Not to be mean, but if you're offering a service, especially in the field of repairing something, "some knowledge" is not good enough. What if you break someone's PSP by accident? Are you willing to fully reimburse them, or just ghost them as I've seen people do on FB and TikTok to other people?
"Offering a service" and Giving Advise to people who may need help are two different things. I am not giving anyone a "service". This thread to give any helpful advise on anyone who is already repairing or is stumpt on a problem. Reimbursing someone for something that is already broken before they ask for help is also dumb of you to say. If you would use a small bit of your brain you wouldn't have needed to post that. If you're wanting attention you can take that somewhere else but we don't want it on this forum.
Other than that have a wonderful day
I also fix and sell PSPs/Vitas locally, and I have to say it's pretty fun and rewarding. I don't make a lot of money considering the time (and sometimes aggravation) involved, but they sell quickly and it feels good giving them a new home.
Hey everyone. I’m troubleshooting a PSP that won’t boot normally.
When I slide the power switch, it usually does nothing. If I press a very specific spot on the motherboard near the power/fuse area, the green power LED comes on very dim (like it’s trying to start) and then shuts off again as soon as I release pressure. So it seems pressure/flex of the board affects it, which makes me suspect an intermittent connection (cracked solder joint
Post automatically merged:
solder joint, broken trace/via, bad ground/shield contact, or a connector/flex issue), rather than a simple “dead part”.
I checked the SMD fuse labeled F6001 (marked 2.5A) and it tested blown compared to a working PSP I have. I removed it using the dip technique (first time doing SMD work, and my iron isn’t great) and temporarily bridged it with solder just for diagnosis. Continuity across the bridge is solid and I don’t think the bridge itself is the issue, because the behavior is basically unchanged: still no boot, still only a dim green LED when pressing the same spot.
I have a multimeter (continuity/ohms/voltage) and thin jumper wires, and I can post close-up photos of both sides of the board around F6001 and mark the exact “magic spot”.
What measurements/areas would you check first to narrow this down? For example:
- resistance from the rail after F6001 to ground (to rule out a hard short)
- which rails/test points should be present during power-on attempts (battery input / 3.3V / 1.8V, etc.)
- common cracked joints/traces/vias or connectors near this area on PSP boards
Any guidance on typical failure points for this symptom would be a
Hey everyone. I’m troubleshooting a PSP that won’t boot normally.
When I slide the power switch, it usually does nothing. If I press a very specific spot on the motherboard near the power/fuse area, the green power LED comes on very dim (like it’s trying to start) and then shuts off again as soon as I release pressure. So it seems pressure/flex of the board affects it, which makes me suspect an intermittent connection (cracked solder joint
ppreciated.
solder joint, broken trace/via, bad ground/shield contact, or a connector/flex issue), rather than a simple “dead part”.
I checked the SMD fuse labeled F6001 (marked 2.5A) and it tested blown compared to a working PSP I have. I removed it using the dip technique (first time doing SMD work, and my iron isn’t great) and temporarily bridged it with solder just for diagnosis. Continuity across the bridge is solid and I don’t think the bridge itself is the issue, because the behavior is basically unchanged: still no boot, still only a dim green LED when pressing the same spot.
I have a multimeter (continuity/ohms/voltage) and thin jumper wires, and I can post close-up photos of both sides of the board around F6001 and mark the exact “magic spot”.
What measurements/areas would you check first to narrow this down? For example:
- resistance from the rail after F6001 to ground (to rule out a hard short)
- which rails/test points should be present during power-on attempts (battery input / 3.3V / 1.8V, etc.)
- common cracked joints/traces/vias or connectors near this area on PSP boards
Any guidance on typical failure points for this symptom would be appreciated.
Hey everyone. I’m troubleshooting a PSP that won’t boot normally.
When I slide the power switch, it usually does nothing. If I press a very specific spot on the motherboard near the power/fuse area, the green power LED comes on very dim (like it’s trying to start) and then shuts off again as soon as I release pressure. So it seems pressure/flex of the board affects it, which makes me suspect an intermittent connection (cracked solder joint
Post automatically merged:
solder joint, broken trace/via, bad ground/shield contact, or a connector/flex issue), rather than a simple “dead part”.
I checked the SMD fuse labeled F6001 (marked 2.5A) and it tested blown compared to a working PSP I have. I removed it using the dip technique (first time doing SMD work, and my iron isn’t great) and temporarily bridged it with solder just for diagnosis. Continuity across the bridge is solid and I don’t think the bridge itself is the issue, because the behavior is basically unchanged: still no boot, still only a dim green LED when pressing the same spot.
I have a multimeter (continuity/ohms/voltage) and thin jumper wires, and I can post close-up photos of both sides of the board around F6001 and mark the exact “magic spot”.
What measurements/areas would you check first to narrow this down? For example:
- resistance from the rail after F6001 to ground (to rule out a hard short)
- which rails/test points should be present during power-on attempts (battery input / 3.3V / 1.8V, etc.)
- common cracked joints/traces/vias or connectors near this area on PSP boards
Any guidance on typical failure points for this symptom would be a
ppreciated.
solder joint, broken trace/via, bad ground/shield contact, or a connector/flex issue), rather than a simple “dead part”.
I checked the SMD fuse labeled F6001 (marked 2.5A) and it tested blown compared to a working PSP I have. I removed it using the dip technique (first time doing SMD work, and my iron isn’t great) and temporarily bridged it with solder just for diagnosis. Continuity across the bridge is solid and I don’t think the bridge itself is the issue, because the behavior is basically unchanged: still no boot, still only a dim green LED when pressing the same spot.
I have a multimeter (continuity/ohms/voltage) and thin jumper wires, and I can post close-up photos of both sides of the board around F6001 and mark the exact “magic spot”.
What measurements/areas would you check first to narrow this down? For example:
- resistance from the rail after F6001 to ground (to rule out a hard short)
- which rails/test points should be present during power-on attempts (battery input / 3.3V / 1.8V, etc.)
- common cracked joints/traces/vias or connectors near this area on PSP boards
Any guidance on typical failure points for this symptom would be appreciated.
A simple thing you could try: checking the super capacitor, most of the power issues are that, if not, I'd check the schematics, I think you could get them online, I'll try finding them and highlighting any nearby components that are worth checking, at best it's just a supercapacitor problem and removing it fixes it, at worse there's a BGA solder cracked or a cracked/corroded trace in the middle layers of the board but these are just my two cents, also can you please provide pictures on the nearby area of the suspected components so we can see how the board is and the board revision model? Afaik TA-079 until TA-083 (I think, if I'm wrong feel free to correct me), had a lot of issues, that got fixed in subsequent revisions, so if possible can you send the motherboard revision so we can check and pinpoint test pads? Probably there's test pads for the voltage rails, clocks, and even data
I'm kinda an hobbyist on electronics but I do have tech course on electronics and I'm studying electric engineering atm, I do have experience with electronics and retro consoles and I dropped in here to try helping people on fixing their stuff, and to share and learn in the process
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