Saturn wont spin disk

[Deleted]

I thought it was a faulty ribbon cable, but it wasn't. This video explains all of my problems.

[mick_aka]

Firstly, one of those drives has a 20 pin connector, the other has a 21 pin connector, early and late drives respectively, herein lies one problem, there are MANY versions of those assemblies and few are interchangeable.

Secondly, your cheap 2nd Saturn has a dying laser, NOTHING to do with wheather the laser assembly moves or not, the laser itself is on the way out.
You can crank up the laser bias until it reads again, but that's a very temporary measure, it's dying and needs an actual laser replacement.



Incidentally, throwing discs and delicate laser assemblies around like that (when there's probably nothing wrong with the assembly itself), while standing on a carpet taking no anti-static precautions with open hardware, and winding drive motors by hand with the systems turned on, wont ingratiate yourself much with folks here or encourage people to assist with your problems.

Not trying to sound like an asshole, just an observation.

[Deleted]

Thats why I posted a video, I have no prior knowledge of the workings of the Sega Saturn.

Also I take really good care of my things, but recording a video, and trying to show a problem at the same time is really difficult. Also I understand the consequence of having no anti-static protections in place. As I fried a computer motherboard because I touched it when I had static built up on me.

So then what your saying is that I need a new laser?

[mick_aka]

in the assembly that's reading everything as an audio CD yes, and it's not a job to be taken lightly, there are a few threads on here by people who have attempted and/or achieved it.

[termis]

About the most you can try for the 2nd saturn is to turn the plastic screw below the laser eye to see if it'll read. But as Mick states, that'll be a temporary fix.

And yeah, the laser gear moves up and down in the start-up scene as long as the motor's still alive (and I've yet to see a motor die before the laser eye dying). The CD will only spin if the laser "sees" the game (and in your case, the 2nd CD laser eye is dying/dead, so it's not seeing it, hence not spinning the game CD).

And if you can verify one thing -- at 1:30, you said that you tried Saturn #2's ribbon cable on Saturn #1, and it worked fine. Do both the ribbon cables have the same number of pins in this case (either 20 or 21)?

[Deleted]

Thanks for the replay guys. Ill try that, and it it doesnt work, ill just buy a new laser.

[Deleted]

So would something like this work?

cgi.ebay.com/OPTIMA-150S-JVC-OPTICA-LASER-PARA-SEGA-SATURN-XEYE-/280619975467?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item415641032b#ht_2102wt_905

And also (from what I can tell) they both have the same number of pins on the ribbon cable

[zyrobs]

If the motor in the assembly works, but the laser unit does not move up and down, it does not emit any laser, and the machine doesn't acknowledge when the drive is opened/closed, then the problem is in the ribbon connecting the assembly to the motherboard. I've just had that same problem when I was getting a modchip to work, the ribbon was connected on the wrong side and didn't send any signal.

By the way, do note that the CD assembly connector on the multi-board saturn is backwards. That's why it has a folded ribbon, while the other machine does not. Try using the good assembly on the single-board saturn, and use the folded ribbon cable - but unfold it so the pins match. If it recognizes games that way, then the problem is on the other ribbon cable.

[Deleted]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I just tried that. And something really weird happened.

So I put the good Saturn assembly into the non-mulitboard Saturn, with the good ribbon cable, and it works. The laser moves up and down, and the motor spins (it spins slower than in the Saturn though) But when I put in a game. It comes up as an audio CD. Which is very interesting because it comes up as a game in my multi-board Saturn.

Also i tried the broken assembly, with the good ribbon cable. And it doesn't do a thing. The laser moves up and down the assembly, but the laser doesn't move up and down looking for a disk, and the motor doesn't spin.


Again, thanks a lot for the help guys. And I am really confused to about what i should do

[termis]

May 25, 2011 21:13:59 GMT zyrobs said:

If the motor in the assembly works, but the laser unit does not move up and down, it does not emit any laser, and the machine doesn't acknowledge when the drive is opened/closed, then the problem is in the ribbon connecting the assembly to the motherboard. I've just had that same problem when I was getting a modchip to work, the ribbon was connected on the wrong side and didn't send any signal.

If the saturn boots up "normally" - animated bootup sequence, no "popping/crackling" noises during bootup sequence, and no blown up red balls on the lower corners when in the CD-menu, then the problem is not likely in the ribbon cable/connection to the motherbord - rather, a dead laser eye itself.

However, if you DO indeed get those symptoms I described, then reseating/trying out a new motherboard-to-laser aseembly ribbon cable is definitely something to try.

In addition, if the ribbon cable is bad/not seated correctly, I can't recall the laser moving up & down initially (Though that's going by my memory, so I'm not 100% on this).