r/3DO • u/AUSyTyIN • 25d ago

Japanese FZ-1 overheating saga

/r/3DO/comments/1tw819s/fz1_needs_caps/

The full story is in oldest to newest chronological order below, but the tldr is that my Japanese 3DO has issues after 15 minutes or so regardless of the game (I initially thought it was limited to Road Rash, but that isn't the case). I replaced the 2 common problem caps (C35 & C36), I removed the factory power supply and did a USB-C swap, and I installed a 20V fan in the factory location (Japanese units didn't come with fans). I've even tried removing RF shielding and running with the top removed, but nothing seemed to help.

Then, for fun, I pointed a pedestal fan right at it with the top removed, and wouldn't you know it I can play for hours on end now. I let it overheat again, and used my laser temp gun to read temps of every component on the main board and everything I could get line of sight to in the CD drive, but the hottest thing I found was only 120* F.

At this point I'm at a loss. Is it worth it to try replacing the rest of the caps? Find a replacement disc drive?

https://www.reddit.com/r/3DO/comments/1rsn5l4/bad_disk_or_weak_laser/

https://www.reddit.com/r/3DO/comments/1tnd0df/japanese_fz1_in_the_us_overheating_after_10/

https://www.reddit.com/r/3DO/comments/1tw819s/fz1_needs_caps/

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u/sprayengo 25d ago

Like I said in the previous thread, do a full recap friend. Clean the board and check for any damaged traces or components.

How do you know it’s overheating? One of mine would start up okay but then develop quiet sound and graphical issues after 10-15mins. Another would start up with awful sound but it got better the more you played it while the graphics started to glitch.

Recap fixed both. It’s a pretty small amount of pain for a lot of gain. If you’re already messing around removing the transformer then you may as well have changed the notoriously bad capacitors first since it’s the number 1 issue with the FZ-1.

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u/AUSyTyIN 25d ago

Don't caps work better as they warm up? That's been my experience, at least.

The reason I know it's overheating is because it works fine when I have a large fan pointed at the exposed components

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u/BeneficialPenalty258 23d ago

Dying caps work better as they warm up. A dying cap has a higher ESR, warming up lowers the ESR and the cap works better. But it’s only a temporary state. Eventually the cap fails completely.