Is my Sega Saturn modchip defective?

[Blasingame]

Hardware: Sega Saturn Model 2 32-pin

Hello,

I just got a racketboy mod chip yesterday and installed it into my saturn using the A+B method of installation mentioned on racketboy's guide. I used a Rosin Core .62mm solder as was suggested in racketboy's soldering guide. Considering this is my first time soldering a modchip it was really easy. My problem stands as this:

Boot up animation works,
Two green cubes at the CD player screen
CD rotates
Displays "checking disc format"
Will then only play audio tracks of CD-Rs and originals

(found this over here: http://www.angelfire.com/pa/Raluminat/troubleshoot.html)

It says the problem here is there is no solder bridge. Is this referring to the solder bridge connection between the A & B points? I have those soldered together as stated in the guide. or is this something related to the power wire solder?

I've also been told that the AB method is not 100% does this mean I have to solder to the pin 14 of the 32-pin chip? I'd rather get a replacement from racketboy to use the AB method than soldering the wire to the 32-pin chip only to figure out the modchip is the problem.

I am at work right now. When I get home tonight I will take some pictures of my saturn's internals if it helps.

Edit:
So basically is my modchip deffective or does the signal wire need to be soldered to the 14th pin of the 32-pin chip?

Is there a way I can test this out without soldering it to the chip? Can I tape the wire to that 14th pin?

[Hobie-wan]

Just to check, try putting in the disc before turning the system on. By 'bridge' they just mean connecting A to B on the chip. The point for contact 14 on the chip on the system board is really small, trying to tape it there is going to be difficult and not very reliable.

[AznKhmerBoi]

i prob make sure the ribbons are plugged in correctly and securely also...with the modchip installed the game can run wether power is on or off while the cd is it.

[Blasingame]

I am going to check the chip and the CD Drive cable tonight when I get home. I'm going to unplug them and then plug them back in. I'm pretty sure the drive cable and the chip are in there good, but just to be sure I'm gonna do it again. I'm not gonna be too forceful. My solder points are correct

i prob make sure the ribbons are plugged in correctly and securely also...with the modchip installed the game can run wether power is on or off while the cd is it.

the game can run wether power is on or off while the cd is it.

I do not understand what you mean by this.

So if the chip has no power, commercial games should be able to run and not CD-R games?

[Blasingame]

Pardon the double post. But I have some pictures here. Hope these help. I removed the chip just now and booted up a commercial game with no problem.

Pictures are rather large so I'll leave them as URLs
http://i44.tinypic.com/23jgylh.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/mifhwz.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/1dtn8.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/mizy4x.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/213rfvm.jpg

Ribbon cable in the chip.
http://i40.tinypic.com/30ae3qw.jpg

[AznKhmerBoi]

im sorry my english is not very good. What i meant to say is

1- Check and make sure the ribbons that connected to mod chip and board is secured.
*put in normal game and see if it runs Normal
* Now pop in the burn game and and power up the system
( Console can be on while switching the game to the burn one)
2-If step one didn't solve the issue then i would go back and make sure that the soldering is good and the ground while coming from the mod chip is securely solder to the correct place. You can use tape to temp hold in position so that you do not make mistake of soldering onto the wrong ground slot.

3- REPEAT STEP 1
4- If its not working again then there could be a problem with the modchip or sega saturn.
I guess i must be fortunate because when i did the a/b Bridge mod it work right away with no problem at all. But if you saturn ran normal real games fine then its not your system the root of the problem is the chip

the game can run wether power is on or off while the cd is it.

[/quote]

I do not understand what you mean by this.

So if the chip has no power, commercial games should be able to run and not CD-R games?[/quote]

[Blasingame]

Problem Solved: Chip was defective.

Thanks for everyone who helped my try to troubleshoot the problem. Racketboy was and sent me a replacement.

Got the new chip installed and it works like fine.

[gtmtnbiker]

I would be curious to know the defect rate. How many does Racket send out and how many are declared defective?

[chupon]

Well - I'm gonna hijack this post cause this is my exact problem. (See first post of this thread from Blasingame.) Racket - if your reading I'm probably gonna send you a PM. Finally got around to trying to install the mod-chip on my Model 2 (32 pin) Saturn. I say finally because I bought the thing from him a long time ago. (Like 6 for 7 months ago. It's been in the bag it came with the whole time too on my bookshelf.)

According to this: http://www.angelfire.com/pa/Raluminat/troubleshoot.html below is my problem.
no solder bridge
Boot up animation
Two green cubes at the CD player screen
CD rotates
Displays "checking disc format"
Will then only play audio tracks of CD-Rs and originals

I'm getting the same symptoms Blasingame posted in his first post. Exact same. Same setup too.

To begin I successfully soldered to pin 14 with my wife helping. (She had a soldering class in high school in Germany! I couldn't believe it.) Taped in the power supply just to make sure it would work. Everything boots ok to the audio CD screen and I can only play tracks. Undid everything and tried again. Didn't work. All ribbons secure too - I filed them down. (I'm trying both to run a legit Nights disk, and a burned Nights disk in the correct US format burned at x10 speed)

De-soldered and did the A-B bridge. Re-checked the secure power supply. Same symptoms... Here is where I started to get pretty frustrated.

Took out mod chip. Stuck in the real Nights disk and everything works fine just like before I started this whole thing.

Racket - if your reading - dude I'll pay for another chip but I don't think you have any in stock right now. Would / could you test it if I sent it back?

[chupon]

Hobie-Wan your my only hope! Thanks for looking bro.