Fixing another SW-1 Sony mini-receiver

Thanks to some awesome resources on line, we found what we needed to make the Sony SW-1 whole again -

A full report to follow - mean time, the material that helped us through this crisis was found on the net - Priceless!

There are three screws securing the back cover. There is a screw under the black adhesive backed Mylar washer under the volume control. The volume control pulls off easily but you will have to probe carefully (with a
toothpick) to find where the screw is located. I just cut a little hole into the Mylar enough to get a Phillips head screwdriver into place. There are two depressions only one has the screw beneath it. The little arrow points directly to it. When the screw is replaced it pulls in the rough edges of the Mylar and looks quite satisfactory.

When removing the back cover be very careful! The plastic is thin and can break or deform very easily---especially along the edge of the battery compartment. The back cover pulls off from the volume control end (carefully using fingernail or finger pressure to unlatch the cabinet halves); lift it up slightly then slide it off the antenna end (antenna is collapsed).

2) Carefully remove the screws that hold the boards to the cabinet. Unsolder the wires to the speaker and remove the ground lug on the speaker frame leaving the gray wire attached to the lug.

3) You should now be able to remove the circuit boards from the cabinet. Note that the little dial light push button will fall out of place---just replace it upon re-assembly of the radio. Similarly, note how the on/off slide switch on the circuit board engages the green slide button.

4) The keyboard is moved out of place by removing its mounting screws. It is also necessary to remove the gray ground wire from the ground point on the main board. The keyboard can now be folded over but still be attached by its short length of ribbon cable.

5) The display board is folded out next by removing its mounting screws. Release the display board ribbon cable from the board connector by unlocking the connector. The ribbon cable can now be removed allowing the display
board to be folded out of the way.

6) You are now looking at the component side of the main board. Off to one side you will see six cylindrical surface mount electrolytic capacitors that are located in the audio section.


Looking at their values there is only one that is labeled 33mf 4v; it will be about 1/8" (3mm) in diameter and 1/8" (3mm) long. In the vast majority of repairs it is this capacitor that has failed. Like the previous poster, I also had a 22mf 10v tantalum capacitor; I removed it from the back of a hard drive. I replaced the 33mf capacitor with my 22mf tantalum. Take care to observe polarity when replacing the capacitor. Be extremely careful when soldering as there are plated through holes associated with that capacitor and the traces are very narrow.

7) Re-assemble carefully. Ribbon cable connector; gray ground wires (one soldered to main board the other on lug to speaker); solder speaker wires. Carefully locate speaker and gray ground wires to allow back cover to be fitted into place without the back cover bulging.

Everything should fit cleanly together. Take care when putting the dial light button into place and carefully align the green on/off button with the board mounted slide.

Total repair time: 1 hours - degree of difficulty on a scale of one to ten where ten is the most difficult: 8.5


I have just repaired another SW-1 in less than half the above time. If you have an SW-1 kicking around with the same audio problem (putt-putt noises out of the speaker yet the headphones work great), send it my way and I will fix for you.