Sega Saturn for Beginners

[strider]

8 minutes ago, Goemon said:

 

What mods got done?

50/60 switch, multi region switch, chip so I can try out fan translations. I think that's everything. Oh and it was completely cleaned as well.

[Jei]

Correct, switchless mod including 50/60hz so no butchering the case and a phantom universal for good measure

[Goemon]

On 08/05/2019 at 17:13, strider said:

50/60 switch, multi region switch, chip so I can try out fan translations. I think that's everything. Oh and it was completely cleaned as well.

 

Linkle Liver Story?

 

I’m dying to have a play of the English version of this.

[strider]

3 hours ago, Goemon said:

 

Linkle Liver Story?

 

I’m dying to have a play of the English version of this.

Yup. That's the sort of stuff I'm interested in trying out.

[Camel]

On 24/10/2018 at 08:00, Camel said:

My lovely modded Saturn seems to have given up the ghost  Power light only comes on intermittently, and when it does, the drive doesn't spin and I get a black screen

 

Can anyone recommend a Saturn repair service?

 

Finally got round to doing something about this. Ordered a pre-soldered Pico kit from this guy:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sega-Saturn-PICO-PSU-Adapter-all-models/254204936931?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=553581181786&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Fitted it and now I've gone from a Saturn with:

- A power light that flickers on briefly

- A laser that doesn't move at all

- No video/audio output at all

 

To a Saturn with:

 

- A power light that stays on consistently

- A laser that doesn't move at all

- No video/audio output at all

 

It seems that no power is actually getting to the main board. The red power light now stays on, even changing to green if I hold down the reset button (as per the no-switch mod). 

 

Any ideas? 

[Goemon]

6 minutes ago, Camel said:

 

Finally got round to doing something about this. Ordered a pre-soldered Pico kit from this guy:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sega-Saturn-PICO-PSU-Adapter-all-models/254204936931?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=553581181786&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Fitted it and now I've gone from a Saturn with:

- A power light that flickers on briefly

- A laser that doesn't move at all

- No video/audio output at all

 

To a Saturn with:

 

- A power light that stays on consistently

- A laser that doesn't move at all

- No video/audio output at all

 

It seems that no power is actually getting to the main board. The red power light now stays on, even changing to green if I hold down the reset button (as per the no-switch mod). 

 

Any ideas? 

 

One for @Jei methinks

[Camel]

Or @Das who was doing a great job of helping me figure out what might be wrong about a year ago. I might send this off to you if you're still up for looking at it?

[Jei]

Cheers @Goemon

 

Sounds like a potential short to me. A similar thing can happen if the ground on the switchless is on a bad point or if it’s generally a poor install.

 

I’d start by taking the 5v off the switchless pic chip (point 1) to rule that out first.

[Das]

56 minutes ago, Camel said:

Or @Das who was doing a great job of helping me figure out what might be wrong about a year ago. I might send this off to you if you're still up for looking at it?

I agree with Jei that initially it sounds like a short but be interesting to trace the fault back to when it first occured. You've probably told me before @Camel but my memory is shot! How did it very first happen? Just went to play it one day and it was faulty?

[Camel]

Yeah pretty much. Turned it on one day and it no longer worked.

 

Does a short mean it's buggered?

 

I'd be surprised if it was poorly installed; it's a mmmonkey job that I've had for at least a decade.

[Das]

32 minutes ago, Camel said:

Yeah pretty much. Turned it on one day and it no longer worked.

 

Does a short mean it's buggered?

 

I'd be surprised if it was poorly installed; it's a mmmonkey job that I've had for at least a decade.

Yeah see...that doesn't sound good.  If you/someone had been tinkering and THEN it didn't boot it could be a short (something touching something else that it shouldn't be touching!).  If it's just randomly happened then this sounds terminal to be honest.  A chip has probably popped.  If it was just a fuse it would likely have been in the PSU but you've swapped that out and still no dice which makes me think this is more sinister.  Of course, I could be completely wrong! 

[Jei]

A short can generally be sorted with no issue. Unless something’s been knocked I can vouch for Pete’s work, his quality is 100% so won’t be his original install.

 

Could also be as simple as the board’s gone bad, it happens, usually dry solder joints which are uneconomical to repair. va09 & va13 boards are prone to it from my personal experience. 

 

The power light on a switchless mod is irrelevant to the motherboard, it’s not even connected to it and would do the exact same behaviour if you only connected it to a 5V supply and no Saturn using a trigger for what would be the reset button.

 

Send it to Das to check continuity etc.

[Camel]

Thanks both. It's a VA5. I've PMed you Das.

[spanky debrest]

57 minutes ago, Camel said:

Thanks both. It's a VA5. I've PMed you Das.

 

It's great we've got a couple decent experienced modders here. 

 

Hope it gets sorted. I never did get around to fixing the self-chipped Saturn model 2 of mine that a nephew accidentally sent somersaulting through the air, preferring instead to pull a back-up console out of storage and start over.

 

I'm currently practicing on Hyper Duel. What an absolutely badass game - pure Saturn brilliance in a nutshell.

[pastry]

On 03/05/2019 at 02:14, Popo said:

 

 

 

 

Pretty good video, that. When I watch YT vids where people talk about the Saturn (and surrounding era) I often feel they know less than I do; perhaps I lived through it at just the right age for it all to be burned into my memory. Perhaps it's just so long ago.

 

At least in this video I can trust the old SSM editor, even if he can't quite remember being there

 

What a shame to see almost none in the crowd owned a Saturn! 

[SeanR]

11 hours ago, pastry said:

When I watch YT vids where people talk about the Saturn (and surrounding era) I often feel they know less than I do...

 

What a shame to see almost none in the crowd owned a Saturn! 

 

there's the thing: The Saturn was a distant 2nd to the playstation on price and performance, so the two are probably linked.

[pastry]

Yep not wrong there. But truly a shame if the influential in the industry missed Saturn in its own time - one of the great systems in terms of library and creativity, in spite of its relative failure as a commercial platform.