grey jp saturn. loss of background audio tracks and scratchy

[bigsanta]

I recently got a grey va 11 jap saturn in a trade.Bought a few extra games,some brand new and sealed ,the others are also of equal, clean quality .

what i noticed when testing the games,especially on sega rally and vampire saviour ,fantasic pinball, there was no intro music ,so i just thought something was not set properly in the bios settings.

came back a week or so later tonight and tried darius gaiden II .All you could hear was loud scratching/scratchy sounds on the demo play.So i restarted the console and could now hear normal weapon sounds on the demo play .So i went into the options and tried playing some of the audio tracks.NOTHING.I could play the sound effects ok ,just not any audio tracks.

So i reset the console back to the bios screen,and tried playing the audio tracks.Nothing,even the normal sounds that play when you move to one of the bios options,these weren't even working.Powered off ,then back on and into the bios screen ,i put in sega rally and tried the same,no audio tracks would play ,but the normal bios sounds were working again.

So i loaded sega rally and there was no game music tracks playing in the demo play.I tried playing the game's audio tracks from the option screen,nothing worked,only the sound effects and things like the commentators "sega rally" "game over yeah" etc etc ..I also tried the pal sega ages disc and space harrier plays all the stage audio tracks as normal (in game ,at the options screen)??

Started a game and no effing background audio

This was doing this before i put in the pic16f630 switchless mod and there's one thing which is a bit dodge pot and that's the small ribbon cable that comes from the cd drive board and goes to the main saturn pcb(the one you first have to remove if you want to remove the whole cd rom to get access to the pcb with the jp jumpers on). This cable is a bit worn on the side nearest the reset button,one of the fine metal traces is peeling and i've had to piss on with this ribbon cable a few times to reseat it properly .

What do you reckon? Caps ,ribbon cable, cd unit,lens needs cleaning ??


I've just tried a plain old music cd ,classic chillout and it doesn't play the audio track ,only the bios sound effects work.So i'm thinking the cd unit isn't getting enough amps from the power board (cap replacement time?)?Just like the thing which happens with the pc engine cd rom rom ifu and too low a power supply,it wouldn't read games properly ,if at all!

I'm using rgb and had to do this
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4236.msg29987#msg29987
So i hope this has not got anything to do with it.

See the green cubes on the bottom left and right of the bios screen
Sega Saturn (Audio CD)
On my saturn,they are always bubble shaped,never square.

[bigsanta]

Looks like my last observation about the cubes on the bios screen ,DO hold the answer !

http://segasaturngroup.proboards.com...e=50685&page=1

Quote:
BTW, if ribbon cables are faulty and not connecting the laser assembly to the motherboard properly, here's the effect you'll get 100% of the time -- once you get to the CD menu, the objects on the lower corners (usually a green cube), will look all blown up to a fatter sphere-ish shape, and the color will be red.

Take a look at this clip if you're unsure of what I'm talking about -- 10 secs in for the "green cubes", about 42-43 seconds in for the red-sphere look. The guy's playing music, so the object will be rapidly inflating/deflating with the music, but in your case, if your motherboard isn't "seeing" the laser assembly, the shape will be permanently blown up and red once you pop in to the CD menu.

Sega Saturn Boot and Home Menu
And that folks,is why you always try and provide as much info as possible when you have a problems with things>The people who could help you,need info !

[NFG]

Hah!  Glad you found the problem.  This is a good one.  =D