Broken Saturn after 50/60hz mod

[hightiernoob]

Hello everbody,

A few days ago I got myself a pal Saturn model 1.I did the hz mod with a switch over sw4. I tried it and had to lift pin 1 on the pll and since then I have no video or sound and the cd drive won't spin and access light blinks in a strange pattern.

I hope somebody can help.

If needed I can provide picutres of my saturn's motherboard


EDIT: I tried it out again and the drive seems fine. But there's still no video or sound only sometimes glitchy effects.
EDIT 2: After inspection of the pll still no picture or sound 

[mick_aka]

If it were me I'd reverse the mod and make sure everything is working okay without it, but there are other folks on here more tech savvy then myself that may dive in with a diagnosis...

[hightiernoob]

I already removed the switch but I'll double check everything thx

[zyrobs]

PLL Pin 1 must be grounded on PAL machines.

Are you sure you didn't short circuit it somehow? Even if the PLL is wrong, the CD drive laser should center on bootup, and the access lights should run normally.

[hightiernoob]

I never got to the step with the pin lifting. I tried it and figured I needed smaller tweezers and but it back together. And since then I get no video or audio except some glitches sometimes. The cd drive is fine. If you want I can post some pictures of the board. I already deinstalled the switch.

[hightiernoob]

Is there any chance that I somehow fried the pll ? I used desoldering wick with 400 C

[zyrobs]

The PLL is very volatile so it's not unlikely you could destroy it. And for lifting the pins you only need to touch the motherboard end of the pin and then use some kind of thin tip to slide under the metal pin, lifting it up. Or even better, instead of lifting it up, find a trace that can be safely cut and soldered to.

Pics are always welcome if you need others to verify if your solder job was good or not.

[hightiernoob]

It's dirty I know

[zyrobs]

Yeah, that's probably dead.

Most you can do is get a replacement board. Japanese ones are pretty common on ebay. If you get a Japanese one, it'll run fine in 220V if you use your broken consoles power supply. Then you'll also have 60Hz working, but of course it'll only run Japanese games unless you do a region mod, install a region free bios, or get a cheat cart.

[zyrobs]

then again, there are two PAL VA1 boards right now on ebay:
www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-SATURN-REPLACEMENT-PART-VA1-OFFICIAL-MODEL-1-MOTHERBOARD-A/254315388315
www.ebay.com/itm/CARTE-MERE-MOTHERBOARD-SEGA-SATURN-V1-REF-837-11892-01-PAL-TESTE-OK/372704949702

[hightiernoob]

OK thank you very much for the help but why is it dead? What mistake did I make?

[zyrobs]

You pushed the solder wick and a 400C iron on the top of a very fragile chip and the heat killed it.
When lifting a pin, you don't touch the pins themselves with the iron. You heat up the pads on the PCB side, the solder will melt and you can use a scalpel or a needle to pry out the pin and gently lift it up. Even easier if the pin is a corner one since you can already reach under it.

Or even better, don't even bother lifting the pin, just trace where it goes and see if you can intercept it. For the VA1 PAL units, you can cut the trace on the bottom of the board. And you can use single strand wire (I use 28AWG I think) pushed through the board vias and soldered in place, to connect the trace to any of the nearby ground connections.

For this mod, all you need is less than 1cm of wire and a single cut trace on the back of the board.

[hightiernoob]

So I was right about the heat. Well, the more you know thx. I'll be more careful now

[hightiernoob]

With bottom you say the other side of the board right? So this one. If yes can you (if possible) mark the trace?