drunkenpl
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Post by drunkenpl on Dec 11, 2014 10:30:51 GMT
Hi! i'm new here and in fact this is my first post so - Hello guys! i wanted to post problem with my recently bought Saturn. I went on a bargain with a bunch of incomplete/broken/not working consoles and one piece of this set was Saturn. It looked really terrible at first sight and even worse inside. But I wanted to bring it back to life. Good thing was that I could power it on but I got nothing beside the green light. I've opened the case and there was a lot of dirt and rust :/ inside. I've cleaned it up, changed the battery and looked for any damaged components but everything seemed fine. So I turned the console on. Saturn was alive! Well, almost... When i plugged it to TV i got sound but there was problem with a picture. In fact weird problem - I could see only the brightest parts of the output signal (eg. the bright dot when changing date and time). First thought was that maybe there is a bit of alcohol that haven't vaporized or something so I used hair dryer to heat the thing up. Then after connecting to TV signal was almost acceptable. But after console cooled down to a room temp. issue remained as it was :/ funny thing is that when there is a new screen - saturn logo is visible for a second than it dissapears but when the game boots, the next screen eg. game logo screen is also visible for a send then it dissapears. When there is a moment without signal output (moment when switching from bios to game) the screen "refreshes" and is visible for another second. TV cable is ok - second Saturn is working just fine, console is Pal Model 2 Eur. And one important thing - I'm not an electronic! I know how to disassemble some hardware, fix or diagnose small damages and put the screws back in the same place they were before Here is a video when you can see the problem: www.youtube.com/watch?v=24voYuRMGnA I will appreciate every help or tip!
PS: sorry for incorrect use of some technical vocabulary - I'm not using English everyday
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Aydan
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Post by Aydan on Dec 13, 2014 12:11:24 GMT
I'm not techno wizard but it could be an issue with one of the VDP chips? If so then as far as I know it's game over..
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drunkenpl
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Post by drunkenpl on Dec 13, 2014 12:36:17 GMT
I thought that if VDP is broken it will not display any video at all or the console won't boot? I'm hoping this is a repairable issue? Give me some hint where I should start with diagnostics? Is there a way to rule out damage of VDP?
I've tried to find out anything about damaged VDP's but if VDP1 or VDP2 is damaged I will seen on screen glitches or black/broken screen. I think that both VDP's are fine - they are rendering graphics just fine. The signal strenth is the problem (I suppose?). I would rather look for a reason why the video signal is too weak but in fact I don't know where to start. I've looked for damaged capacitors but none of them looked "bellied". I suspect either the PSU is damaged or some on board component does not pass too much electric power thru (damaged component is making an energy loss). If you could tell me where I should start it will be a lot easier to find out the cause.
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Aydan
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Post by Aydan on Dec 13, 2014 16:11:00 GMT
Sadly this is where my knowledge will end as when it comes to technical stuff I'm useless! You already seem to know more than me in regards as what to check. This forum's gone quiet recently so try over at Assemler Games, I'm sure someone there will know for sure!
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Post by bradcap1 on Dec 13, 2014 17:23:12 GMT
Maybe zyrobs or Bucko will see this and help you out.
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drunkenpl
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Post by drunkenpl on Dec 13, 2014 17:53:48 GMT
One thing I've already checked - PSU output voltage. It's 3.3V PSU and so the output is also ~3.3V (exactly 3.36V). Next points are 5.17V and ~9.05V so it seems normal to me. So i think that the problem must be somewhere on PCB itself :/
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drunkenpl
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Post by drunkenpl on Feb 3, 2015 16:09:57 GMT
Hey!
I've found out that there is a problem with Sony CXA1645 RGB encoder. When I move it a bit or touch the connects the output is changing to almost perfect. So I have to swap the encoder but I have to find one which seems not to be easy :/
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Post by smithyz on Feb 3, 2015 17:26:16 GMT
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Post by zyrobs on Feb 3, 2015 19:17:40 GMT
Hey! I've found out that there is a problem with Sony CXA1645 RGB encoder. When I move it a bit or touch the connects the output is changing to almost perfect. So I have to swap the encoder but I have to find one which seems not to be easy :/ If just moving it a bit changes the output, then you might want to consider reflowing the solder first.
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nugat
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Post by nugat on Feb 3, 2015 21:07:49 GMT
Hey! I've found out that there is a problem with Sony CXA1645 RGB encoder. When I move it a bit or touch the connects the output is changing to almost perfect. So I have to swap the encoder but I have to find one which seems not to be easy :/ If just moving it a bit changes the output, then you might want to consider reflowing the solder first. Yep it sounds like a dry joint on one or more of the CXA1645 pins. As Zyrobs said you could try re-flowing the solder. You need some flux, I found a flux pen easy to use, some fine gauge solder and a soldering iron with a fine tip. Apply plenty of flux to the pins on the CXA1645, melt some solder on the tip of your iron and then just drag it across the pins. Once you're done visually inspect to make sure that none of the solder has joined pins together, if it has just tease away the excess with your iron. All being well your problem should be fixed. I found the following video helpful when replacing a CXA1645, I managed it successfully using ChipQuik and no previous experience, unfortunately it didn't fix my Saturn. It doesn't sound like you need to replace yours though, just resolder it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmD7F0--7Lc
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Post by zyrobs on Feb 3, 2015 21:24:56 GMT
Chipquik is horrible gunk that you should only use as a last resort. I'm not saying it did not help me out in some situations, but you should not rely on it.
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drunkenpl
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Post by drunkenpl on Feb 4, 2015 11:03:23 GMT
I've already tried resoldering the pins but that didn't work out at all. Nothing changed at all. When moving the chip on the board I can see that video is changing - sometimes it's all blue, red, green or mixed. First of all I thought that resoldering will do the job but it seems like the encoder itself is just faulty (I think that the problem is inside - maybe one of the leg is corroded inside the chip or something?). Important note is that when I got the unit and cleaned it out I found out that it was flooded by some sort of cheap perfume and it was rusty in few small places. I have resoldered the worst connections - of course also the encoder but the legs itself looked nasty so who knows what's in it. I've already ordered a new CXA1645 on eBay, but unnecessarily. I found some good mate, who will unsolder CXA1645 from his faulty PS1 SCHP1001 board and will just send me it. At least I will have spare RGB encoder When I will make any progress I will post some news ------- One more important thing - CXA1645M is different than CXA1645P in size! P rev is a bit smaller than M so you will have to do some tricks to solder it properly. Easier is to get the M rev and it should fit just perfect
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drunkenpl
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Post by drunkenpl on Feb 22, 2016 19:45:13 GMT
Sory for double post but thread is quite old and I have something to announce. I made it! It's alive! Saturn have still few flaws because it was in really bad shape but after assembling it back it looks quite well (housing is all scratched but not damaged). However the console itself works well and it's all fixed Here you have replaced encoder:
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mick_aka
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Post by mick_aka on Feb 23, 2016 15:33:40 GMT
Good job!
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