Broken power board Dreamcast

I had two faulty dreamcasts arrive this morning, one of them seems only to have needed it's controller ports cleaned with a bit of lighter fluid, but the other one seems to have a broken power board which makes a high pitched whining noise when turned on. I know it's nothing to do with the console itelf as it works perfectly with the power from the other one. So I was wondering if anyone knows what it's likely to be and if it is at all repairable by myself. The PCB looks to be intact by the way.

 

that high pitch whining is actually standard damn near ever dreamcast ive dealt with makes that nigh pitch whining noise

even CGR when they did a review of the black sports dreamcast they joked about the high pitched whining so its nothing out of the ordinary

 

Thank you for the reply (at least someone bothered)
Unfortunately I am aware of the high pitched noise you're referring to and this isn't it. With this power board nothing starts up, the power LED doesn't come on and nothing is working, the only indication that anything is happening is the high pitched whine from one of the components on the power supply board, but I can't tell which

 

your welcome its likely a capacitor then
you could try replacing all the capacitors shouldn't run more then 50 usd
for a full set or you could find another junk dreamcast of ebay and use its power supply a dead dreamcast shouldn't be more then 5 or 10 usd

the junk dreamcast power supply is the cheaper option
unless you like getting your hands dirty replacing and fixing stuff
then go with buying the capacitors

i dont know the exact capacitors you would need the voltage amperage and capacity
you'd have to take a look at each individual one

 

If I cannibalized another dreamcast then I'd have another one to fix
Ok so you think capacitors, sounds like a good place to start, I'll look into it

 

the dreamcast runs on standard 3.3v 5v and 12 v
you could take a small PC power supply and wire the molex connectors to the main power connector on the mother bored and run the dreamcast that way

thats how the dreamcast portables are made wiring the mobo connector correctly to a battery with 3.3v 5v and 12v

 

That was to be my backup plan if I couldn't get the original board fixed

 

well then i wish you good luck hope one or the other works out for you

 

Thank you Hopefully I won't fuse my house:/

 

Your best bet is to buy another power circuit from gamedoctorhk, he has many in stock. Just don't risk blowing your power.

 

I was just joking about fusing my house I know what im doing

 

how is your little project going?

 

I'm afraid that I've not yet had a chance to start. Been snowed under by uni work.

 

ah i see lol was just curios good luck again

 

I'm pretty sure that the problem is in the live circuit so I've ordered a replacement for the only capacitor on that side of the board. Lets hope that it's the problem so I don't have to buy anymore stuff haha

 

if that still dont work the website that was mentioned earlier has dreamcast 220 power supply's for 12 bucks around 8 euros

 

Theres a guy on ebay Uk selling them for like £7, I'm tempted but I would like to fix it if i can

 

more power to your ( LOL ) just saying for a plain B if plain A fails lol

 

Ok so replaced the capacitor, not the problem, it sounds as though it might be the transformer which is whitstling, so I just bought a replacement power supply, if you have any more suggestions, please keep them to yourself I'll feel stupid if it's something which would have only cost me a few pennies

But thanks for the help

 

Whistle on a switching power supply usually means it's shorted somewhere.

A GREAT point of concern is the rectifier diodes on the secondary side (they look like hi-pot transistors and are attached to heatsinks), right before the filtering capacitors....