Does the SEGA Dreamcast need recapping?

[Xanxi]

Hi.

As i have spent a few hours of that Easter week-end to fix my Dreamcast in Dreamcase https://www.retrorgb.com/dreamcase-metal-dreamcast-replacement-shell.html which was waiting for three years with damages from my clumsyness, it occured to me that the Dreamcast has been made during the time of capacitors plague and might need recapping.

Does anyone here have any experience about this?

This is quite annoying to think about this because i have some boxed collector Dreamcast in my secret storage room and it would be a shame to open them to recap (like R7, Hello Kitty, Sakura Wars and maybe another one).

Also same question about the Saturn, the Megadrive and Master System (SMS being a very fragile system so it seems).
GameGear i don't have one anymore but i already know that these ones badly need recapping.

Yes i only have SEGA stuff.

 

[miggymad]

A more pressing mod for any Dreamcast is to have the original rechargeable battery and holder replaced with a more modern up-to-date replacement and easily serviceable battery holder that uses off the shelf CR2032 or CR2020 battery.

If your original rechargeable battery on the controller board of your Dreamcast goes bad, it can prevent the controllers from working, along with preventing the clock from saving the date and time.

However, a cap replacement on a Dreamcast is more preventative according to a few places I have scoured for info, yet on other websites it's an essential thing to put on your to-do list.

Personally, it is not something I would leave to chance on any games console and I would be ordering the replacement cap kits then firing up the soldering iron.

 

[Xanxi]

Yes i have changed the battery on that one.
Indeed, the other one has to be setup from 1998 on every boot but i have never experienced failure from the controllers because of this. There is a fuse on the controller board which may blow during hotplug though.

Firing up the soldering iron is never a casual thing to me. Man, i have spent 4 hours to resolder two wires to the LED stuff of the chassis of the Dreamcase and three wires for my fan adapter because they keep breaking each time i open this case.

This also reminds me of the numerous dead batteries that i surely have in the VMUs and which may be leaking already.