Weird Sega Saturn problems

[TCJJ]

Okay, so recently, I got a model 1 Sega Saturn second-hand and it was working fine. It needed a new battery so I stuck a brand new CR2032 in there, hit the reset button, and it was keeping the system time fine from then. I didn't have any games at that point, but I knew that the laser worked because I chucked a regular music CD in to try it out, which worked.

So anyway, I sent it to a guy I know so that he could install the region-free modchip for me (and he also fixed the mess I made of my Mega Drive mod whilst he was at it), and now it can play imports fine. Before I sent it, I opened my Saturn up to have a look at the solder points, to see if I was confident enough to do it myself but decided against it. At this point, the Saturn was still working fine. Until I can afford a modchip for copy protection, I have been using the swap trick (although I'm trying not to do so TOO much).

Anyway, so I had Virtual-On and Gundam, as well as NiGHTS into Dreams, and they were all working fine, saved fine etc. Now, this could get confusing because there are a lot of variables that could change what the actual cause of the problem (or problems) is, but I'll try to summarise:

I opened up the Saturn and carefully taped the CD door switch down (using electrical tape, for the swap trick to work).

As far as I remember, I did not try any of my original games at that point. I did, however, manage to boot a copied version of Castlevania SOTN (that is, Dracula X), and it worked. It also saved fine.

Then earlier today, I was playing a copied version of Astal, and it suddenly stopped. The Saturn was back to the bios screen and said that the disc door was open, which it wasn't. Even if the tape had come away, the door was closed anyway.

I tried resetting to no avail, so I opened it back up, the tape was still in place (which I triple-checked anyway), put it back together and it worked. It seemed that perhaps just doing a reboot (you know, turning it off then on) instead of just resetting it fixed the problem, but since I had not tried that first, I can't be sure.

The next problem I came across about an hour or two ago was when I tried to play my original NiGHTS disc. Apparently, there was no disc in the system. Resetting didn't work, but turning it off then back on fixed the problem, hence why I assume that the previous problem could have been fixed in the same way.

Now, the worst part of all. Once I booted up NiGHTS..... No save. None. Nothing at all. So I went back to the bios screen and into the memory management. Well, it showed four entries - two for NiGHTS (score and A-life), which were numbers 2 and 3 (respectively), Radiant Silvergun, which was number 4, and MegaMan X4 (which I had played before Radiant Silvergun, if I remember correctly) which was number 1. No Symphony of the Night, no Virtual-On, no Gundam, and apparently, no NiGHTS (am I right in assuming that there is a third save file for NiGHTS that is for your actual game?) along with 202 blocks of memory free.

I didn't have to put the time and date back in though, and there are still SOME NiGHTS save files there, if not all of them, so what on EARTH is going on? Please, someone help me. I'm going mad. I've got Gundam sitting there now (thankfully, I wasn't too far through any of the games, especially Gundam and Virtual-On) but I'm afraid to save it, because if I unplug the console again, it might magically disappear. I was wondering if perhaps MegaMan X4 managed to overwrite a bunch of saves, although I'm not sure how. Maybe the Saturn lists games in alphabetical order, but if not, MegaMan being 1 and before NiGHTS (which I played LONG before MegaMan. As in, a few days before), and Radiant Silvergun being number 4....

It just doesn't add up. I don't want to waste my time regaining my progress only to have this happen again, so I want to find a solution (and find the problem, first) so that it doesn't end up happening the same all over again. The two problems with the console having trouble telling that the door was closed and that there was a game in there, it'd be nice if I could eliminate those problems, but they don't seem to be major in any way (at least, I hope not).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[vgmastercleveland]

I couldnt find a good topic for this, so I am posting it here. I just bought a Sega Saturn Model 2. The door will crack about an inch and I have to pull it up from there. When I pull it up or push it down I can feel the gears inside. It feels like the gears aren't getting a good grip on each other. I don't think that they are being pressed together very well. Please help, and good luck TCJJ!

[TCJJ]

I couldnt find a good topic for this, so I am posting it here. I just bought a Sega Saturn Model 2. The door will crack about an inch and I have to pull it up from there. When I pull it up or push it down I can feel the gears inside. It feels like the gears aren't getting a good grip on each other. I don't think that they are being pressed together very well. Please help, and good luck TCJJ!

You should start a new topic because it's a separate problem and will help draw attention to your problem. Not that that has helped me so far but oh well...

[paulkhanti]

I couldnt find a good topic for this, so I am posting it here. I just bought a Sega Saturn Model 2. The door will crack about an inch and I have to pull it up from there. When I pull it up or push it down I can feel the gears inside. It feels like the gears aren't getting a good grip on each other. I don't think that they are being pressed together very well. Please help, and good luck TCJJ!

You should start a new topic because it's a separate problem and will help draw attention to your problem. Not that that has helped me so far but oh well...

Haha, yeah, you prolly should've started a new topic, but I'll take a stab at vgmastercleveland's problem just because I think I might have an idea of what his problem is.

One of my friends had a similar sounding problem. I don't quite remember the details, but I knew he actually took it apart and cleaned out a lot of gunk, and rubbed it down with a q-tip and some alcohol. The door worked again, but I think he ruined his Saturn, something to do with ruining his laser or something. I've been wary about taking apart game consoles, (funny, we were just talking about this on another thread ) but if you're up for taking it apart, that's what I'd do.

As for TCJJ, I think it might be a problem with the soldering, maybe the guy you sent it to did a shoddy job? I honestly have no idea, but I wish I could help. sorry bud

[jinn]

@TCJJ

do you know which region mod was performed?
Switchless Mod, MultiBIOS or Region Free BIOS.

[Hobie-wan]

I couldnt find a good topic for this, so I am posting it here. I just bought a Sega Saturn Model 2. The door will crack about an inch and I have to pull it up from there. When I pull it up or push it down I can feel the gears inside. It feels like the gears aren't getting a good grip on each other. I don't think that they are being pressed together very well. Please help, and good luck TCJJ!

The door just has a pivot on each side, then one side has a spring to pop it open and a dampener so it doesn't open too fast. The gears are for the dampener. Maybe the spring or the dampener are misaligned.

[TCJJ]

@TCJJ

do you know which region mod was performed?
Switchless Mod, MultiBIOS or Region Free BIOS.

Yes, it was the switchless mod. I just got someone else I trusted to do it for me because I'm confident modding a Mega Drive but a Saturn has much smaller solder points.

I'm gonna buy a Racket Boy modchip around Christmas so hopefully that'll fix some problems.


8-bit, I can't really see the soldering without undoing his electrical tape and unscrewing the motherboard again but I've seen his soldering before (and I saw a little bit in my Saturn under the controller ports) and it's always very tidy because he works with circuitry so he's pretty experienced at it.

[jinn]

if you got the switchless region mod, then Reset will no longer works. Reset it's use to control the Region and 50/60hz select.
You could have a cold joint or a cable could be pinched making a short somewhere.

[TCJJ]

if you got the switchless region mod, then Reset will no longer works. Reset it's use to control the Region and 50/60hz select.
You could have a cold joint or a cable could be pinched making a short somewhere.

I think you're mistaken. The switchless mod allows resetting if you quickly press Reset. If you hold it for a short time, it switches between 50Hz and 60Hz mode, and if you hold it for a while, the light changes colour (you put a custom LED in although it's not required but helps to identify the region it's in) and t changes between the three regions (PAL, NTSC-U and NTSC-J).

It only played up once though so I'm thinking it could be to do with the disc-swapping and playing backups instead of the modchip. I'm mostly worried about the saved data problem. I don't want to waste time if it's just going to erase itself but I'm not sure how it would overwrite data if it still have plenty of memory left and if the CMOS battery is new and not the problem, I dunno what is.

[vgmastercleveland]

I guess I'll take it apart soon. I will just try to clean it up and align everything. I didn't think this was a huge problem, so I didn't want to make an unnecessary thread. Thanks for the advice.
*Question: Do you have to break the seal on the bottom to get to a screw?