Saturn problems

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

I did a region mod yesterday for someone. Well today they basically told me "Oh, and I'm going to put a vcd card in my saturn". They also told me I had to move the switch. Well the problem with that was that it meant I had to redo the whole mod cause I had the wire lengths just right and everything. I go and redo the whole mod, get the switch moved and everything, power on the saturn.... and.... the green power light just blinks on and off. I knew this was bad so I shut it down. Checked a few things, turned it back on, and it does the same thing. So I proceed to undo all the mod work I've done, rebuild the saturn and test it, the power light stays on now, but there is no picture and only a buzzing noise is coming out of the speakers. Currently the system does not have any region jumpers set (so it shouldn't be able to play games without a 4in1), but I doubt that would cause the weird video/audio problem. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.


It's a model 2, with the 64pin IC cd board, and detached controller board.

[NFG]

It's just a guess, but with no region set the system may be held in a reset state, which could cause the buzzing you're noticing.  AFAIK you MUST have jumpers set or you can't boot the system any way, any how.

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

hmmm okay, I thought I recalled a friend having accidently screwed up his region mod and making it so his saturn only played games when his 4in1 was in, otherwise it would give the unsuitable message.  I guess I'll try doing the region mod for a third time and seeing if it runs.  I figure when the power was flashing on and off that I must have had a couple points bridged or something.

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

Okay, I redid the region mod switch, and I'm getting the same power flashing on and off like I was before.  This time I was EXTREMELY careful as to the installation.


Edit:  you think it could be my switch that's bad?  maybe bridging a couple of points inside it?  When I had the mod working yesterday it was a different switch that I was using.

[NFG]

In my experience saturns don't like to be f**ked with much.  If you're not decently experienced with Ye Olde Irone you're gonna end up tearing the points off the PCB after a few go arounds.

Try the other switch, see what happens.  Failing that, you could try soldering directly to the chip responsible for region-detect, which would eliminate bad PCB traces as the source of your troubles.

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

I've region modded 7 or 8 saturns, I'm not the best with the soldering iron, but I'm good enough to be able to do the saturn.  I did an exceptional job this time, it's just weird that with the region switch in, it gives me one problem, and with it out it gives me a different problem.  I think tomorrow I'll head down to radio shack and buy another DPDT cause I don't have any more right now.  That's the last thing left that I can figure is wrong with it, short of it actually having the traces go bad over a 24 hours period.  The reason I changed which switch I was using is that it didn't take kindly to be removed from where it was... and it erm... died a very painful death.

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

it was the switch, Looks like for some reason it was grounding the 5V inside the switch or something.