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Saturn cartridge slot

Started by Mat, September 11, 2006, 07:31:19 PM

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Mat

I have a used model 2 saturn, and recently bought an action replay card. When I insert it to the cart slot, the saturn doesn't understand I have connected a cart. I tried the same cart to a friend's saturn, but it works fine. I tried cleaning the slot with a q-tip dipped in alcohol (to be honest it was difficult due to the small connectors), but again it won't work! What is wrong with the slot?
I don't have another cart to check it.

kendrick

Sega-branded Saturn cartridges have a tapered cart edge. That is, the tip is thinner than the top and so it slides into the slot easier. Third-party cartirdges like the Action Replay and the 4-in-1 tend to have square cartridge slots since the taper is harder to manufacture. It's not unheard of for repeated insertion and removal to screw up the slot on any model of Saturn.

If cleaning doesn't help, the next step of troubleshooting is a little difficult. What happens is the square edge of the third-party cartridges pushes the slot contacts too far away, and so there's no positive connection between the connectors and the edge contacts. It's possible to painstakingly bend each connector up just a bit to counteract that effect. If you're comfortable soldering components of that size, it might be necessary to replace the whole slot enclosure. Good luck.

-KKC, who needs to go around finding the remaining Saturn hardware that he can find...

Mat

Quote
It's possible to painstakingly bend each connector up just a bit to counteract that effect. If you're comfortable soldering components of that size, it might be necessary to replace the whole slot enclosure. Good luck.

-KKC, who needs to go around finding the remaining Saturn hardware that he can find...
Thanks for the reply.
You might find it stupid, but what way should I bend the connectors? Also what I should use to bend them, since they are so small?

Endymion

The Sega Genesis cart slot is a different animal to be sure, but you can get a good idea of what you need to do here.

Guest

I tried to push the connectors like in that genesis tutorial but I had no luck  :(
Were can I find a new slot now?
Apart from this, the av cable stopped working! :blink: I'll have to buy a new one as well!