racketboy.com

hi
i have a japanese dreamcast from way back in 1998 when they first got released over there.
anyway about 6 months ago the gd rom drive finally gave up on me so i just recently got a pal dreamcast which works great.i was wondering if it is possible to swap the pal dreamcast gd rom drive and put it in my japanese dreamcast??
the reason i wont to do this is because my japanese dreamcast has a chip which lets me plays games from any region.
thanks for any replies.

Should work fine, GDRoms are not Region dependent and the voltage is controlled be the separate regulator. The PCB controls the PAL or NTSC output.

To swap them, you just need to remove the assembly and re-insert the ribbon right?

Oh you and your crazy links to guides.

Flake wrote:Oh you and your crazy links to guides.

Too lazy to type sometimes. In honesty been a while since I popped the cover off my Dreamcast, last mod was soldering a resistor to repair a controller port.

I can't speak for PAL or NTSC-J systems, but the only difference I have seen in GD-ROM units (from pictures online) is that there are at least two versions. One version, the ribbon plugs directly into the mother board. I have never seen this version, as all of my DCs have a separate GD-ROM board (which is the second version). So I would think that as long as both of the versions are the same in both, you should be OK, but I have only had experience with NTSC-U models.

As for the guide, if you have the GD-ROM unit that has its own control board, you don't have to follow the first two steps, as suggested in the guide. You can simply unscrew the three screws, and lift straight up to take out the unit. Can't speak for the other version, as I do not own one.

spiritplx wrote:I can't speak for PAL or NTSC-J systems, but the only difference I have seen in GD-ROM units (from pictures online) is that there are at least two versions. One version, the ribbon plugs directly into the mother board. I have never seen this version, as all of my DCs have a separate GD-ROM board (which is the second version). So I would think that as long as both of the versions are the same in both, you should be OK, but I have only had experience with NTSC-U models.

As for the guide, if you have the GD-ROM unit that has its own control board, you don't have to follow the first two steps, as suggested in the guide. You can simply unscrew the three screws, and lift straight up to take out the unit. Can't speak for the other version, as I do not own one.

That is true, but it only applies to the NTSC-U North America Version 2