Without a doubt for me, the PSone is the best version of the original Playstation 1. It was introduced in year 2000 and is very elegant and compact. In this tutorial, I will explain in details how to recap it.
Complete video tutorial
Watch the entire video first then refer back to this article for further guidance.
Recapping guide
It is always a must that you read the recapping guide (and watch its video) so you get all the necessary information to proceed. You can check it here:
Tools and capacitor kit
The tools I used in this recapping project is just the soldering iron and pliers, with the typical stuff like solder wick. Refer back to the guide for all tools recommendations.
I used this cap kit: https://console5.com/store/sony-playstation-psone-smd-cap-kit.html
It is from Console5 which uses high quality capacitors. You may get your capacitors from Digikey or Mouser and in this case you refer to the wiki to know which values to buy.
Disassembly
Take off the screws at the back then gently remove the top shell and disc drive. Now you will be left with the board exposed.
Then take the board off so you can start working.
Old capacitors marking
It is a nice practice to label the old capacitors by a marker so you keep following up nicely.
Capacitors removal
I started with C601 by using the twisting method mentioned in the guide.
Then proceeded to capacitor C731 and used swinging method, and after that to capacitor C705 and used snipping method. Both explained in the guide.
See the pad after removing a capacitor? this is why I always say you must replace the old capacitors regardless of how they look on the outside. The leakage is from the bottom and not visible.
Torn pad
I did a mistake and destroyed a pad of one capacitor, luckily, I managed to solve it by using an external wire.
Soldering new capacitors
I removed then installed a new cap one by one, which may not be a preferred way for most but still good for this console.
Before doing that, you must clean the pads of old solder and leaked liquid if exist. Then tin the pads with solder and add your new capacitor in and heat from both sides.
I want to mention that the new capacitor instead of C705 is a non-polarized capacitor which means you can put it in any direction.
I continued until I finished all capacitors which were about 17. Then returned it to the shell and reassembled the console.
Final thoughts
To tell you the truth, this wasn’t as easy as I thought due to the small space but still was not hard.
I believe if I had a hot air station, it would have been easier which is why I got one and will use it for future recapping.
