Game Boy DMG-01
DMG-CPU / LCD / JACK / DC-CONV — Original brick Game Boy, all four PCBs
Summary
A full DMG recap means four separate boards, not one. Sixteen electrolytics as a baseline: six on the CPU board, eight on the LCD board and two on the headphone jack board, plus the DC converter daughterboard.
Safety & Warnings
Do not lift the LCD module to reach its capacitors
Several capacitors on the LCD board sit under the LCD module. DMG LCD modules are notorious for developing bad connections, and disturbing one to reach a capacitor risks a much worse fault than the one you set out to fix. Cut the old leads as close to the capacitor body as you can and solder the replacements onto the remaining legs.
Check the barrel jack polarity if you use a mains adapter
The DMG's 6 V DC input is centre-negative, which is the opposite of most modern adapters. Verify before plugging anything in.
The 1 uF LCD parts are now normally fitted as ceramics
The five ultra-miniature 1 uF capacitors on the LCD board are supplied as ceramic replacements in current kits, after long-term testing by the kit vendor. Ceramics are non-polarised, which also removes the polarity risk in the most awkward spot on the machine.
The DC converter rows are flagged for checking because two different daughterboards were fitted over the production run. Early grey units have the 33 uF alone; the later DC-CONV2 board adds a 100 uF and a 22 uF. The shopping list below assumes the later board, so drop the extra two if yours is an early unit.
The DC converter board carries very few markings, so identify its capacitors by value and position rather than by designator.
Non-electrolytic parts on these boards (the ceramic and film capacitors at CPU C8 to C23 and LCD C4 and C5) are not recap candidates and are not listed.
Function and rail annotations are only shown on rows where the service documentation confirms them.
Is This Your Board?
- Board revisions are silkscreened on each PCB. The common mid-to-late combination is DMG-CPU-06 paired with DMG-LCD-06; earlier CPU revisions exist and differ in part count.
- Check the DC converter board before ordering. Early grey units use a board with a single 33 uF can; later units, including the Play It Loud series, use the DC-CONV2 board with three capacitors.
- The LCD board is the one bonded to the screen assembly, the CPU board carries the link port and the cartridge slot, and the small jack board sits at the bottom edge behind the headphone socket.
- If your unit has a 1-ASIC main board with a different part count from the list below, read the values off the cans - DMG revisions changed several times across an eight-year production run.
Verified rows are agreed by two or more independent sources. Check rows are revision-dependent or single-sourced — confirm the value against your own board before ordering.
CPU Board (DMG-CPU-06)
| Ref | Value | Voltage | Type | Notes | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C1 |
100 uF | 10 V | Radial | Verified | |
C3 |
1 uF | 50 V | Radial | Verified | |
C4 |
1 uF | 50 V | Radial | Verified | |
C5 |
10 uF | 16 V | Radial | Verified | |
C6 |
10 uF | 16 V | Radial | Verified | |
C7 |
100 uF | 10 V | Radial | Verified |
CPU Board (DMG-CPU-06) — shopping list
- 2 x 100 uF 10 V Radial
- 2 x 1 uF 50 V Radial
- 2 x 10 uF 16 V Radial
LCD Board (DMG-LCD-06)
Read the safety note above before touching this board - several of these sit under the LCD module.
| Ref | Value | Voltage | Type | Notes | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C1 |
100 uF | 10 V | Radial | Verified | |
C2 |
100 uF | 10 V | Radial | Verified | |
C3 |
10 uF | 25 V | Radial | Verified | |
C6 |
1 uF | 50 V | Radial | Ultra-miniature. Current kits supply a ceramic for this position. | Verified |
C7 |
1 uF | 50 V | Radial | Ultra-miniature. Current kits supply a ceramic for this position. | Verified |
C8 |
1 uF | 50 V | Radial | Ultra-miniature. Current kits supply a ceramic for this position. | Verified |
C9 |
1 uF | 50 V | Radial | Ultra-miniature. Current kits supply a ceramic for this position. | Verified |
C10 |
1 uF | 50 V | Radial | Ultra-miniature. Current kits supply a ceramic for this position. | Verified |
LCD Board (DMG-LCD-06) — shopping list
- 2 x 100 uF 10 V Radial
- 1 x 10 uF 25 V Radial
- 5 x 1 uF 50 V Radial
Headphone Jack Board
| Ref | Value | Voltage | Type | Notes | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C1 |
100 uF | 6.3 V | Radial | Verified | |
C2 |
100 uF | 6.3 V | Radial | Verified |
Headphone Jack Board — shopping list
- 2 x 100 uF 6.3 V Radial
DC Converter Board
Two different boards were fitted across the production run - check which one is in your unit before ordering.
| Ref | Value | Voltage | Type | Notes | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C1 |
33 uF | 25 V | Radial | Present on both the early and the later DC converter board. Identify by value and position - this board carries almost no markings. | Check |
| — | 100 uF | 10 V | Radial | DC-CONV2 board only, found on later units including the Play It Loud series. Not fitted on early grey units. | Check |
| — | 22 uF | 10 V | Radial | DC-CONV2 board only, found on later units including the Play It Loud series. Not fitted on early grey units. | Check |
DC Converter Board — shopping list
- 1 x 33 uF 25 V Radial
- 1 x 100 uF 10 V Radial
- 1 x 22 uF 10 V Radial
Whole-Machine Shopping List
- 5 x 100 uF 10 V Radial
- 7 x 1 uF 50 V Radial
- 2 x 10 uF 16 V Radial
- 1 x 10 uF 25 V Radial
- 2 x 100 uF 6.3 V Radial
- 1 x 33 uF 25 V Radial
- 1 x 22 uF 10 V Radial
Recap Tips
- Work board by board and keep the four sets of parts separated - several values repeat across boards at different voltage ratings, and mixing them up is the easy mistake here.
- These are miniature parts in tight spaces. A fine conical tip, good flux and 0.5 mm solder make far more difference than a hotter iron.
- If you are chasing no sound or crackling audio, the jack board and the CPU board coupling capacitors are the places to start.
- A recap will not fix vertical lines on the screen - that is the LCD module's ribbon bonding, a separate repair entirely. Do not talk yourself into replacing more capacitors hoping it will.
Related Symptoms
- Dead / no power Check the DC jack, the power switch and the DC converter board before condemning capacitors.
- Vertical lines on the display An LCD ribbon bonding fault, not a capacitor fault. Recapping will not clear it.
Sources & References
- Console5 TechWiki - Game Boy DMG-01 Per-board capacitor lists for the CPU, LCD, jack and DC converter boards, plus the ceramic substitution note for the 1 uF positions.
- silvestron's bits and bytes - Nintendo Game Boy DMG-01 component map Independent full component map of a DMG-CPU-04 / DMG-LCD-06 unit. Its electrolytic values agree with the Console5 lists on every row used here, and it confirms the centre-negative DC input.