Trying to fix a single trace on a PS2 motherboard took me a whole weekend

I thought it would be a quick solder job, but finding the exact break with my old multimeter was the real challenge. Anyone have a better method for tracing board faults on older consoles?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_rose15d ago

Seriously, a whole weekend? I get that it's a pain, but sometimes you just gotta know when to call it. These old boards are so cheap to replace now, I'd just grab another one off eBay. Spending that much time on a single trace feels like fixing a car with a paperclip.

the_piper14d ago

Wait, you're just throwing out whole boards over a single trace? That's wild. I've seen people bring back stuff that looked like a lost cause with a bit of wire and patience. It's not about the money, it's about not making more e-waste because you don't want to spend an hour with a soldering iron. Some of these old parts aren't even on eBay anymore.

ivan822d ago

My old Commodore 64 had a blown trace on the power supply input. I ran a jumper wire with some 30 gauge kynar, and it booted right up. That was ten years ago, and it still works fine today. Sometimes the fix really is that simple.