Screen Swaps in Game Gears!

Screen Swaps in Game Gears!

I get a lot of questions about screen swaps for Game Gear handhelds, and with no reservations I always recommend BennVenn screens.  (If you wanna check out BennVenn's other products, you can visit his website here: bennvenn.shopify.com.) His screen kits are straight-forward to install, and I've never had one "not work" like I have from the other guys. 

Here is a picture that shows the difference of just the Sega boot logo difference between a stock screen, and a BennVenn kit (note the BennVenn still has it's protective plastic on it!  They look even better when this is removed!).

Recapping

Be aware that you must do a re-cap of the console before you attempt a screen swap... you'll likely run into issues after install of the new screen, if you do not. 

If you have a Game Gear and it still works without a re-cap, you're lucky but you should get it done soon!  Here is a photo of what was under some leaky capacitors on a Game Gear sound board:



As you can see, the capacitor electrolyte leaked out of these capacitors and is all over the board.  After I cleaned-up the board and put new surface mount capacitors on, it looked like this (the pen tip is there for scale):



I can also put new electrolytic capacitors if you'd prefer them over surface-mount device (SMD) capacitors.  Either way, I use top quality capacitors from high-quality name brands only (Kemet, Nichicon, United Chemicon, Panasonic, and Würth). And, if you choose SMD caps, I use only X5R/X7R dielectrics, AND I choose caps with voltages way over their necessary rated value to ensure no reduced capacitance if running with a DC offset. (If you hear arguments against SMD caps online, that's because they're comparing crap SMDs with crap dielectrics to crappy electrolytics... it really does matter). But, again, your choice whichever you choose.  [I think I'll write an article someday about capacitors].

Summary

Let me know if you'd like some help with your Game Gear... I can do general repairs, re-caps, screen swaps, shell & buttons swaps, and lens swaps.

Thanks,
Daniel

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.