Fixing a smoking Game Gear

[o0whiplash0o]

So one day a friend of mine gives me her game gear to repair. She only tells me the screen doesn't come on, so I take it home and plug it in. As soon as I flip the power, the screen flickers on for a brief instant, then smoke starts jetting out of the damn thing, stinking up my room! Apparently she forgot to mention that part to me... Everything else seems to work fine, though. I can see, for a brief instant, the SEGA logo show up on-screen when I put a cartridge in.

So I did a bit of research, and apparently the #1 issue that plagues game gears is their capacitors failing. This game gear's caps wern't exactly bursting, but I opened it up anyway and replaced the caps with a kit from Amazon. So here's the circuit board, the soldiering job doesn't look that great IMO but I'm kinda new to the whole electronics repair thing:

Check out the full album here



After soldering each cap to the board and turning on the power, I then discovered the source of the smoke: it was these two transistors (at least I think they are) labeled q3 and q4:



As you can see by the scorching on the tops of these components, they've been sizziling hot enough to melt their soldier every time the thing's been turned on. I'm no electronics expert, but I think they're busted. My 2 questions to you guys:

What kind of replacement transistors should I buy?

And, could another component on the board be at fault here, causing these transistors to fry?

I can provide more info if you guys ask for it. Thanks!

[Kumimono]

You sure the power supply was correctly inserted? (Anode/catode, or +/-)

[o0whiplash0o]

You sure the power supply was correctly inserted? (Anode/catode, or +/-)

Can't really tell you... I was the first to open it, and it was smoking whether the adapter was connected or the 6 AA batteries were put in.

[Harlequin]

call me crazy but did you try turning it on with it opened up? just to see where the smoke is coming from?

[o0whiplash0o]

call me crazy but did you try turning it on with it opened up? just to see where the smoke is coming from?

You crazy, silly man.

You should re-read the OP. I showed you where the smoking was coming from. It was the transistors I took pictures of.

[Harlequin]

sorry, misread what you had posted. I didn't catch the part where you actually turned it on with it open.. for the sake of having some fun, throw a couple heat sinks on them

don't do that, it'll probably break things.


short of finding either a working game gear to test on to get the values, or a data sheet for the game gear, I think you are out of luck.

Maybe e-bay to find an "as-is" game gear and cannibalize it?