Saturn modchip isn't working anymore

Post by **Guestwho** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 5:33 pm

Hello everyone,

About 4 months ago I bought the saturn modchip and installed it in my Saturn along with a brand new bios battery. It worked great and I played some CD-R games on it for about a month and then put it into storage. Today I got the Saturn back out of storage and tried to play some games on it, but there was a problem. The battery seems to have died and after playing one game and then turning off the system I cannot get any CD-R games to work anymore. I believe the modchip has failed since the Saturn is treating CD-R games as audio CDs. I checked all the connections and re-seated the chip but that didn't fix the problem. Are there any other things to check for before I get a new modchip?

Post by **ravenmgs** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:26 pm

First thing to check for is loose screws or peices of soldeer that might be ratteling arround in your case. If you have anything just loose in there it will cause a short and mess it up, kind of a common problem when takeing an amature moded system out of storage.

Post by **Saraph** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 5:41 pm

As ravenmgs said, check for loose connections everywhere. Go over all the solder points with a magnifying glass, if you don't see anything, remove the solder and retry. Also, how long does the Saturn load before the CD menu comes up? If it's longer than 10 seconds (I would think) it's definitely the mod chip.

Post by **Guestwho** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 6:07 pm

The only solder points are the a-b link and the power connection, and both are fine. If by loading time you mean when "Checking disk format" is displayed, it only stays up for less than 2 seconds and then shows it as an Audio CD. If you need me to check anything else just let me know.

Post by **Saraph** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 8:17 pm

Also check the small red wire that's on the mod chip, that sometimes comes loose.

Post by **Guestwho** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 8:42 pm

I went ahead and re-soldered all the wires and connections, still no change. I think I'll just order a new modchip.

Post by **ravenmgs** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 6:12 am

No no, not loose contact points. Take the electromagnetic sheilding off and make sure your PCB is clean, if even a dabble of solder is rolling arround on it loose, it will screw it up.

Post by **Guestwho** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 3:24 pm

Ok, I just finished taking the whole Saturn apart, cleaning off all the circuit boards and reassembling it. Still no change.

Post by **ravenmgs** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 12:23 am

Guestwho wrote:Ok, I just finished taking the whole Saturn apart, cleaning off all the circuit boards and reassembling it. Still no change.

Ok, then I would recommend fileing down the edges on your mod chip. try to do it as evenly as possible. The mod chip fits a bit too snugly in the teeth, which causes it to not go down far enough and even work it's way out. If you moderatly and evenly fild down the each side of the connector you might get something. If that doesn't help you have a bad chip.

Post by **Guestwho** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:24 pm

ravenmgs wrote:Ok, then I would recommend fileing down the edges on your mod chip. try to do it as evenly as possible. The mod chip fits a bit too snugly in the teeth, which causes it to not go down far enough and even work it's way out. If you moderatly and evenly fild down the each side of the connector you might get something. If that doesn't help you have a bad chip.

Tried it, but the chip still isn't working. I am now certain that the modchip itself is bad.

Is it possible that the chip got damaged from being powered up after sitting for all that time the Saturn was in storage? I'm trying to figure why it failed after working perfectly before being put away.