This order was for the installation of a switchless region mod on a Mega Drive 1, a 32X as well as the recap on the same 32x.
Customer sent a NTSC 32x cartridge with the console, but no PAL cartridge. Testing with Mega Drive games (pass through) was fine, but with the NTSC game there was some audio drops (this was without doing any work on the console yet). As per the MD1, it tested well but it was quite dirty, so agreed with the customer on a TLC and shield painting service on top of the switcless region mod installation.
The switchless region mod was from Consoles Unleashed. It requires removing the stock clock, cutting a couple of traces for reset and region jumpers, and wire a number of connections to the provided PCB. It also requires to remove the stock LED and replace it with a tri-colour LED which lights up differently depending on the region. The way this is activated is by pressing the reset switch and wait for it to change colour to the desired region (red, green and amber). The console then changes the frequency of the video output as well.
Upon exploration of the motherboard, a few black spots denoting trace rot were found, and once of the caps replaced. Customer was advised to check future operation and come back if a fault would develop.
The console shell was cleaned with a water and soap bath, and the shields sanded and sprayed with conductive galvanised zinc spray
Next to the 32X. The console has a lot of bodged wires typical of SEGA consoles of this era. The job was to replace all the capacitors and install and a region mod, also from Consoles Unleashed.
On installation of the region mod, a broken trace was spotted from some undetermined damage. So I restored the trace while installing the mod.
Consoles reassembled and testing with both PAL and NTSC games, as well as pass through MD1 games. Note that the original MD1, as is a PAL version, will not fit japanese games. However the 32X has a different port shape and can also fit japanese games. So if you want to play NTSC-J games, use the 32x as an adapter even is pass through.
Finally some photos of the finished product
