Repairing a Gameboy cart that had orange juice spilled on it [video] | Hacker News Reader

Repairing a Gameboy cart that had orange juice spilled on it [video]

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125 pointsgus_massa23 comments

Brings back memories…of the time my girlfriend accidentally dumped a glass of orange juice into my fairly new HP41 CV calculator. Yes, this was a few decades ago.

She was horrified.

I was as relaxed as can be. I immediately took the batteries out and ran it under cool water while I filled a pot with water.

I dunked it in there repeatedly and changed the water a few times until it felt it was enough.

From there it quickly went into a mesh bag that I spun rapidly to centrifuge most of the water out.

Finally, it went in the sun while I warmed up the oven to the lowest possible temperature.

Once it cooled down the batteries went back in. It worked fine. In fact, I still own it. It works. Perfect condition.

Yes, I did marry her later. Now I make sure that calculator is nowhere near her…just in case.

Yeah this is pretty standard for PCB-type electronic (less so for eg LCDs, although it's worth a try if the alternative is throwing it in the trash). For best results use a small amount of baking soda in (only) the early washes if the spill is acidic (eg orange juice, coffee), and use distilled water, especially for the final rinse, to avoid any mineral residue.

The retro repair videos on YouTube are so quickly becoming my favorite content on there. I don't know if I just find the inside of computers neat, or it hits hard in the nostalgia, or realistically both, but it's so cool to see talented people keeping tech alive instead of letting it become trash.

Same, except that there's so much obviously fake content out there.....it's awful. Videos where someone pulls out something that barely looks like maybe it was a VCR at some point, and then in the next scene we're looking at a "repair" of an old VCR that had some dirt thrown on it. Very obviously two completely different devices.

Similar here, I love restoration videos in general - specifically Baumgartner Restoration [0], who restores paintings, and anyone who repairs rusted tools or old wooden furniture.

I recently realized that this kind of video is at the intersection of two of my interests (filmmaking and crafts) so I am, in fact, preparing to launch my own channel. Stay tuned ;)

[0] https://www.youtube.com/c/BaumgartnerRestoration

Necroware has a lot of 386 mainboard repair videos and such.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCKU5nwSWYXa3xfXGBlKyvdw

Mr Carlson's Lab is also excellent, restoring old radio equipment in excruciating detail. A lot of the videos are over two hours long, but it makes excellent background viewing.

Also it's always mentioned, but CuriousMarc and Ken Sherriff have some amazing restoration videos. In particular the excellent series on restoring the apollo guidance computer.

There's something very enjoyable watching people go through the debug process, cleaning stuff up and then just doing a nice neat job of fixing stuff.

Some channels I enjoy for retro computer/electronics repair:

Adrian's Digital Basement: https://www.youtube.com/c/adriansdigitalbasement

Jan Beta: https://www.youtube.com/c/JanBeta

Mark Fixes Stuff: https://www.youtube.com/c/markfixesstuff

RMC: https://www.youtube.com/c/RMCRetro (he does lots of non-repair retro stuff too, search for Trash to Treasure to see the repair stuff).

I'd like to add Noel's Retro Lab to the list: https://www.youtube.com/c/NoelsRetroLab

One nice thing he does is putting a tiny scope probe symbol on the part of the schematic diagram he's currently investigating.

I'd like to add "MyMateVince" to the list: https://www.youtube.com/c/Mymatevince

His "Trying to Fix" videos are a pleasure to watch, and mostly (not always!) deal with older tech or toys. But he'd also try to fix a dead Playstation, for instance. Or a 2010-ish Macbook.

8 bit show and tell is absolutely brilliant for any c64 fans out there ( down to assembly level ), plus a little more besides.

These old cartridges were amazingly durable. My Pokemon Blue version cartridge went through the laundry several times and was fine.

I spilled orange juice down in to the automatic gearshift of a car once. It would have cost a fortune to take it apart to clean it, so I just left it. It was sticky for a while, and then just gradually went back to normal.

Well, some people don't like to cleanup old wallpapers and paint when renovating their home. They all rely on the one-in-ten owner who will take appart all the previous layers and build fresh to ensure the wall stay healthy and beautiful.

Off topic, but I notice many Americans have the tick of saying "I'm going to go ahead and..." or "Let's go ahead and..."...

That's incredibly relevant lol. Out in the Midwest, we say 'ohp' a lot as a tick. I had never noticed this until a buddy of mine pointed it out.

> we say 'ohp' a lot as a tick.

In which context?

It’s an interjection, usually comes before “sorry” or “excuse me”

I love this this video by a couple midwestern comedians poking fun at it:

https://youtu.be/qb_-taYLRfY

I never even realized it was a midwest thing. It's kind of like oops, whoops or excuse me.

The one I notice is "I'm just going to..."

Even within the English-speaking Western world, it's funny how you get these cultrual differences :)

"...and whatnot."

I am really addicted to repair videos and the best channel I found by far is My Mate Vince. He does a mix of good and old stuff, along with both mechanical and electrical fixes.

https://youtube.com/c/Mymatevince

Highly recommended!

I have a lot of respect for solder and rework skills like this, but at the same time, it doesn't seem worth it for a game you can buy for $50.

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