Nintendo Famicom Service Manual

The document held under this title is Nintendo Co., Ltd.'s ファミコン・スーパーファミコン・ゲームボーイ サービスマニュアル — the Famicom · Super Famicom · Game Boy Service Manual — issued 7 August 1992 (平成4年8月7日発行). Japanese throughout, 22 printed pages plus cover, scanned two-up as 12 PDF pages, no text layer.

It is not a Famicom-only manual. The cover shows Mario standing on a block reading HVC · SHVC · DMG, and the manual covers all three: the Famicom (HVC), the Super Famicom (SHVC) and the Game Boy (DMG). The same file is also hosted on this wiki as Nintendo Game Boy Service Manual (Japanese); the two File: pages hold byte-identical copies of this one document.

Contents

Nintendo's own 目次, with printed page numbers:

• 1 LSI・IC の取扱上のご注意 — handling precautions for LSIs and ICs — 1
• 2 HVC — Famicom — 2
• 3 SHVC — Super Famicom — 11
• 4 DMG — Game Boy — 16
• 5 請求金額 計算方法 — how to calculate service charges — 21
• 6 スーパーファミコン・ゲームボーイ・ファミコン 治工具セット — the jig and tool set for the three machines — 22

What it settles

Handling precautions (p1). Nintendo's rules for working on these boards, several of which are still repeated wrongly online: earth yourself through a resistance of several MΩ rather than directly; wear cotton rather than synthetics; use a non-leaking soldering iron; store LSIs at −20 to +70 °C and ICs at −40 to +125 °C; and — the one most often ignored — do not use a multimeter's high-resistance range for continuity checks, because it applies 4.5 to 22.5 V and can destroy the device.

HVC section (pp. 2–10). A whole-system diagram that names each block — aerial, 75/300 Ω transformer, RF switch, AC adapter, RF modulator, power section, 60-pin card connector, CPU board, both controllers — and prints, against each, the symptoms that block produces when it fails. It states the Famicom AC adapter as DC 10 V, with DC 13.5 ± 1.5 V off load as the normal reading. It also warns that a dirty cartridge edge produces the same symptoms as a faulty card connector, so a known-good cartridge should be tried first. Exploded views follow for the console and for both controller variants — the square-button and round-button types — with numbered parts and the tools needed (Phillips No. 2 driver, long-nose pliers, tweezers, a non-leaking or IC-rated iron of about 30 W, and a solder sucker).

SHVC section (pp. 11–15). Repair method and part names: soldering the power-switch harness the right way round (the switch is polarised for contact life — red to the + mark, black to the − mark), fitting the front unit and its ferrite core, routing the FFC harness through the ferrite core and which face of the connector is the contact face, and assembling the cassette cover spring. The section ends with a power circuit diagram: 13–14 V in, 5 V out of the regulator.

DMG section (pp. 16–20). Assembly cautions for the joiner wires (4C-49L, 4C-64L, 21C-63L) and lead 42L-Y, with the warning that if the 21C-63L joiner is not folded as drawn the insulating sheet shifts and component legs can pierce it and short; small jack board repair notes, including that a reversed electrolytic still passes the functional test, so polarity must be checked by eye; and cautions for replacing the DC-DC converter. The section ends with the DMG power circuit, which gives the converter's outputs as +4.5 to +5.5 V and −15 to −21 V — the second being the LCD bias, and the reason a Game Boy with a dead converter shows no display at all.

What this manual does not contain

• No schematics. The only circuit drawings are the two small power-circuit sketches in the SHVC and DMG sections. There is no board-level schematic for any of the three machines.
• No parts list with component values. The exploded views carry numbered mechanical items; no capacitor, resistor or IC values are given anywhere.
• No component location maps.
• No fault-code tables. Diagnosis here is by block, from the system diagrams.
• Japanese only, with no text layer, so it cannot be searched or machine-translated from the file as it stands.
• Nothing on the NES (the Western HVC), the SNES, the Game Boy Pocket or Color, or any PAL machine.

Download here: Nintendo Famicom Service Manual.pdf

Related pages

• Nintendo Game Boy Service Manual (Japanese) — the same document, held under a second title
• Nintendo Famicom General Maintenance · Nintendo Famicom Troubleshooting Guide · Nintendo Famicom Capacitor Replacement Guide
• Super Famicom · Nintendo Game Boy Technical Manual
• Nintendo Super NES Technical Manual (Playtronic, Rev. 01-94)