The service was for a Sega Mega-CD 2 recap and FRAM mod. The customer advised that the laser might need replacement, but when testing on receipt (and after a slight lens clean with a cotton bud and some IPA), the CD drive was found to be perfectly operational with a burnt copy of Sonic CD.
The console was then disassembled. It was relatively clean inside (apart from some light dust), and the only problem seemed to be a slightly sticky CD eject button. No rust or any other damage was found.
Console was then recapped. All the capacitors in this revision are in the motherboard. The main difficulty of this recap is the number of capacitors and the fact that they are quite cramped under the board and surrounded by other SMD components.
Console was then retested and confirmed everything worked fine. The FRAM was then replaced. The chip installed is a FM18W08-SG , which is 256K (instead of the stock 64K, but the pins 1 and 28 of the chip have been wired together to ensure the console operates as if the chip was 64K.
The RAM chip is under a breakout board, that needs to be lifted. The chip was removed with hot air and the new chip soldered with a soldering iron.
Once the chip has changed, it has to be formatted using the utility menu accessible through the CD player. Upon reboot, the console shows the new RAM chip empty, which is an indication that the mod is working well.
Once the installation had been confirmed, the battery was removed to avoid any problems with leaking in the future. The sole reason for that battery was to maintain the saved information into the stock SRAM. With no SRAM anymore, the battery is no longer needed.
Final test of the console. All good.
The eject button was also slightly lubricated with lithium grease to remove the stickiness. No further refurbishment was undertaken.
