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My PS1 died today
(lemmynsfw.com)
F
Sorry for your loss, I feel your pain. I recently discovered that my ps1, Atari 2600, and most importantly, my VideoNow were put in outside storage and not indoors. They've been exposed to the elements for literal years. Have yet to test them but things weren't looking good.
If its any hope, a lot of my stuff has survived insane temp changes in storage.
Maybe dead capacitors? If you don't have a multimeter and soldering iron, this is a good excuse to get/learn those things!
I do have both of those things but I don't feel I have the expertise. Maybe I'll give it a go in a few days.
It makes a high-pitched whine when plugged in, I also wondered if that could be a capacitor making the noise. Or maybe the coil right near the incoming power supply, I could imagine that making such a notice as well
but I dont feel I have the expertise.
Probably true, but everyone starts out like that, and its already broke. Either you fix it and youre a hero, or it stays broke and whatever
I’m no expert either but a first step would be to take the case off and listen for which part the whine is coming from. That may clue you in.
You can also touch parts and see if any are extra warm/hot soon after start up.
That can help direct your trouble shooting.
Don’t buy parts until you have a clue as to what might be happening. It’ll save you money.
Don’t touch the inside of a psu, this can kill you very rapidly and you’ll feel it the whole time.
Not usually... I mean please do read up/watch some youtube videos on electronic repair safety, but for the most part the power supply of a ps1 lives in the unpleasant shock realm of zapping power.
Talk like this scares people away from doing their own repairs.
From what I can tell, there’s only one 200V cap in a PS1, so as long as you don’t short that you’ll be fine.
I still caution against the advice of feeling open electrical components to find problems. Just use a multimeter. You short something with a meter and you just need new leads, short something spicy with your fingers and you could either get a nasty sting, or stop your heart. The risk/reward on that seems a little off.
When trouble shooting sometimes chips, caps or resistors can get much hotter than surrounds parts. It can let you know to inspect that part for replacement.
Sure don’t grab leads with your fingers but sometimes you can tell something like a voltage regulator is malfunctioning because it just gets really hot.
I mean you can just use an IR camera but most people don’t have one.
Gotta love that classic "Not only will this kill you, it will hurt the whole time"
Definitely try replacing the capacitors. They just don't live that long.
https://wiki.console5.com/wiki/PlayStation
If you don't have a lot of expertise with soldering, here's a few basic tips:
Don't set the iron too hot, because if you burn the wires it's pretty much gg. Use lots of flux. To remove the old caps, just cut them off, they are cheap and replaceable.
Good luck!
Check output voltages on the power supply with motherboard disconnected
If there’s anything weird there honestly I would just look into something like this . There are other versions iirc and you can find it cheaper too but basically a drop in psu replacement that uses modern components.
People are talking about recapping and fixing the power supply. It’s honestly not worth it on many of these older systems unless you’re a die hard that insists the hardware be 100% original. You’ll spend 30-50% of the cost of a replacement psu on a recap kit and that might not fix it (I am a big believer that recapping for no reason is a bad idea, especially on old pcbs like this that can easily delaminate). When you factor in potential extra time spent diagnosing and fixing the actual problem (bc it’s probably not recapping) plus the fact that the modern psu will last longer and deliver cleaner power, protecting the motherboard and allowing it to last longer as well, it’s a no brainer imo.
If the issue is on the motherboard then sorry. It’s usually fixable, but harder. This gen of console is an okay place to start learning if you ever wanted to (though what you describe with the whine sounds like psu issues imo). Previous 2 gens are a bit easier tho
unless you’re a die hard that insists the hardware be 100% original.
Ugh. I cannot stand purists. I will happily upgrade or modify things to keep the original "look", but with modern functionality.
Well it depends, there’s certainly an argument for like, the original CPU. I’m personally fine with emulation tbh, I do think someone maintaining the hardware is good for archival but I don’t have the space or funds for a bunch of the consoles I grew up with and either a CRT or expensive ass hdmi mods (which is another point of debate I suppose) but I like installing them for people and fixing old consoles is surprisingly lucrative, especially if you “Cadillac them up” with this stuff (assuming you can still find them cheap, which is incredibly difficult nowadays)
But changing the psu? That’s a no brainer. Functionality remains identical and the modern designs are superior because they simply couldn’t have existed 30+ years ago. Components have improved a lot in terms of efficiency since then and as a result the modern designs are much smaller and generate far less heat and ripple (two biggest factors for longevity). Using the original power supply just means stressing the motherboard more which is counterproductive if your goal is keeping the machine running as long as possible. The exception would be if you got a bad modern replacement, like if you designed your own poorly or pulled the trigger on an unknown one and did 0 testing. Repsx (and the associated other systems under the same name) are well designed and made.
Oh for sure, 100% on all points. I'm actually waiting for the RePS2 PSU to come back in stock for my own fat PS2.
Respect for the soldier fallen after so long in combat 🫡
Also if you still want to play the game and wouldn't mind doing so on another device, iirc the PS2 can run natively PS1 games, any of the PS3 models can for sure (it's different from the PS2 compatibility from the PS3), you can convert the game to run on the PSP and/or Vita, and there are emulators that have their own solutions to not need BIOS files.
Ooo didn't know the ps3 could run ps1 games
Finished Parasite Eve that way. The final challenge without save states was... interesting.
Just worth noting Sony's PS1 emulator is historically unstable with certain games. FFV, for example, if you play the black label release, the save screen has some issue (maybe a memory leak?) that makes the whole game utterly freeze, and that the further you are into the game, the more unstable that screen gets (meanwhile in the PSP with a dump of the same disc, iirc the graphics in the save screen just get increasingly corrupted)
So the ps3 is running an emulator? I thought console backwards compatibility usually came from having the original console's CPU available (as a sound processor or similar)
They embedded a PS1 in the PS2, but the PS1 compatibility for the PS3 and later is emulation. Also the PS2 compatibility for most of the revisions of the PS3 is emulated too. Only a couple of the earliest models crammed a PS2 in there
Been quite a few years since I last dug in the subject, but from what I remember, Sony used for the PS1 an emulator called "POPS", and Sony up to the Vita added hardware from the previous generation into the new console, but I don't remember any mentions of them adding hardware further than a single generation.
And a surprise to me, but apparently according to this wiki (cw: Fandom), the PS3 used some degree of emulation even for the PS2. Rather curious as to run PS2 games, the PS3 boots into a PS2 mode, which feels almost like a dual boot.
I'll have to check about the backwards compatibility, I'm sure a newer device would be easier to buy. I did have a PS2 once but I must have sold it... Maybe it went towards a Wii?
Rereading, one part of what I said wasn't clear: Emulators themselves you should be able to find for PC and phones. And if on PC, you should be able to play directly from the disc drive.
Sounds like a great time to get into handheld emulation devices. PS1 will run on just about anything.
Nah, it's not the same. There's something more visceral and real about playing with the original hardware and controller, for me anyway
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New mobos are like 20 bucks on ebay. Can you test the power module?
I've got a multimeter but no experience with PS1 PCBs. When I've got some more time to dedicate to it, I'll have a more thorough look I hope
Was this your original childhood PS1?
Yep, we bought it second-hand probably more than 20 years ago. It had a good run
You can get it repaired. There are lots of places online that can do it, and there are probably some repair shops near you that can too. It might be some small part that’s causing the whole issue, so it’s worth checking out.
Looking at cost of ownership. Spending maybe $100-200 every 20 years is really good. Repair is an option
Damn I'm sorry to hear that
Emulate is in your future. Any modern computer, even the office computers anywhere can play PS1 games.
I ran an emulator on my laptop a few years ago but it's just not the same. Thanks for the suggestion though! I do play some Pokémon Blue, Crystal and Emerald on an emulator from time to time
Sorry for your loss.
Check fuses. It may just have a blown fuse in the power supply or on the motherboard. It also may just be an issue with the power button.
That said, I haven't had a PS1 in years. Modern emulators like DuckStation can even play real discs but give you all sorts of benefits like upscaling, correction for polygon/texture warping, modern video outputs, etc. I regularly play my PS1 games, but I do so via an emulator on my Steam Deck.
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Dune was on PS1? I assume you mean the OG RTS; I didn't know it was on anything other than PC.
Dune 2000 was on ps1.
Dune 2 (the rts) was on the sega mega drive.
If we're talking consoles here.
I think it's an RTS, I haven't had the chance to find out! :(
I've packed it all away again until I have time and energy to try fixing it
I'm knocking on wood for my Xbox One. 15 years and still going, gaming on it almost everyday besides for a few months every few years when I forget I like to play video games. Not to rub salt into the wound
The original Xbox? I think Those have a super capacitor that ends up leaking on the motherboard and should be replaced. I still didn’t get around to doing it on mine, but it’s on my mind that I need to do that.
I was actually thinking about buying an Xbox One for Halo Wars 2. Surely it's not 15 years old yet?? I still think of it as the new Xbox since I own a 360...
OK I rounded the number up its actually 12 years old. But soon... If I'm lucky
Well I was thinking it's more like 5 years old so \_(*.*)_/
I guess you'll need to play on something that plays PS1 games with video ports from this millennium.
I'll have you know that PS1 outputs to a TV aerial! Even new TVs have that connection still!
At least in the UK modern tellies don't support analogue TV signals!
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this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2025
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