faulty sega saturn mod chip :(

[brendanraymond]

Hi

I have been having the on and off problem with my mod chip. I origionaly used the AB method and didn't have any problems... but latley after finishing off a few mods, its being rather unpredictable (after using the signal wire method), first it was fine, then it wouldn't boot, so I trimmed and cleaned the connectors and resoldered all the joints on the board... then it worked but no CD audio gets through.

I have a feeling it might have something to do with the flexy style pcb... has anyone had any problems with these?

[Ziggy]

Remove the mod chip and play some retail games for a while, see if the problems are still there or not. While you have the chip out of the console, take a look at it to see if any of the traces or solder joints are busted.

[brendanraymond]

Yeah, it works fine without the chip no problems.

I can't see any broken joints and its getting power and the signal wire was 3.5v or something... is that normal?

I will have a closer look tonight when I get some time...

[brendanraymond]

I am now lead to believe that there is either something wrong with the PCB at the male connector or somewhere else on the board.

I re soldered every joint and attached the power/signal wires directly to the DIP chips... didn't work... then I bypassed the AB method with a wire just incase that part of the PCB is faulty... still didn't work... then I bent the PCB towards the centre of the console, and BAM I got sound... I will try putting a slither of something behind the connector to make sure... but I have a feeling that the PCB is too thin causing this problem.

updates to come.

[brendanraymond]

ok, so afer hours of screwing around, I tried using masking tape to increase the boards thickness from 0.3mm to 0.4 mm it didnt do anything, I made sure all the solder joints are perfect, even on the surface mount chip. I even tried using a few wires to solder directly from the CD board to the chip directly avoiding the ribbon cable and the female connector on the chip.

it still wasnt working until I tried pressing the PCB into a curving shape towards the CD rom, however it is now only just able to boot up and read the disk... but it doesnt play any CD audio.

So I have to conclude that it is in fact a faulty PCB... because its working intermitantly when the PCB is bent over. even when all connections are perfect.

What should I do in order to get a replacment board?

[Hobie-wan]

PM Racket.