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When I left home, one of the many trusted items I took with me was my childhood PlayStation 1, not a slim line model but an OG grey unit, nothing special, just your run of the mill SCPH-7502, of course mine was chipped. The thing I remember, most about that experience was watching a news report about the dangers of buying pirated games or whatever, and that led my mum to ask about it in one of those random electronic stores, of course it was over and done with, within 30 minutes. (It might have even been a local Harvey Norman store, not that I would trust one to be cool like that anymore).

It feels like a missed opportunity, but I only ever played PBC (personal backup copies) of games that I already owned, and that was probably a smart move in hindsight, because I still have all of my original games from that era, The PBCs have long been destroyed by my reckless outta lesson behaviour.

Eventually PlayStation 2 came along and my PS1 got to enjoy its retirement living out its days at my grandmother's house, I retrieved it in her passing a number of years ago, and it's since sat on the shelf. Fast forward to today, and while I'm putting together a new entertainment unit, I decided to give this thing a clean, and...

oh boy... I mean it sorta works so it can't be that bad...

I gave the shell a bit of TLC on my new workbench\washing machine...

The worst part appears to be rust from the RF shielding, it can fortunately work without it. (Not sure how well though)

Rust and corrosion appeared to have hit the side of the AV out port the worst. - I did power it up and of course no video output, the CD drive spins up, but I bet the culprit is these SMD caps that have just flaked off the board.

For further troubleshooting, I switched controllers over to a Dual Shock 2 as I am unsure as to the state of the original controller, I have noted that I can now toggle the Analog light on and off; this leaves me to think that the motherboard is not 100% dead yet, I might be able to get the unit to output via SCART RGB, but I do not have a cable for this, or a tv capable of reading it, I can also buy a AV adapter for that output if need be.I have also verified that the laser on the CD is firing, by holding my phone camera over it.

I know it's the caps, so I ordered some replacements online, I had a chat with someone who used to mod these units, (probably did mine), and he gave me some advice, since I don't have equipment for soldering SMD components, Surface mount-type Capacitors, I can get away with using a different type. - As long as the values are the same.

So, my plan is to go with Single Ended (Radial) Capacitors and just bend or mount them sideways.

Next step, get out the soldering iron.

Day 02:

"Tonight, I have discovered that my 10-year-old soldering iron has died so I am looking for recommendations as to where I can buy a new one; both in-store and online, and as to what brands to avoid and ones that are recommended, I want to get one with a heating element controller.

The one that died was a shitty one from Dick Smiths."

Moving on from my joke book post, my brother came through for me with a Bunnings cheapie.

The caps arrived and I set to work.

Trying to hold both the iron, solder and cap was tricky, so I came up with a jank solution using a broken RCA jack, from when my big CRT TV fell on the floor, during an earthquake! - it had ripped the nub out of it, but it was a snug fit and could hold the cap.

A pair of helping hands made life a lot easier, I was able to solder the cap in place and bend it down to fit in the shell, I also ensured continuity with the board and new components, and that there were no shorts!

Soon enough I had all 3 caps done. - and you can see where I melted the plastic, trying to film a YouTube video, but I gave up and made this blog post instead.

I just need to adjust the spindle., and... *snap*

Well shit...

scavenge the spindle from a broken unit? - Broke that too.

The disc was clipping when I was testing it, and I broke it attempting to straighten it out.

A replacement spindle costs about $1 dollar on eBay, but now there is a wait time before it will arrive, likewise I had paid for $10 express shipping because I want to get this project done. - well, I also bought a bag of ten from upstate, for $10 with a $1 dollar shipping, and both arrived on the same day. (Probably from the same seller)

Day 03: Disappointment and success.

Ok, new spindle installed, we can finally give it a test, (I say realising that I could have tested the unit without the spindle as the goal was to get it to output, but whatever).

I'm a fucking idiot!

So, Re-soldered all these capacitors on the PS1 yesterday, fired it up and got nothing! Went to bed disappointed, had a weird dream in which the next day I would test it again and the unit would just start working...

Today I had given up, I had looked at ordering a new logic bored from Russia off eBay, (the only listing that matches my model number: SCPH-7502)

I'm cleaning up my dining room (it was also my workbench) and I noticed the RCA cable from the TV to the RCA hub was unplugged; how or why that happened, I don't know, no one else lives in this house but me.

Decided to pull the unit apart once more and test again.

>My face when

There you go, I fixed my 20-year-old PlayStation just so I can play Lego Rock Raiders again.

Next project will be to take a look at these SNES cartridges, it turns out there are batteries in them, and when my SNES originally stopped working, I never bothered to test the system with another game.

RIP Mario Kart. - Going to see if I can change the battery in the cartridge following a video I watched on YouTube and a ballpoint pen.

Stay tuned.