Saturn issues (Gets stuck on intro, among other problems)

[Zack]

I bought a Saturn with the hope of playing some of the games I missed out on, especially SF3, problem is, well everything. Firstly my Saturn has sound issues, on start up the intro tune sometimes doesn't play at all, or cuts out, or just repeats in an infinite loop. Meanwhile if I actually manage to get a game to play (which isn't often) the sound will inevitably cut off in the game as well, sometimes it comes back usually it doesn't.

Getting a game to start is a work out, most of the time they freeze on the first loading screen or just don't start up at all. They all eventually freeze at some point. Also, my Saturn cannot reach the menu that should come up if a disc is not inserted, it just stays stuck at the screen that says Sega Saturn.

It's frustrating, this is the second Saturn I've bought in a year and the first one was even more riddled with problems and I couldn't ever get a game to start. I'm just an old school Sega fan that wants to play some games I never got the chance to.

Any ideas what I can do guys?

[Nemoide]

I've never heard of these kinds of problems, the Saturn has been my most reliable console. Did you try to mod it or something?

It sounds like you'll have to buy a new system.

[Breetai]

Wow. I've had probably... I don't know, dozens and dozens of Saturns and I've never seen anything like that. I'm not a repair guy, other than a few minor things. My condolences on your frustrations.

My suggestion? Cut your losses and buy a Saturn from a reputable source. Someone who can guarantee that it will work or give you your money back.

[ElkinFencer10]

Yeah, I've only had the one Saturn, but I've never had any problems whatsoever with it. =/ Sorry you've having such a hard time. The Saturn's a great system if you have the right games.

[flojocabron]

how hard is it to find saturns in your area?

Do you care if its pristine?

I have like 6 of them that I've come across in the past few years.

Granted they're kinda scratched and scruffy, but they still work.

Out of those six only one has come out defective. Nothing as horrible as whats happened to yours.

Hit up a fleamarket or thrift store, maybe you'll get lucky. You'll find a saturn soon. All you need is just the base console, since you probably have the rest of the stuff.

They are becoming kinda rare, but you can still find saturns out there.

The hardest part to find really IMO is the A/V cords.

[Curlypaul]

Does the machine boot reliably when their is no disk in it? if it does it may be that the pot on the laser needs adjusting. This seems to be the most common problem with these machines, in fact a friend of mine had to do it when the console was just 2 years old!

Do you have a memory card in the slot? I had one of these:

and that continually made games crash and freeze. Even if you have an official cart, try removing it as it may be screwed and causing the system to glitch out as well.

The only other problem that I've seen with Saturns are voltage regulators on the power board giving up. It won't power on at all if thats the case though so that doesn't sound likely here.

The next thing to do would be to check the capacitors. These things generally don't last very long although I've never heard of anybody having troubles with them in a Saturn.

I'm sorry you've has so much trouble with this system, they are normally pretty reliable.

[theclaw]

Are you plugging it into a correct power source? Saturn carries the BIG unfortunate problem of not being multi-format. Getting that whole 110v or 220v thing wrong, will easily toast it.

[Breetai]

Are you plugging it into a correct power source? Saturn carries the BIG unfortunate problem of not being multi-format. Getting that whole 110v or 220v thing wrong, will easily toast it.

He's in Canada. We use the same power as in all of North America...

[theclaw]

Oh. I guess I wasn't ruling out the possibility he bought a PAL Saturn somehow.

[Breetai]

Oh. I guess I wasn't ruling out the possibility he bought a PAL Saturn somehow.

I guess it's possible.