Whoops! Made a trimming boo boo.

[jonno.james]

So trimming down my board I may have nicked my 5v line, now video doesn't output properly. I have tried linking it up to a 5v connection on my portable DVD player which delivers perfect sound but a blank white screen. Then tried connecting it to a 3.3v line on the N64 which delivers no sound but fuzzy video.

How can I rectify this situation. I've had a poke around the board with a multimeter but I can't seem to find what puts out 5v !?!?

 

[Bush]

Trace is probably shorted to ground. You can sand and use a razor to try and separate them. However, the board may already be dead.

 

[jonno.james]

The game runs perfectly through a normal TV though when I run link the 5v line to the 9v power source. Just running it through the portable DVD player doesn't work. My other un-modified N64 runs fine on the DVD player through.

 

[Bush]

Sounds like it may be some sort of filtering issue then? I really don't know why it would display on one and not the other.

 

[Noah]

Try shortening the amount of wire you have exposed. That might be your problem. If the video wire is shorting to ground somewhere it could be adding extra noise.

Do you even need the 5V for anything? I don't remember using it at all in my N64.

 

[jonno.james]

Turns out the solution was to solder a wire between the composite and coaxial inputs on the DVD players board... Don't understand why it works just glad it does.

 

[Bush]

The only lesson you can take from this is that some hardware is just half assed and finnicky, and that taking a break and coming back with a fresh perspective on the problem usually leads you to a solution.

Good on you for figuring it out. It may not have made sense, but you sorted it out and that's all that matters. If you can deal with hardware throwing these kinds of little errors at you, you can build a portable. Good luck!