Broken part on PSU

[privateye]

A couple of days ago I completed Sonic 3D Blast with all the Chaos Emeralds for the first time, and everything was good. After I was done I turned the console off, and then turned it back on so that I could check the memory manager. But as soon as I pressed the power button to turn the console on again, I heard a pop and smoke started coming through the CD lid on the left side of the console where the PSU resides.

Of course, I immediately turned the console off and unplugged it, and a while later I unscrewed the lid to see what component was busted. If you take a look at this picture, you can see that the bottom of the busted part was leaking.



I guess one solution would be to find a replacement part, but I don't have any soldering equipment or experience so unless someone else performs the repair, it doesn't do much good. Another solution would be to find a replacement Saturn and install my Phoebe in it, but I don't want to do this either because the creator of Phoebe warns against removing the unit once it is installed. Plus, my PAL Saturn has a 50/60hz switch in it, and I obviously don't want to use a stock PAL Saturn with 50hz-only output.

With all of this in mind, my best bet would be to find a replacement PSU. I know that there were a few different internal revisions made to the Model 2 Saturn, so I'd have to find a matching PSU. My Saturn looks like this on the inside (well, before Phoebe was installed it looked like that), and this is my PSU:



Once I get to 30 posts, I will ask in the marketplace if anyone has a spare PSU. I think that's my best course of action because, like I said previously, I wouldn't be able to replace the broken part by myself. Even so, zyrobs recommended that I make a post about it so if you can identify a replacement part then go for it.

[caseh]

Check the rating on that blown cap, it's a £1 part if that. Shame you don't have an iron, very quick fix.

I have a Saturn that I could do with getting rid of but transplanting PSUs isn't something i'm familiar with so have no idea regarding compatibility:





Worth adding that the Saturn is faulty as in it would play fine for about 10 minutes, then the disc would stop spinning. I meant to get around to fixing it but pulled the spindle to fix a Neo Geo CD instead. So it would be priced for parts rather than a fully working unit.

[zyrobs]

That cap is fine, the thing at the bottom is only glue. If it was blown, it would have its top puffed up from the inside.

Check the two ICs screwed onto the plates. The blown one is probably the TOP202.

edit: if some component popped audibly and gave off smoke, then there should be significant scorch marks on the PCB. You say the smoke came off from below the cd, so it might not be the PSU that died but something else on the board. Have you tried disassembling it in search of scorch marks?

Do you have a multimeter? You could check the voltage levels to see of the PSU still works, just set it to voltage measurement and put one scope to the 0v output and the other scope on the other outputs of the PSU. Be careful so you don't cause a short. The voltages on the PSU should read, from bottom to top, 0v, 0v, 3.3v, 5v, 9v.

[caseh]

Jul 28, 2016 22:50:33 GMT zyrobs said:

That cap is fine, the thing at the bottom is only glue. If it was blown, it would have its top puffed up from the inside.

Check the two ICs screwed onto the plates. The blown one is probably the TOP202.

edit: if some component popped audibly and gave off smoke, then there should be significant scorch marks on the PCB. You say the smoke came off from below the cd, so it might not be the PSU that died but something else on the board. Have you tried disassembling it in search of scorch marks?

Do you have a multimeter? You could check the voltage levels to see of the PSU still works, just set it to voltage measurement and put one scope to the 0v output and the other scope on the other outputs of the PSU. Be careful so you don't cause a short. The voltages on the PSU should read, from bottom to top, 0v, 0v, 3.3v, 5v, 9v.

Haha oh shit yeah, now that you've mentioned it and I've taken a closer look it's just glue. I saw the gunk and thought that had popped for sure.

[privateye]

Alright, so I've had a look at the motherboard and couldn't find any scorch marks, and I can't see any on the top or bottom of the PSU either. I also had a look at TOP202 and that looks fine, no scorch marks on it or around it. The only other thing I could find that looks a bit off is this. The yellow part looks like some gunk is coming out of it? Probably not if it's anything like the cap that I wrongly thought was leaking, but you can take a look anyway:



Unfortunately I don't have a multimeter to test the PSU with, but I'll probably get one in the future. It's not a pressing need because I have taken my Phoebe ODE out of my original Saturn and put it in my JP Saturn and it up and running again.

Speaking of, I've got a step-down transformer that was given to me along with the JP Saturn, but I've only just noticed that the transformer outputs 120V when the Saturn should take 100V. Is it safe to use this transformer? I never took notice of this because it has always worked fine with the Saturn, but I don't know if maybe I should get a 240-100V transformer just to be on the safe side. These are the specs of my existing transformer:

[zyrobs]

It's safe, power supplies don't work with a fixed value but with a range. JP units usually have 85-135V, depending on power supply.

[antime]

Jul 29, 2016 23:22:25 GMT privateye said:

The only other thing I could find that looks a bit off is this. The yellow part looks like some gunk is coming out of it?

That is a transformer, and it's just glue. Have you tested the fuse of the supply? Also, try just smelling the board (also the Saturn's main board).