[SOLVED][Sega saturn] "Checking disc format"

[joncoel]

Few months ago , i bought i pre-modded saturn , since i couldn't mod my own.

When i first got it , i played for about a hour.
The next day i wanted to check out some other games , so , i opened it up ,
i got the message : "Checking disc format" , and nothing happened.

I opened up the saturn , moved a bit the wires of the chip , and i also added some tape,
and it worked for some time.

_____

Today , 24/12/08 , im getting the same error message , and i really don't know what else
should i try.

Any ideas? __

[joncoel]

I did the same thing like i did back then , and again it works for some time , then i have to play with the wires again ...

[MrPopo]

So I had something similar happen. What I was able to determine was that the power wire for the modchip had fallen off of the Saturn during transit. Once I soldered it back in everything worked great. Even if you can't do the soldering yourself I would recommend you open up Racket's guide to installing the modchip and make sure all the wires are connected in the right spot.

[joncoel]

Sorry for replying so late(we had some guests)...

MrPopo , i'll try to re-solder it(i might ask a friend to do it for me) , and
i hope that it will work.

For one thing im sure : its definetly not the modchip , since , when i remove it
from the mb & put it back in , the saturn will boot any game unti i turn it completely
off.

By the way , there's only one red wire connected with the power supply & the modchip.
It looks like it isn't that hard to try to re-mod it by myself...

[joncoel]

Solved!

I called a friend(who's also a retro-collector) and described
the problem.

He told me that he had a similar issue , and told me to remove
all screws from the top cover...

I just did it , and it works fine!.........i just can't believe it!

Now i just have to find the "magic pressure level" , screw back the screws
and it will be just fine.


Anyway , i thought it was wise to post the solution , since it may help
other people with similar issues.

PS: By the way , ... merry x-mas ...

[Curlypaul]

Intersting, never heard of that being a problem before. I was going to suggest turning the orange screw that adjusts the voltage to the laser.

Thanks for sharing the solution for others to read about. I hate finding threads that describe the exact problems I have only to find that the op has neither posted the solution, even if the solution was throw the hardware on the spares and repair pile and replace with another.