Saturn HST 3220 CD rom not working need help

[Sotu]

After getting my Saturn and playing it for a few hours to make sure it worked I put it away for a month or two while I took care of real life.  When I finally had time to play it I pulled it out and decided to test a few games I had found online.  Well I really really feel stupid because while testing the games I hastily tried to remove a disk and to my horror I heard a faint grinding sound just before the disk stopped. 

Much to my dismay I realized that my saturn no longer worked.  I starts up fine and loads the static Saturn logo rather than the Animated one and then goes to the CD screen and stays there.

I'm thinking I burned out the motor but I'm not really sure. 

Any help would be much appreciated.  Thanks

Oh, I live near Seattle fyi.  Maybe I'll get lucky and there's a local board member.

[NFG]

Perhaps you've lifted the CD mount on the spindle.  The black disc with the bearing clamps can move vertically along the motor spindle.  Check the height of it.  You may also have made changes to the position of parts of the CD mechanism. 

That the system doesn't give the spinning logo anymore indicates that something is amiss with the boot sequence.  I don't have a Saturn set up at the moment, but it seems to me that the animated sequence is skipped when the drive door is open, or when a CD is not detected.

If you've raised the CD clasp/disk, you'll get a not-sensed error, and the animated intro is skipped.

Open it up and looked for misaligned gears, check the lens movement, etc.  Look for obvious signs of things amiss.

[Sotu]

Thanks for those suggestions, however what about how it was working great until my big mitts touched the spinning CD and there was that nasty grinding sound before it stopped working?  The sound I heard makes me believe I broke something. 

I've opened it up and moved the sliding track that the lense sits on and that didn't do anything.  I have noticed when I power it on that the spindle tries to move like a half a millimeter but that's it. No lense movement or anything.

If it had stopped working on its own I wouldn't be so nervous as I am since I think I heard it break.

[NFG]

The thing is there aren't many moving parts in there.  If you've moved the CD clasp/disc it will have made a grinding sound, and it would prevent the laser from detecting a disc, which would keep it from spinning.  The only other thing that would make a grinding sound are the moving parts.  There are some gears in there, depending on the model... 

[l_oliveira]

If you have a modchip installed I advice you to remove it and test the console with the drive connected straight to the main board.

When a modchip is installed and it fails, on most cases the Saturn behaves as if the CD lid was open, which is what you're witnessing (The static Saturn logo on startup).

The grinding noise might be caused by the sled motor still spinning when the mod chip failed. The saturn default behavior when one opens the lid is pull the optical block to the center. There's a limit switch which tells the CDRom drive CPU to stop the sledge motor. Since the communications with the mainboard probably got cut, the SH1 processor on the main board could not tell the Hitachi or Mitsubishi processor to stop the sled motor, causing the "grinding noise".

If there's no modchip on your saturn, check the limit switch, which is close to the spindle motor (motor that spin the disc)

[Sotu]

Thanks for the very insightful responses, omg you guys actually give a rip.  Thanks!

Well, I must say I'm not surprised to report that you are indeed correct!  I burned out my modchip cuz when I bypass the modchip and plug the ribbon directly into the saturn sure enough the disc spun up! 

I don't have a TV with RCA's and S video atm to test it but it's spinning which is a good sign!

So my next question is... what chip do i need to buy?

Here's a pic of my setup maybe you can tell what type of chip I've currently got.  I'm not sure since there's no name on it anywhere.

[Sotu]

Well I looked it up and I have a Model 2 32 Pin IC Saturn done with the A+B method.  Bad news is that I was unsuccessful on my first mod being a ps1 which I fragged and now I just noticed that the A wire just came loose from the 14th trace which is a god awfully small spot to solder.

I already know what I should do which is hire someone to do it for me and I'll probably end up doing that but if I were to try it myself which I probably won't.  What is the proper wattage of soldering iron I should use along with the proper flux etc. 

What are the tools of the trade I need to have?  I will definitely practice on my fragged ps1 and see if I can solder to any of it's traces with the tools you reccomend.  If I suck then I'll hire someone.

Thanks again guys, you really made my day when this thing started spinning! =)) 

[l_oliveira]

The Saturn you have is the lattest model ever produced. It's the white border CD-Rom drive with Mitsubishi controller chip.
That ones are the worst kind of Saturn to mod. In really bad cases they burn in a way the motherboard can't authenticate discs anymore, requiring repairs.

The best models to mod are the old 20 pin (this one is difficult to find a chip for it) and the old 21 pin (21 pin with hitachi H8 processor)

I suggest you to test your Saturn with an original disc before trying to mod it again.

[NFG]

We don't discuss piracy on this forum.  If you want help replacing your modchip you'll have to try another forum.

Glad you got the thing working though.

[Sotu]

Thanks a lot!

[kendrick]

I just wanted to add here that basic troubleshooting always starts with a known good state. If you add a mod (even a simple one like a region switch or an extra light) and your console starts malfunctioning, the very first thing you do is back the modification out and see if you get normal functionality afterwards. You always want to eliminate the mod as a point of failure before you look at component replacement or changing settings.

[ken_cinder]

If you do wind up needing a new drive, I believe I have a working spare out of a 21 pin M2. I have no need for it, and it's been boxed up for 3 or 4 years now.