Newbie Capacitor Question

[Sam Gidman]

Hi i'm following a guide on how to replace the Capacitors in a Sega Game Gear, the guide shows them replacing with electrolytic capacitors, what i want to know is can you replace the capacitors with the small surface mount caps? is there any difference betweens types of capactors apart from the obvious ratings?

 

[davenn]

Hi Sam
welcome to EP

Show us a sharp clear pic of the board with the caps you were thinking of replacing and we can advise of what is appropriate

Dave

 

[Sam Gidman]

this is the board i was wondering if the capacitors in the following work the same is there any difference

 

[davenn]

Those caps pictured are not polarised ones

circle the caps on the board you wanted to replace
I don't see any electrolytic caps on there

and why do you think there is a cap problem ?


Dave

 

[Sam Gidman]

sorry i should explain a bit more from doing a bit of research on the net a common problem with the sega game gear is the caps go making the screen and audio not work properly and every video i see shows people replacing the caps on the board with electrolytic caps which looks rather messy i was just wondering if you can get the little polarised caps similar to the pic above, here are the caps labelled

 

[davenn]

Those are tantalum capacitors
When they fail they usually do so violently .... ie they literally burn up
I don't think I have ever seen one fail without showing signs of significant stress
burned cracked etc

They are the best style for that job, there isn't anything better
you could use a multimeter on Ohms range and see if any have short circuited, you may need to unsolder one end first before testing

cheers
Dave

 

[BobK]

Also note that the voltage rating is important when replacing them. You might find small surface mount replacements for some of the smaller caps, but make sure the voltage rating is the same or higher than the original.

Bob