Game Gear Plays Out of One Headphone

[sabbyk]

I have found a guide on how to fix the capacitor on a Game Gear that has dim sound quality. The sound works out of my headphones though, but only out of one ear.

As long as I can remember though, the Game Gear I have has always had the sound in the headphones come out of one ear only (or one speaker if I plug it into some). Is this common with Game Gears or does mine have a problem on top of the dim sound quality? Would fixing the capacitor also solve this one sided sound from the phone jack? It's been such a long time since I have used it, so I don't remember if it always had sound out of one headphone side or not. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[kendrick]

Game Gear sound code has eight bits, four channels on each side. So definitely, the Gear produces real stereo sound and not some kind of false approximation. I'm guessing that either your headphones have gone bad, or you shorted that one side to ground when you replaced the capacitor. Good luck fixing that.

-KKC, who has to be into work on a Saturday. Dammit.

[ido8bit]

I've never bother looked into Gamegear code, but I do know the audio amplifier IC in the Gamegear is stereo.  I doubt they would use a stereo IC if the sound was only mono.  Capactiors can fail shorted which could kill the IC.  Also a short in a headphone lead (which is quite common considering the abuse headphone leads take) could take out the IC.  

If you have a multimeter measure from ground to the the channel that isn't working.  If there is DC voltage present that side of the amplifier IC is shorted.  

Change the IC and all the electrolytic capactiors around it (If they haven't failed around yet they will fail soon enough, do both while you're in there).  The amplifier IC can often be found in old answering machines.