Sega Saturn acting peculiar...

[11dfrazier]

I've recently ran into a patch of bad luck when it comes to Saturns.

Last week the soldering on my region switch came loose and caused some wires to move around and touch stuff that it wasn't supposed to. Needless to say, that Saturn fried and started smoking. So I took to evilBay and found one that was "in working condition", but just needed a cd drive put in it.

Fast forward three days.

I receive my replacement Saturn, mod chip, import cart, and all 3 games I had ordered at one time. I run to my room, open the Saturn's box and begin to do the transplant. As soon as the ribbon cable and power plug are hooked to the drive I plug it in and proceed to press the power button expecting to see and hear the angelic splash screen. Light's green! but nothing else is doing anything. No disc spinning, no spinning squares, no sega.

The motherboard is spotless, no cracked solder, no corrosion, no leaks, no broken traces, nothing. The power supply is one of the four pin ones, and none of the capacitors are bulging like some places on the internet said to check for. The cd drive worked flawlessly in my previous saturn before it went south, and the ribbon cables aren't bent. I can't figure out what's going on. When it's hooked up to my HDTV it says no signal, but when it's on my CRT the screen flashes green when I press the power button so I know something's working.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you fix it?

[11dfrazier]

Nobody? Really?

Well if nobody knows what's wrong with it, does anybody have a spare working Model 2? I'm in need of one.

[fvgazi]

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread ... esn-t-spin
I found that over on Sega-16.

I guess you have to power it on with the top cover off and check for the red laser light (be careful with your eyes!). If that comes on when the saturn finds a CD you likely need to fiddle with the adjustment pots.

//edit
Also check to make sure the ribbon cable is seated properly. I know it sounds dumb, but sometimes we make mistakes.

[11dfrazier]

I tried all of that to no avail. It seems like the disc drive isn't even getting power.

[fvgazi]

If you have a multimeter check the PSU to see you're getting correct voltages and also the pins where the ribbon cable is getting inserted.

The power LED is coming on, right? There's probably a +5V and a +3.3 that are going into the CD player. I'm not sure if there is a +9V at all.

//edit
I'll open up my spare Saturn later and see if I can help you with whats going on.

[11dfrazier]

Yes, the power LED comes on but it doesn't do anything else. No disc spinning no sound, no nothing.

I'd be willing to buy a working Model 2 off someone if they have one available. I'm in desperate need of a new Saturn

[Jamisonia]

With the top off manually press the disc load lever. Its this long narrow plastic piece near the back of the console. Power it on while pressing that. If that switch is not tripped the drive will never ever spin.

[11dfrazier]

Already tried that. I honestly can't figure out what's wrong with it.

[SaturnHST]

There is no picture or sound at all? Can you try using another av cable.

If that fails the motherboard is probably fried. I accidentally fried one of mine and the only thing it would do is power on (with a working psu). No picture, no sound, disc drive doesn't move.

[11dfrazier]

Just tried it, and nothing changed.

edit: I think it may be fried like you said.