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The Sega Genesis (also known as the Mega Drive) is Sega's most successful video game console to this date.

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Model 1 board, does this look normal?

I took apart My model 1 to clean it up etc and while looking around I came across a spot where it looks like a trace was damaged. I’ll post pics of the top and bottom of the board so you can see. The spot in question is circled in red.

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Update (12/09/2022)

So I somehow found a post on sega-16 about a genesis with a resistor on the bottom with a cut trace, exactly like mine. I'm starting to think this was just some factory "fix" or "repair" rather than a mod. Second post has a working image link which shows the same kind of resistor on the same spot with the trace cut.

https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread...

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So I somehow found a post on sega-16 about a genesis with a resistor on the bottom with a cut trace, exactly like mine. I'm starting to think this was just some factory "fix" or "repair" rather than a mod. Second post has a working image link which shows the same kind of resistor on the same spot with the trace cut.

https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread...

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Kevin F, That resistor just outside your circle is NOT factory. I’ve attached an image of that area on another Genesis Model 1 board.

There were a lot of mods done to these over the years, and this is one of them. Unfortunately, there’s really only one way to figure out which mod this is, and that’s to ask someone heavily into Sega modding. I’m not one of those, so my solution would be to traverse the darkest and weirdest corners of the modding interwebs

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That’s interesting. The board generally works fine but I experience a weird issue with some Sega CD games and freezing (Lunar and Vay) when my 32x is attached. However I have a second genesis that doesn’t freeze with those sega cd games.

I wonder what would happen if I removed that resister and fixed the trace?

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hard to say, you could check continuity from 1 end of the trace to the other with a multimeter. thats the easiest way to test, other than that scrape back the top coating to see if the copper is broken

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Hi Kevin,

To be honest, that looks like a rework of some kind. No way to tell if it was done at the factory or not, but it's obvious a resistor has been removed and one end rerouted to a different connection. They should have cleaned up the flux afterward and it's not the best rework job I've seen, but it was most likely a fix for an issue discovered during testing. Assuming they had a bunch of boards already manufactured that required a fairly simple change, they elected to do this little kludge rather than throwing away a large batch of circuit boards until they could get the PCB revised.

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I’m wondering if I remove the resistor and try to fix the trace of the console would still work.

The console does work as is but I experience a weird issue with some Sega CD games and freezing (Lunar and Vay) only when my 32x is attached. However I have a second genesis that doesn’t freeze with those sega cd games While the 32x is attached.

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@Kevin F That's a tough call. Without knowing what the purpose of that fix is, there's no way of telling what will happen if you undo it. As @geirandersen suggested, I personally would head down a few internet rabbit holes in search of what that modification is all about first.

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Yeah not a bad idea, I just don't know how to even go about finding info about this particular "repair"/"fix".

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That’s not factory, soldering is crap. Looks like someone has repaired it at some point. If it works ok I wouldn’t touch it.

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Yeah the soldering is crap for sure. And the Genesis does work for the most part but I experience a weird issue with some Sega CD games and freezing (Lunar and Vay) when my 32x is attached. However I have a second genesis that doesn’t freeze with those sega cd games with the same setup.

I wonder what would happen if I removed that resister and fixed the trace?

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@Kevin F only one way to find out

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