My n64 has no sound?

Hi @mmusk818 hope you have fixed your N64 by now. And hello everyone arriving here by searching “n64 no audio”. I found this thread (again) after searching online for the solution that worked for me and since I saw it nowhere I wanted to share it with you guys.

I also had audio issues with my childhood N64 a while ago and I tried all these suggestions here but none of them worked until I got the sound fixed just last week all thanks to a Brazilian YouTube video that came out July of this year.

Basically I ended removing the rightmost chip (with the control ports facing you) U2, and bridged contacts 3-7 and 8-12(they are numbered on the board). And it frigging worked! (sorry for the quality and lack of photos, in the excitement I forgot to take photos of the wires I soldered, perhaps for the best)

I had no issues with my N64. The chip I removed is stated to be an amp but I noticed no sound quality or volume loss. Apparently that chip is there only to close those two paths.

Alternatively it might be a problem with the capacitors C25, C26 or C142. So replacing them might work too. Check them for shorts.

If ripping off a chip from your n64 seems too scary/drastic (please don’t literally rip it off, desolder it) then soldering a wire between U2’s contact 7 and the capacitor directly above it (C142, the one between caps C25 C26 and the U2 chip) can do the trick (for me it didn’t).

Hope it helps, dunno if posting a YouTube video or referring to is allowed so let me know if I can and you want the link. Would love to give the guy from the video the due credit.

Thanks to @sarmatios , I repaired my N64 too.

I removed the chip and bridged the connections and had still no sound. The only thing that worked for me was a wire from pin 7 to the output port like he said. But you have to connect pin 8 of U2 to the port too or you will get just mono. Pin 7 is for the right audio channel so it should connect to pin 12 of the multi out and pin 8 of U2 to pin 11 for the left audio channel.

I have no clue whats actually broken. The capacitors are fine. Maybe the resistors R57 and R58 on the back.

Anyways, thanks a lot guys.

Make sure your cable is plugged in do not remove or blow into the game which can cause some damage. If your sound is not working take it to someone who can service it or help you further more.

I have a similar problem. I found my old N64 and I cleaned it and in worked but no sound at all. I checked the cables with a multimeter and they were fine… so it had to be the board. In my research to fix it I have found usefull info that I haven’t tryed mysef yet, but it might help you:

• the capacitors that go through the audio might need replacement
  • If you buy a HDMI ultra mod this bypasses the capacitors and process the video and audio on its own
  • If HDMI mod is too expensive replace the capacitors

Okay, my solution is radical and I would not recommend it if you are not desperate and have not tried everything already. I just removed capacitor 28 and the sound is back. That’s it. I will update this answer if some sort of catastrophe happens in the next days.

I guess I should add this here so it has a chance to get voted up as an answer:

After replacing the AMP-NUS with a known-good spare and replacing every capacitor between it and the AV multi-out, I still had no audio. I was measuring voltage on pin 1 of the AMP-NUS when my probe slipped and momentarily shorted 12v from pin 1 into pin 2, instantly restoring audio. AMP-NUS pin 2 goes to ground through C28… nowhere else. Because the AMP-NUS was already replaced with a known-good spare, that means C28 is our culprit.

I never finished installing my replacement capacitor kit. I wanted to see if audio failed again so that I could see if replacing C28 also works but it’s been 2.5 years and it’s still working great. I haven’t come across any more with faulty audio to try replacing C28 but StealUrKill above replicated my results. He restored his audio by deliberately shorting 12v to C28.

My hunch is that faulty mainboard capacitors only happen on very late model N64 consoles as the industry was reformulating capacitors for RoHS compliance and the formulas weren’t yet refined. Mine was a NUS-CPU-09-1 revision board (the very last) inside a NUS-101 “Pikachu” console and I saw another with a capacitor-related video problem which was also a Pikachu console. My C28 is a 25v Panasonic/Matsushita HA series electrolytic with no “lead free” dot but this was well after manufacturers began reformulating (see “the Capacitor Plague”).

TL;DR: Power on without the heatsink and momentarily touch pins 1 and 2 of the AMP-NUS together with audio playing. You’re welcome. ;)