Atari
Active Member
This thread is intended to be a comprehensive list of Nintendo 64 board scans for tracework purposes. I do not have every revision of N64 available to me, and as such, I ask the members of this community to take high resolution scans or pictures of their own uncut N64s so others may do tracework on them. Furthermore, if you have found any sort of pinout of any N64 motherboard revision, please post it here.
Revision 5 & 7 scans are needed. Please help! If you have larger or better pictures, submit them!
To help, you need to do the following three steps:
1. Determine which N64 motherboard revision you own:
The easiest way to do this is to open up your N64 motherboard and look at the top:
Where it says NUS - CPU - 0X, X is your motherboard revision number. So, in the case of this picture, the N64 above is a Revision 4 board. If your board happens to have three numbers instead of two, that signifies minor board changes which does not affect the overall layout of the motherboard. In other words, if you for instance are using a NUS-CPU-05-1 to do tracework, the pinouts you will find will be identical to that of a NUS-CPU-05.
2. Take a pic:
The N64 motherboard is small enough to have a standard 8.5"x11" piece of paper as a white backdrop. Take a picture with the highest resolution camera you have, in a well lit room without flash. Blurry pictures or ones with bloom are useless.
3. Make a scan:
To scan a motherboard, you have to remove almost every component, except for some of the very small surface mount components on the back. Please note: do this with a dead N64. There is no reason to kill a perfectly good motherboard just to take some pictures. These things are pretty finicky anyway, so dead motherboards are fairly easy to come by. The components can be removed using a heat gun, some bismuth solder (sold commonly as ChipQuick), or by simply prying them off. Scan using a scanner (naturally), and then sand the silkscreen off for easier tracing (often labels can get in the way).
NTSC N64 MOTHERBOARD SCANS
Revisions 1, 2, & 6 are not commonplace, and thus are not included in this list. Should proper high resolution scans be found, please let me know. All the pictures that I have found have been at or below 800x600, which is too small to be easily traced.
Due to massiveness, all of the following images are thumbnails. You may simply click on them to be brought to the much larger image.
Revision 3 [NUS-CPU-03] (1996)
Front:
Back:
Revision 4 [NUS-CPU-04] (1996,1997)
Front:
Back:
Revision 5 [NUS-CPU-05 & NUS-CPU-05-1] (1997)
There are not yet any pictures or board scans of this revision. Help would be greatly appreciated.
Revision 7 [NUS-CPU-05 & NUS-CPU-05-1] (1997)
There are not yet any pictures or board scans of this revision. Help would be greatly appreciated.
Revision 8 [NUS-CPU-08] (1999)
Front Without Components:
Front Without Silkscreen:
Back:
Credits to spinout of the Benheck forums for the above three images.
Revision 9 [NUS-CPU-09 & NUS-CPU-09-1] (2000)
Front:
Back:
Credits to Link83 for the two above images.
If you find that you have not been properly credited for anything contained in this list, post in this thread or PM me and I will gladly accommodate you.
As you may have noticed, only the Revision 8 motherboard has proper board scans. If you would like to help and have a dead N64 laying around, see step 3. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please post!
Revision 5 & 7 scans are needed. Please help! If you have larger or better pictures, submit them!
To help, you need to do the following three steps:
1. Determine which N64 motherboard revision you own:
The easiest way to do this is to open up your N64 motherboard and look at the top:
Where it says NUS - CPU - 0X, X is your motherboard revision number. So, in the case of this picture, the N64 above is a Revision 4 board. If your board happens to have three numbers instead of two, that signifies minor board changes which does not affect the overall layout of the motherboard. In other words, if you for instance are using a NUS-CPU-05-1 to do tracework, the pinouts you will find will be identical to that of a NUS-CPU-05.
2. Take a pic:
The N64 motherboard is small enough to have a standard 8.5"x11" piece of paper as a white backdrop. Take a picture with the highest resolution camera you have, in a well lit room without flash. Blurry pictures or ones with bloom are useless.
3. Make a scan:
To scan a motherboard, you have to remove almost every component, except for some of the very small surface mount components on the back. Please note: do this with a dead N64. There is no reason to kill a perfectly good motherboard just to take some pictures. These things are pretty finicky anyway, so dead motherboards are fairly easy to come by. The components can be removed using a heat gun, some bismuth solder (sold commonly as ChipQuick), or by simply prying them off. Scan using a scanner (naturally), and then sand the silkscreen off for easier tracing (often labels can get in the way).
NTSC N64 MOTHERBOARD SCANS
Revisions 1, 2, & 6 are not commonplace, and thus are not included in this list. Should proper high resolution scans be found, please let me know. All the pictures that I have found have been at or below 800x600, which is too small to be easily traced.
Due to massiveness, all of the following images are thumbnails. You may simply click on them to be brought to the much larger image.
Revision 3 [NUS-CPU-03] (1996)
Front:
Back:
Revision 4 [NUS-CPU-04] (1996,1997)
Front:
Back:
Revision 5 [NUS-CPU-05 & NUS-CPU-05-1] (1997)
There are not yet any pictures or board scans of this revision. Help would be greatly appreciated.
Revision 7 [NUS-CPU-05 & NUS-CPU-05-1] (1997)
There are not yet any pictures or board scans of this revision. Help would be greatly appreciated.
Revision 8 [NUS-CPU-08] (1999)
Front Without Components:
Front Without Silkscreen:
Back:
Credits to spinout of the Benheck forums for the above three images.
Revision 9 [NUS-CPU-09 & NUS-CPU-09-1] (2000)
Front:
Back:
Credits to Link83 for the two above images.
If you find that you have not been properly credited for anything contained in this list, post in this thread or PM me and I will gladly accommodate you.
As you may have noticed, only the Revision 8 motherboard has proper board scans. If you would like to help and have a dead N64 laying around, see step 3. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please post!
