SOLVED: Modding a 64 Pin Saturn

[MentalMan]

http://imgur.com/k6eFd

Does anything look incorrect?

Just wondering/making sure, because the picture is kinda weird. Is it really in the SECOND (from the right) hole of the plug?

[° ° ° ° °]

The plug obviously has 5 holes, and it needs to be in the second from the right, just like you already posted!

[gtmtnbiker]

FYI, you can use the message board tags to embed the image directly into the page. Saves clicking for everyone. Usually when you upload the picture, it'll give you a few different link options. Just copy/paste the one that says for message board.



It's really hard to tell what you did from the picture. Taking better/closer pictures of the modchip would also help. Just use the macro setting (usually a picture of a flower) on your camera.

[christoph]

If your cd doesnt even spin up - thats because the red power line isn't hooked up properly.

Yeah like MentalMan said - you need to plug your red power wire into the SECOND hole from the right on the green plug, there is 5 holes and you need to use the second from the right.

What I did:

I stripped the red power wire (the one from your mod chip) enough so it fit perfectly inside of the second hole on the green plug. So I actually inserted it into the second hole on the green plug and then plugged it into its place on the CD board. This worked perfectly. I think if you do this it will work with no problem.

This photo shows exactly what I'm talking about:

[skate323k137]

I had no problem using the normal +5 from the power supply. I'd try that if you haven't.

Also, the first time i put it all together, the chip didn't seat properly, and discs did not spin at all. It took some negotiating to get it seated properly.

good luck!

[kuwes1985]

Thanks for all your responses, guys! Yes, the red wire is plugged into the second hole from the right and then soldered to the chip (onto the part directly to the left of the A and B part). Maybe I just didn't solder it correctly or something (it's my first time soldering anything).

I filed down the sides of the chip, it seems to fit into the part where the ribbon cable went no problem, but is it supposed to feel a certain way when it's seated properly?

BTW sorry for calling things "parts" and "things", I don't know much about hardware stuff.

[gtmtnbiker]

You should get a multimeter and use it to do continuity checks. That is, make sure the connections are really working and that no other points are bridged.

For example, the power lead on the mod chip goes to somewhere on the board. Follow the trace to find a spot other than where you solder it. Put your probe there and the other probe on a ground spot. Verify that you're getting 5v. Do something similar for the other solder points but use the resistance setting. Verify that resistance is 0 ohm (continuous). For bridging issues, look/test nearby points. You should not get 0 ohm if you put a probe on the two spots which means a short.

[kuwes1985]

You should get a multimeter and use it to do continuity checks. That is, make sure the connections are really working and that no other points are bridged.

For example, the power lead on the mod chip goes to somewhere on the board. Follow the trace to find a spot other than where you solder it. Put your probe there and the other probe on a ground spot. Verify that you're getting 5v. Do something similar for the other solder points but use the resistance setting. Verify that resistance is 0 ohm (continuous). For bridging issues, look/test nearby points. You should not get 0 ohm if you put a probe on the two spots which means a short.

Thanks for this piece of advice, I'm going to borrow a multimeter today and see what's going on.

[henryletham]

[*7/24/2010 UPDATE*]

Success!!

Yesterday I decided to try reinstalling the modchip to see if it would make any difference, and my hours of hard work paid off.

The first thing I noticed on the modchip before putting it back in the Saturn was that the red "power" wire was just barely connected to the modchip, by literally a strand, which easily broke when I moved the wire around. I cut that end off, stripped the new end, and soldered the new end of the wire back onto the modchip, making sure it was a solid connection. I also desoldered the original black "signal" cable, soldering a new, longer one that I got out of a dial-up cord.

The opposite end of the "power" wire, which I had plugged into the second hole from the right of the green CD connector, was also a bit thicker than I desired (appeared to have been covered in solder before I received it), so I cut this end off too, stripping a new end that was solder-free. Finally, before putting the chip back in the Saturn, I clipped away a small amount of the metal shielding around the area the chip goes, to give it a little more breathing room when installed (the right side of the chip had previously been touching a section of this shielding).

After this, I simply followed my original steps, making absolutely sure this time that my 8th pin soldered connection was perfect, and also taping across the back of the modchip to the inside of the Saturn case to pull it upright (it was leaning back towards the CD assembly without the tape).

Testing time was finally here again, so I reluctantly plugged the Saturn in, booted it up (with Linkle Liver Story inside), and what did I hear? The sweet sound of spinning CD. The boot screen came up, then immediately went away, revealing the CD menu, as usual. I opened the CD lid again, reclosed it, and "Start Application" became available. This is the common behavior for both official copies and backup copies of games, and everything I've tested has worked flawlessly. The system has been powered down and back up again several times since then, and I remain confident that it's smooth sailing from here on out.

Having had absolutely zero percent soldering, or even hardware-modding experience before this project, I'm quite proud of being able to say that my Saturn belongs to the family of modded 64-pin Model 2's.

(NOTE: The remainder of this text is my original post and explains the issue I was having, as well as the method I followed to install the modchip.)

[SUMMARY]:

I realize this thread is a bit old, but it's also relevant to my issue and I'm not sure where a better place for me to post would be. I'll give a short summary of the problem, with the entire description, step-by-step, explained below (for those that wish to read it).

I modded my Japanese Model 2 Sega Saturn w/ 64-pin IC using this method:
1) Desoldered bridge to 0019 on modchip, resoldered bridge to 0014.
2) Filed sides of the modchip down so it inserts smoothly into the ribbon cable slot on the motherboard.
3) Removed ribbon cable from motherboard, inserted into modchip (blue facing up), and plugged modchip into motherboard where ribbon cable was (components facing out).
4) Soldered black "signal" wire to 8th pin on the IC.
5) Unplugged green connector from CD board, inserted red "power" wire into second hole from the right [o o o x o] (without solder, didn't deem it necessary), and replugged green connector to CD board.

Upon testing a backup of Die Hard Arcade (region changed to J, burned at 8x on Verbatim disc), the message "Disc unsuitable for this system" showed, up. I opened the CD lid back up and re-closed it, and the "Start Application" option became available. The game played fine (besides some graphical and sound errors, but these were just caused by a corrupted backup image).

I reset the system, took the disc out, and put in an official Audio CD to test, which worked perfectly as well. Didn't have an official J-region game to test at this time.

A couple hours later I came back with another backup disc to test, and now the CD wouldn't spin. No matter what type of disc I tried, no spinning action was taking place. I completely removed the modchip, changing the Saturn back to its original state, and it remains unable to spin the discs. I've tried cleaning the pins on the ribbon cable, and reseating it several times, all to no avail. The laser will move, but the discs will not spin for anything (including Linkle Liver Story, which came in today).

It would seem either the ribbon cable is damaged, or the CD assembly needs to be replaced. I just don't understand if it is the CD assembly why it worked fine one minute and would be dead the next.

[DETAILED EXPLANATION]:

I want to apologize in advance for the lengthiness of the text, but I wanted to explain every detail to perhaps increase my chances of solving things.

Just yesterday I followed the directions laid out in this thread for installing a modchip purchased from racketboy into a Japanese Model 2 Sega Saturn w/ a 64-pin IC. I must admit that I made a couple of poor choices prior to installing the modchip, such as not testing the Saturn first (it just arrived at my house a couple days ago), and also not having an official Japanese-region game to test (that just arrived today, a day too late). Despite these two, I continued ahead with the installation. Upon finishing the above steps, and checking all the connections, I closed the Saturn back and, hooked it up to the TV and outlet, and powered it on (with a backup copy of Die Hard Arcade, region changed to J, burned to a Verbatim brand disc at 8x speed, inserted).

First of course came the boot screen, which remained on the screen until I opened the CD lid. I've had a couple of other US-region Model 2's in the past, and I don't remember this being "normal" behavior, but that was also a pretty long time ago. The first thing I did was go into the options and change the system language to English, then backed out to the main menu. I closed the lid, and the Saturn began to check the disc, returning the message "Disc unsuitable for this system". Upon seeing this, I re-opened the lid, closed it again, and the "Start Application" option became available.

I had tested this disc on SSF prior to the Saturn, to ensure it was even burned correctly. One thing I noticed as the game started on the Saturn was that the intro helicopter video (before the start menu) had some pretty intense graphical glitches. On SSF, the game appeared fine graphics-wise (but still didn't have sound), but I just shrugged this off and moved on to check if the rest of the game worked. After pressing start on the main menu, everything seemed to work great, there just wasn't any music. Now, I'm thinking both of these issues were due to the backup image of Die Hard Arcade being screwed up, it wasn't very large in size at all, so I'm thinking the music was not correctly burned onto the disc (and probably some of the data, as well). Regardless, the backup was read by the system as it should have been, so I restarted the Saturn, opened the lid, took the disc out, and tried an actual audio CD (which worked great) before turning the system off.

This is when I returned to my computer for a couple hours to try burning some other backups, including a "more naturally-sized" Die Hard Arcade. The nightmares started when I returned to the Saturn to try the new backup discs out. My Saturn booted like normal, to the screen that won't go away until I open the CD lid. I closed the lid again (I had put the disc in the system before turning it on), and was suddenly struck by an awkward sense of silence. On the TV, the message "Checking disc" was displayed, and then nothing. I opened the lid again, re-closed it, and sure enough, the same thing. The CD wasn't spinning. Frantically, I dove to where my trusty audio CD was, swapped it out for the backup disc in the system, and closed the lid again. Same thing.

Because I wasn't sure what else to do at this point, I began thinking that maybe the CD motor wasn't receiving power due to the red "power" cable I had inserted into that second slot from the right earlier. I removed it, and even removed the modchip from the system, leaving the signal cable soldered to the 8th pin of the CD board (figured it wouldn't hurt to just leave it there). I removed the ribbon cable from the modchip and plugged it back into it's original location, and tried the Saturn again. Same thing, the CD wasn't spinning. Filled with even more panic, I decided it would be best to desolder the "signal" wire from the CD board chip, removing every last bit of the modchip from the system and returning it to its original state. As I feared, the Saturn was no longer reading discs of any kind, because they simply wouldn't spin.

Looking at some troubleshooting sections of different webpages, it seemed like my next area to test should be the ribbon cable itself. I tried removing it, cleaning the pins, and re-seating it in the best way I could, and still, nothing. I even tried swapping to the two ends of the ribbon cable, which results in two red spheres being displayed on the CD menu, with the message "Checking disc" being displayed the entire time the system is on, whether the lid is open or not. The way it is now (with the modchip removed), there are just two tan-colored squares, with the message "Checking disc" when the lid is opened and re-closed, with nothing but silence following.

Now, the laser still moves, the spindle just won't spin. I've begun to think that either the ribbon cable is damaged, or, less believably, that the CD motor died after just my one short session with it. How easy is it to damage a ribbon cable? I haven't bent the cable in any way that it doesn't normally go, but I have noticed that there is what looks like a small, chipped spot on the blue plastic next to the last pin on the right on one of the ends. The pin itself doesn't appear damaged, just the plastic. So maybe no matter how hard I try, because of that small chip, the cable won't seat correctly? I've tried seating and re-seating it on both ends several times, to the point that I'm about to go mad over it.

I am completely, helplessly lost in this situation. I've considered purchasing a US-region Model 2 and just swapping the internals, but there's no guarantee I'll end up with a 32-pin IC. Having to replace the CD assembly would be a much more preferable option, but also quite a waste if the only issue is the ribbon cable. I'm also wondering, can these ribbon cables only be found at places like eBay and the like? I was thinking they might be at an electronics parts retailer like Fry's, but then again I've never really seen anything like this in a store before, as I figure it's just a Saturn or game system-specific part.

I apologize again for the lengthiness of the full explanation, and I greatly appreciate any assistance in the matter. (EDIT: Already solved, thankfully!)

[Hobie-wan]

Assuming I didn't miss it in the wall-o-text, did you burn the disc at 4X or less? I only saw a mention of using a Verbatim disc.

[zipmon]

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone on this thread, as I am now the proud owner of a newly modded 64-pin Model 2 US Saturn!! I followed the steps posted by henryletham and used the pictures of the power supply connection from christoph, and had the system up and running within an hour! The "Lid Trick Shenanigans" apply for both original and backup games, but it's really pretty innocuous. Turn on, wait a sec, open/close the lid, play game!

Thanks again!! =D