Sega MegaDrive / Genesis Capacitor List
There are a lot of MegaDrive / Genesis revisions, not all of them are listed below. You can find more of them at Console5 Wiki.
VA5 / VA6
This unit shipped with quality Rubycon capacitors, and they've lasted the decades well, at least on my system. But it's a good idea to replace them as a bit of preventative maintenance, or if you've got any problems with your system.
| uF | V | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1V | ||
| 50 | 1 | C40, 42, 44, 58 61, 62 |
| 10V | ||
| 47 | 10 | C59, 60, 63, 65 66, 68, 111 |
| 100 | 10 | C4, 23, 24, 49 52, 53, 74 |
| 220 | 10 | C32, 50, 51 |
| 16V | ||
| 10 | 16 | |
| 100 | 16 | C79 |
| 220 | 16 | C1 |
If your system has a heat sink that is connected to the PCB with brass rivets, they can be easily removed with a drill or dremel. They're very thin, less than 1mm, and take very little time to grind away. Once the top is thus ground they will simply fall out.
I replaced the rivets on mine with two 6mm M3 screws which threaded themselves nicely into the holes on the heat sink that the rivets had occupied. Probably some washers would have been handy, but I didn't have any, and these are larger than the rivets that Sega used so it's fine.
