CD Drive dead after modchip install (only getting 1.5~v)

[saskatoon]

Good day folks,

I am in the process of cleaning out my old Saturn gear. I've currently managed to get modchips and region switches in the 3 Saturns I own. I sold one with a modchip and region switch to a friend years ago - that is one that is currently giving me issues. The Saturn has a region switch (NTSC-1/4/C - I'm not sure what region "C" is), a blue LED in place of the green one (these mods were done by a prior owner). I added a V2 modchip from Consolegoods 7~ years ago. The console is a model 2 with a .0019 board. I am not positive on the VA# offhand, haven't gotten down to the mobo yet.

The Saturn had the chip and board in for years but sat mostly unused. The Saturn was currently not booting any games and only saw CDs as audio, regardless of region or game. After adjusting the laser had no effect, I took the modchip out of the equation and everything worked perfectly from every region. I had a similar issue with my own Saturns after the recent chip installs. My chips required a significant solder blob, connecting the common to 14 and the hole just south of that connection, before they would boot 100% of the time - they were intermittent without this added connection. Knowing this, I just added some more solder to the 019 side. I was expecting a simple fix. This, however, did not resolve the issue and caused the drive to stop spinning. I have removed the chip and the issue persists. I cannot see any signs of damage nor did we let out any of the magic smoke. The unit otherwise functions perfectly.

I have not done extensive testing but currently I am only getting 1.5~v to the CD drive board and on the PSU (the third pin, +5). I suspect the low power is why the drive is not spinning. I am just now sure where to look or start. I have no issues getting a replacement power supply, if need be, but I would still be in the same boat with an intermittently working modchip. I am also unsure if making the extra connection damaged anything on the chip or PSU. The unit functions the same with or without the modchip installed - the CD drive just does not spin.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[zyrobs]

What happens if you just remove the drive altogether? If the console boots but with bad sound and the CD player menu having discoloured balls on the side, then the console should be working fine, so at worst you just have a broken CD drive.
I don't remember how that chip is wired and there's so many versions of it, so I'd need to see some pics of what got soldered where.

[saskatoon]

I don't have the unit at home to test or take pictures but I'm pretty sure everything booted without the CD unit attached. I will confirm this in a couple days when I go back to work on the unit. We tested with the PSU disconnected from the mobo and everything appeared to be functioning properly, with proper voltages.

www.robwebb1.plus.com/saturn/saturnchipguide_2.htm

In regards to the chip, it is a V2 from Console Goods. If you look at the picture in the top right, you can see the .0014 and .0019. The extra points in question are on the one directly beneath of the 14 point and the one on the right of 19. On the other Saturns (.0014 boards), the modchip required connecting the additional point south of 14. Knowing this, I did the same thing to the 19 side for this Saturn (soldering to the point right of 19 as well.) The chip is wired from underside of the chip board and the +5 pin on the PSU (like in the guide.)

I hope that all makes sense. Thanks for the help, by the way. It is greatly appreciated.

[saskatoon]

Long story short, I jumpered the +5v pins at the PSU and the unit is functioning perfectly.

Thanks again!

[saskatoon]

After an hour or two of playing, the mod chip appears to have quit working. The unit functions 100% when I remove the mod chip. I have tried getting power off the drive board and the PSU (either point gets me 5v) and connecting the additional aforementioned contact point along with 19 on the chip board. I have attached a picture of the back of the modchip. I am not sure what else to try or where to look.

If this is better as a new thread, I can start one. I figured the same eyes will see this thread anyway.

[zyrobs]

The pic is out of focus so I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the middle pad is not connected to any of the side pads, meaning the chip isn't jumpered to anything.
What board does your console use, or if you can't tell, what is the units serial number? There are three different drive types in model 2s, so I'll need to know the board type to look up how to set up that chip.

EDIT: nevermind, I can see on that pic that your machine has the HQA drive, so it has to be VA10+. Give me a moment to check my notes.

EDIT2: okay, try:
- jumper the chip to 0014 (this is what's required for all model 2s, the 0019 jumper is completely pointless...)
By that I mean you make sure that the middle solder pad is connected to the 0014 pad, and the 0019 is NOT. You shouldn't be soldering the little round holes (vias), you want to make sure that the solder pads are connected (unless one of the traces is broken but that's a different problem). If you have a multimeter, verify that your soldering is right with a continuity test.

- power the +5v on the chip from the CD board. There's a capacitor there near the ribbon, I usually use the +5v leg of that.

- if it doesn't work, check the last pic on the guide you linked to, the one that says "0014 (old)". Solder the additional connection on the left side and cut the marked trace according to that pic.
What this does is invert the clock signal by feeding it through a 7404. Some models work better this way, though for some others this may not make any difference. As I recall the Sanyo drives definitely need it since they invert the clock signal.

- if it still doesn't work, you'll need to cut another trace on the front, and solder a wire between two pins of the chip on the back... the idea is to invert the clock signal twice by feeding it through the 7404 twice instead of just one time. This buffers the signal, and it was found out some time ago that this greatly increases compatibility. I'll make a guide once you've tried the rest of the steps.
edit3: here's the guide, use this as a last resort (I don't have these chips anymore, so this is untested, I made it out of my notes):

[saskatoon]

I am not the best with a soldering iron but the connections are all good and have been tested with a multimeter (19 closed, 14 open). We are currently getting power off of the CD board and not the PSU. Interesting note about the 14/19 point and 19 not being used. I will be sure to go through your recommendations and see what kind of success I have. I don't have a ton of technical knowledge so I'm at the point where all I can really do is clean it up and start fresh so I appreciate your insight.

One of my other Saturns has started giving me the same issue - works perfectly without the modchip. It has a 14 board (no white line), not sure of the VA# offhand, so the chip is already connected to the 14 point. I will try to get some pictures/more detail for you.

Finally, I have another Saturn that needs a new laser. I just got in two new Optima-6 lasers from AliExpress. When I put either of the new replacement lasers in, the lasers go up and down and the arm moves a little but the disc doesn't start spinning. I have tried at all kinds of resistance levels. With the current failed laser, the disc will spin WAY too fast. With a known-working laser, the unit works 100% (including the modchip.) I am not sure if it is okay to link outside ads. The title mentioned Optima-6S although it did include several other variations (e.g. Optima-6, Optima-150, JVC-6, etc). The actual replacement units that arrived are marked Optima-6, not 6S. The feedback directly mentioned repairing a Saturn. What are the odds I got two dud lasers or is there something I might be missing? I'm not sure why the drive doesn't even try to spin. I'll be honest, these don't seem as good quality as the lasers I used to source years ago.

[zyrobs]

If the pickup is moving on the rail but the disc is not spinning, that means the pickup is working but not "seeing" the disc. It needs to be calibrated, and you may also need to adjust the spindle tray height. Last time I checked there were guides on youtube on how to measure if the laser is set up properly or not.

Unfortunately pretty much all the stock of those pickups come from China so don't be surprised if you got dodgy crap that doesn't work. But there's a bigger chance that you just didn't calibrate it right - replacing an optical pickup involves more than just switching it out.

edit:
here's a decent guide:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLogV-dlGh4

It's for an older model, but the method is largely the same, only the RF point on the CD drive is at a different spot. There should be a square solder pad (not the round one) marked as RFO on the bottom of the board in the corner, I think that's it, but I didn't test it.

[saskatoon]

I stumbled on that guide a few weeks ago when I started working on Saturns again. Looked around quite a bit but could never that RF point to get a voltage reading from on a model 2. I know where the RFO point is at. I will take a look at the voltage to the drive using that point. That being said, I did attempt to calibrate the laser. I have tried it dialed in from one end to the other (about 20 different settings, ranging from 200~ to 1500~ ohms). Do you really think adjusting the spindle height is worth a test when the unit works with a known-working laser?

Any idea why the current broken laser has the disc spinning to high speeds and the new ones do not spin the drive at all? Adjusting either laser does not change performance.

[zyrobs]

Adjusting the tray has helped me in the past, but unfortunately I don't know of any proper way to measure the right setting.

Remember to desolder the security blob on the pickup.

Maxing out the potentiometer on the pickup without measuring the values is a good way to kill the pickup. But it's also possible you got a broken pickup since most of the stock is from China.

Again, if the disc does not spin at all, it means the pickup isn't seeing anything at all. If the disc spins, the pickup is seeing something and attempting to read it.

[saskatoon]

Turns out I just forgot the anti-static. So that is one Saturn working.

The 0019 board Saturn appears to be working 100% with the modchip after switching the point over to 14 (and adding the blob to the via... seriously, these only work for me after doing that.) I still want to test the unit some more before I send it back home though. Hoping to play some games later today.

Finally, I have the third (and hopefully final) Saturn that is giving me issues. Again, everything works 100% until the modchip is installed. It will not boot anything with the modchip installed. I have taken power from the CD board and globbed up the 14 connection with no success. I am going to try the suggestions above. This particular unit is a VA7, I am assuming the advice still applies. I have attached a picture of the unit in question.

Thanks again for all your assistance. You're a wealth of Saturn knowledge, ha ha.

[saskatoon]

I got some good gaming in this weekend (a lot of Resident Evil) and the other two Saturns are working great.

For the third and final Saturn, I cut the one track and connected the two points on the left-hand side of the board (as shown in the "old" picture linked above). I only booted up a few games but everything seems to be working great. I will give it a little more testing but I should have it gone soon.

Much love.

[zyrobs]

Good to hear you got things working.

[saskatoon]

After some testing, the unit is not 100%. Most games I threw at it played great, legit or backup. I had issues with three backups though. Resident Evil would freeze at different times as would Segata Sanshiro - both were when loading a new area, just went black. Legend of K-1 Grand Prix '96 does not boot at all. All three backups were perfectly on other systems so I know it isn't the games.

I am probably going to invert the clock signal again (based on the instructions above) but I am not sure if this issue would be resolved by this. I had another Saturn previously that would just not read some games, even legit ones, while working flawlessly with everything else.

[zyrobs]

If the system goes as far as booting the disc, then the modchip already did its job. I'd measure the laser RF voltage, just in case, then maybe try adjusting the tray.