Does anyone here have any experience with the Dreamcast lid switch fault?
What happens is the lid switch randomly reports that the lid is open when it's not, so the game quits out.
I've tried airdusting the switch but the fault always creeps back in. Seems to calm down a bit if the DC is warmed up, but still makes it impossible to enjoy playing anything, as you're on the edge of your seat waiting for the next time it quits out!
Any advice would be most welcome.
reflow the solder on it...
If the circuit board around the switch isn't cracked, reflowing the solder joints will generally work. However, the best solution is usually to swap in the switch from another Dreamcast. There are plenty of spare consoles that have bad lenses or bad controller ports (or both) to get donor switches from. As a brute force solution, you can just wire an SPST switch that's externally mounted so you're sure the contact is always good.
-KKC
I couldn't see any evidence of a bad joint but I've re-flowed the solder points underneath the existing switch anyway, and it seems to be behaving itself for now.
If the fault ever comes back I'll hack in an external switch - good suggestion.