learn
The GG I used to own as a kid has a "bad screen" with horizontal white lines, which are unfixable, so I guess yours' black ones aren't fixable too.
The kind of display problem which can be fixed, afaik, is when you can see something only by tilting the GG to weird angles (or nothing at all).
This is when you can do something good by replacing the caps.

Also, kinda related, you could do the LED backlight mod described here
http://tibia-mod.dreamwidth.org/486.html,
or my "slightly improved" version here
http://desperatenerd.wordpress.com/gamegear-led-mod-photogallery/
which uses a plastic pipette to improve the light distribution.
Not actually a "fix", but fun to do and it also extends your GG's battery life to an insane 8+ hours

[Segasonicfan]

Try pressing on the green soldered ribbon cable while a game is running and see if the lines change at all.  This can be a common cause for it.