psx power supply questions

[socialdrone]

hi,  i was given a japanese playstation with a broken power supply.  i switched out the psu with a working one from a u.s. console and it works no problem...except it will only play u.s. games now.

the problem with the japanese psu seems to start at 'ic101' a chip labeled sa41k01, im guessing it might be a smps controler made by sanyo or fairchild??  i can find no information on it at either the fairchild or sanyo webpages.  and after searching google i can find nothing that really helps me either.

while i hit a dead end with the japanese psu i was thinking that it would be possible to alter the u.s. power supply in such a way that it would allow me to play japanese games.  does anyone know how the playstation uses region codes?  does anyone know how to modify a playstation to play japanese games without using a modchip?

and can anyone give me information on the sa41k01...


any help would be great, thanks

[Aidan]

As far as I'm aware, the PSU plays no part in the region protection on the PSX. It sounds like the PSX mainboard was actually a US mainboard, not a Japanese mainboard as you were lead to believe.

[NFG]

I agree with Aidan, FWIW.