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I suspect the contents of the ROM is not really all that interesting. You can get a pretty good idea of what the code looks like just by viewing the microcontroller as a black box and knowing what the keyboard does. There will be a routine that scans the key matrix continuously, spitting out the...

Sega Game Gear handhelds have a bunch of those same capacitors, and they fail the same way as the more common vertical SMD 'lytics. I think they're somewhat common in Japanese portable electronics of the era. As for Toyotas, the engines seem to be fairly bulletproof, at least the inline-4's...

Back in the day I filed down the tip of a long flathead screwdriver so it fit the Torx screws. Once removed, I replaced them with ordinary Philips screws that were easier to find tools for. Now I have a proper long Torx driver but they were not nearly as easy to find in the pre-internet days.

I would avoid the use of any through-hole caps in SMT applications. The through-hole parts lack a base to distribute mechanical force applied to the capacitor, which can easily tear SMT pads off the board. Other than that, I'm a fan of ceramic and tantalum chip capacitors, both work very well...

Techknight's suggestion ought to work, at least it will tell you if the thing has some signs of life. These things seem to be pretty sturdy though, I bet if you offer them as-is, they will fetch pretty close to the price they would tested working.

Faint sound is almost always the SMT electrolytics on the motherboard, those things are horrible. I would replace the ones in the tuner as well, there is a good chance that replacing ALL of the SMT lytics with tantalum or ceramic capacitors will resolve all of your problems. I've also found...

The Amiga is a fascinating system. At the time, it had excellent graphics and sound, roughly equivalent to a Sega Genesis game console, the A500/600/1000/1200 boxes even sharing the same CPU. Because of these capabilities, it was a popular home computer with a LOT of great games. The other...

You're buying whole Macs just to get the hard drives? U320 server drives with an adapter PCB drop right in and work great. They tend to be a lot more reliable than ancient consumer drives, and they're dirt cheap currently. When you have the system up and running, copy the whole hard drive over...

Isn't the power button connected to a separate wire in the keyboard port rather than using ADB signalling?

What are you trying to do with them? Keep in mind that the brand is likely irrelevant unless it's a really unique part that nobody else made. Most memory devices follow JDEC standards for pinout and function, so a RAM chip or EPROM from one manufacture is normally interchangeable with similar...

Given the huge number of LC-II's that were in schools, a lot of people, myself included likely have some nostalgic memories. They're compact and usable machines that can still run a fair bit of popular software from the era, 8MB was still considered a LOT of RAM at the time. While it bugs me...

The vast majority of them got unceremoniously dumped into landfills or run through recycler shredders after they had outlived their useful lives. The only reason most of this stuff is collectible today is because most of what was made has since been junked. I remember parting out a stack of...

Use ordinary thermal paste in the middle, with a tiny dot of adhesive on the edge. They make double sided thermally conductive tape but it's hard to find.

Poke and prod with an insulated stick until you find a "ticklish" spot that causes the problem. A wooden kitchen spoon works well.

Few things around the house are more corrosive than cat pee. I haven't had it happen often, but I did once have a cat who would pee in specific places as his way of informing me that the litter box was not up to his standards. Once or twice it happened to a box with electronics in it, thankfully...

11.6V does not strike me as all that out of line, it's low by less than 5%. I don't have a schematic of the boost converter to look at, but usually regulation is accomplished by monitoring the output of a voltage divider made of a pair of resistors between the output and ground. The regulator...

This applies to linear power supplies, particularly in antique (as in full of vacuum tubes) radio and TV sets. It is *not* advisable to operate anything with a switchmode power supply at reduced line voltage. The better designed ones will lock out and shut down, but some will crank up the duty...

Flux is the key, use plenty of flux. If the solder is balling up, sticking to the iron, refusing to stick where you want it, or otherwise causing trouble, add a bit more flux. I usually tin a pad or two in one corner, add a bit of flux, then carefully align the chip and heat the tinned pad/pin...

While too hot can cause problems, you don't want to go nuts with the cooling, too cold can apparently reduce life as well. I read a very interesting study a few years ago, just found a link to it. It's a study of hard drive failure statistics in very large server farms...

I normally use a heat gun, they work great, but do practice on some junk boards first until you get the hang of doing it without frying the crap out of the board. On some particularly hairy ones I've used a combination of Chip Quik and a heat gun. That lets you use less heat and have less chance...