Yes, it reduces the life of the laser diode. It's difficult to predict how by how much, since it heavily depends on how efficient the diode was...
The series resistor forms a voltage divider with the input impedance - in most video circuits this input impedance is 75R, so the divider ratio is...
OK, so the input and output are the right way around in that case. Yeah, the cap should go across the power pins - it's just to smooth out the...
Which yellow wire is the input signal from the console? That looks like a SCART/JP21 housing, which would suggest that the cable running out of...
I don't think that's a hot chassis design - first of all, it has AV inputs and secondly the transformer looks big enough to run a TV that size...
Yeah, I thought it was pretty sad - especially since at that point I didn't have an XDK and would have liked to get my hands on one. I did go...
It's not really that surprising you never noticed it - it's not something you would look for unless you were aware of that specific piece of Xbox...
It says "Dragon Quest III"
I think you're trying to read too much into this - the CM won't care about a cosmetic change like that, and will use whatever parts they have in...
A lot of those early machines had the connectors intentionally destroyed when they were scrapped - my guess is that someone replaced the...
The drive transistor for the laser is Q701 in that photo - it's just above and to the left of the socket for the optical drive. You can also...
It's a programmed MCU that's connected to the PlayStation main PCB. The original mods used the Microchip PIC12C508 or 509 - depending on the code...
Most Japanese consoles (basically, all of them except the early production SCPH-1000s) have a region check in the boot ROM - so even if you...
You need to be careful with varistors, because there are two different ways of labeling them, and which one is used depends on the manufacturer....
In this specific case, it was clearly designed as a universal input supply - the varistor across the line input was rated for up to 270V, the X...
I'm pretty sure the CPU/GPU are the same - it's the rest of the circuits that were redesigned. The rating would have changed because the...
That honestly doesn't look original to me - the originals have a paper label on the bottom of the sled with the part number on them, and they...
OK, try moving the sled out to the edge of the disc and seeing if it seeks back when you close the door switch - also see if the lens moves up and...
What exactly is is doing? If the drive does nothing at all, it's possible the door switch is bad...
OK, that sounds a lot lower than I would have expected - it's likely that the MM1134 is faulty. If you have another cartridge with one of them on...
Separate names with a comma.