Saturn MOD Chip not working.

[neonsage]

Help, anyone please. I ordered my chip on Friday Sept. 30th, Got it on Monday the 1st, loved the fast delivery. I got home and started installing my chip. I followed the directions on the installation page to my best abilities and connected the red wire to the 5 volt pin and the blue wire onto the 14th pin on the main board. Popped in an origonal Saturn game. The game booted and was playable. Then I shut off the system like the guide said and popped in a U.S. backup of one of my other games. The system then boots to the audio CD screen with no option to start the disc but was able to play the soundtracks.

The next day I unsoldered all connections and removed the chip. I unsoldered and removed the signal (Blue) wire and bridged the A and B conduits. Connected the ribbon and placed it back into my machine and soldered the Red wire back to the 5V pin. Everything went well, then I tried to play a game.

I placed an origonal game into the system, pressed the power button and the system loads the intro screen then hangs. No load, no audio CD screen. Then I tried to place a backup in and I got the same problem. So after trying both installation methods (Solder to 14th pin, connect A+B) I still cannot get the thing to work. Please if somebody is out there please let me know what I need to do. If its easily fixable I really could use the help. I dont want to have to return the chip if it's something minor but if it's faulty I don't want to risk damaging the chip.

[neonsage]

Okay so it has been 3 days now and I have not received any help as to what is going wrong. I unsoldered the connection between A and B but now the wires are too short to connect anymore and i'm getting tired of playing around with this thing.

I removed the power wire, took out the chip, replaced the ribbon to the main board and everything is back to the way it was. My origonal games boot perfectly, my backup's load correctly after a quick swap. No problems there. So now the problem lies in the Mod Chip. Preparing to return it to Racketboy for a refund or a replacement if it's still possible.

[Hobie-wan]

There are many other Saturn mod chip threads if you have a search. There are a few different models of Saturn that have slightly different set ups as well. Have a look and perhaps one of those will help you out.

[neonsage]

So there are other ways of installing the chip besides going to pin 14 and the A+B method? I searched for mabe 2 or 3 hours and found nothing that pertained to my unique situation. Everyone seemed to be having slightly different problems that what I was experiencing.

I have been using gold solder with a rosin core. The inscription on the container says "Golden solder DIA.0, 1.1mm, Weight 15gr. I know gold can be slightly more conductive than regular solder or copper and improve signal stability. Could this be my problem?

[Hobie-wan]

If you've soldered it properly, it shouldn't really matter much.

There's the difference in round versus oval buttoned systems. There 16 versus 32 pin controller on the drive. You didn't state which you had and that matters. Surely one of those old threads has the same setup you do. We've had so many of these Saturn chip ones.

[neonsage]

I had mentioned the model i have in a previous post.
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 17&t=38828

I have the model 2 with the round buttons, i will have pictures later. Its the 32 pin for sure, 21 pin ribbon cable. Me and my dad did some soldering projects back in the day on his sound equipment. So soldering aint nothin new to me. But i dont want to damage the chip and find out it was already dead and not be able to return it. Please help.

[Hobie-wan]

Ok, if it is still playing originals ok, then it could be your burns. Are you burning them at no more than 8X with decent discs? Are you burning them with the right program that made the files? I don't mean to be snippy but all of these things have been covered many times in the tons of 'OMG Saturn backups!' threads that pop up here.

[neonsage]

I had used disc juggler when i had my originals but had to sell them many moons ago. No idea what speed they were burnt at but i kept 2 of them. Rampage and Crusader. Im at work right now so my messages will be short. The backups look okay, mabe a scuff here n there but they always worked using swap. Since bought a new used saturn when i sold my games n first system.

[neonsage]

Ive used nero to burn now, i will make a copy of an original and see if tht works but for now i gotta save some money to get more wire and mabe a better iron. I do have some that i got from a site but some may have been patched with a region encoder. I patch what was not US.

[Hobie-wan]

Mod chip only lets you play burns. Cart only lets you play other regions.