Dead Saturn?

[dissevered]

Sega Saturn worked for months with an installed modchip. Gave her a break and moved onto PS2 for a while, and just yesterday attempted to play the Saturn with no luck.

Power light comes on, but nothing else. Blank screen, disks don't spin, laser won't move.

I removed the modchip and returned her to stock and still the same problems.

Any ideas for a fix?

[Hobie-wan]

Clean the pins on the chip and pull and clean the connections on the ribbon cable perhaps.

[dissevered]

No go. Pins and ribbon all look sparkly clean, no corrosion. Even tested continuity on every pin on the ribbon with a voltmeter and it is fine.

If the power supply were dead, would the green power button still light up?

[Hobie-wan]

No go. Pins and ribbon all look sparkly clean, no corrosion. Even tested continuity on every pin on the ribbon with a voltmeter and it is fine.

If the power supply were dead, would the green power button still light up?

There's a 5 and 12 volt output on the PS I believe. Are both working?

[dissevered]

No go. Pins and ribbon all look sparkly clean, no corrosion. Even tested continuity on every pin on the ribbon with a voltmeter and it is fine.

If the power supply were dead, would the green power button still light up?

There's a 5 and 12 volt output on the PS I believe. Are both working?

I don't know exactly where to look for those. Want me to post a picture of the PS so you could point me in the right direction, or is it easy to describe?

[Hobie-wan]

the translucent block near the bottom of the PSU on the left. There are a bunch of fat pins where it plugs into the other board below. There will be markings on the circuit board around the translucent connector labeling which are 5 and 12 and such.

[dissevered]

the translucent block near the bottom of the PSU on the left. There are a bunch of fat pins where it plugs into the other board below. There will be markings on the circuit board around the translucent connector labeling which are 5 and 12 and such.

I didn't see any markings for 12v, my pins are marked

3a -
5v -
G -
G -

Pins 1+4, 1+3, 2+3, and 2+4 all read 4.95 Volts.

[Hobie-wan]

Oh right durr, sorry thinking of PC molex plugs with 5 and 12. Hmm, well you're getting power at least. Not sure other than looking for damage on the boards or a bad capacitor or something.

[dissevered]

Oh right durr, sorry thinking of PC molex plugs with 5 and 12. Hmm, well you're getting power at least. Not sure other than looking for damage on the boards or a bad capacitor or something.

Well, if there is damage or a bad capacitor is there an easy fix for those? Like just soldering a new one in?

I doubt there is any physical damage... the thing sat in my entertainment center for a few months untouched, no one bothered it. Poor guy, maybe he got lonely and just died due to neglect. lol

[Hobie-wan]

Yeah, if a capacitor bulged or burst, that would be easy to spot and replace if it was a regular 'can' type. Of course no telling if that's the problem or not. Have you ever replaced the save battery? A dying or dead battery can cause the Saturn to act up as well. Unfortunately if that's the case your saves are probably gone and you can't even get the system up to copy to a memory card. If all else fails you might take the battery completely out and leave the system unplugged for a few minutes then try with no battery.