Before you take your Super Nintendo to pieces, you should ALWAYS switch it on after you have unplugged it from the wall.  You’ll notice that the power light flashes for a split second, this is the console discharging, some people say you need to leave the On/Off switch in the On position for quite a while before dismantling it – this is up to you.

If you have started soldering in your SNES without discharging it, chances are you won’t be able to switch your SNES back on again, it’ll be dead!  You’ve probably blown the internal fuse, which is easy to replace.

With the SNES in pieces again, look near the top left hand corner of the motherboard, see that black thing bridging a gap, you need to remove it, heat up one side of the solder, use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the fuse up, then heat the other side and pull it totally out.

This is a 1.5 amp picofuse, I couldn’t find a direct replacement, so used a 1 amp picofuse instead, you could just use a bit of wire, but what would blow next time if no fuse was there?  More damage would be done elsewhere, so spend a little bit or money and buy a fuse.

(I *think* that this type of fuse is also called either a micro or mini axial fuse, so if you can’t find a picofuse, try searching for either micro or mini axial fuse)

Simply trim the legs so it’s the right length for the gap, and solder it into place, it doesn’t matter which way around it goes.

Assemble and test your SNES.  It should now be working, and remember to discharge the SNES next time!

Thanks to Yod@ over at Rllmuk forums who pointed out to me that the black thing was a fuse.

Alternative Method

Thanks to phreak97 over at gamesx for this info!  If you’re having trouble finding a direct replacement fuse, you could instead fit a standard fuse holder in there instead!  It’s much easier to find a 1.5 amp Glass Fuse :)

Cheers phreak97

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