X68K Suddenly Broken - Dark Video, Poor Sound

[3rdman01]

Hello all. I am hoping someone could point me in the right direction as to what to look for...

Yesterday, I plugged in my ST2 controller and turned on my Expert II HD on and found a very dark image...barely legible. After a few minutes, I noticed that the controller was set to "Sega Consoles" and not "Personal Computers" which may or may not have anything to do with my issues.

After repeated attempts to restart the machine, it finally booted with everything working perfectly. Today however, I am back to the dark screen and I now discovered that the audio is also very low and kinda "scratchy"

My first thought was that I had blown something by having the controller on the wrong setting but I really don't know if that is the issue. For what its worth, I haven't recapped the board yet and that may help but I fear that the controller blew an IC and perhaps here I can get pointed in the right direction as to where to start...Thank you for your time.

[mez]

hi
the controller can't blow anything, my micomsoft controllers are frequently on bad position and nothing happens (on different X68k models)

your problem smells like a capacitor at end life

[3rdman01]

Thank you mez. You may be right...I've contacted Console5 and I'm working with them to put together a cap kit for the Expert II model...I have no idea where the issue may be but I am starting with the daughter board and the 34 caps there before changing the others. Wish me luck.

[kamiboy]

1000 yen on it being the PSU, if it hasn't already been recapped. Honestly I would be a bit shocked if it has worked fine so far with the original caps.

[3rdman01]

Its definitely not the PSU as I had built a new one for it when I first bought it.

[3rdman01]

SUCCESS!

Mez, thank you for pointing me in the right direction! I'm embarrassed that I hadn't noticed it before but the daughter board showed the unmistakable signs of a leaky capacitor. Around the power input there are a grouping of 4 capacitors...changed them out and boom...up and running.

My soldering skills are for shit though...It took forever to change just four of them...changing the rest will take patience. In the meantime, Gradius is calling me.