Dead Dreamcast?

So, i have two dreamcast here with the same symptoms. Power on, vmu beeps, but no image and no sound.

Cleaned the contacts of the conector. Using VGA Box, tried both compositive and VGA, no signal.
Tested both power supply in my other dreamcast and they are ok.
disc spins and laser unit moves at the start

My guess is something on the MB fried. Any tips on what could be, and if its worth fixing?

 

Are you using an RF cable? It's possible that your tv isn't tuned into the right channel or regardless of what the cable is there could jsut be a loose connection somehwere

 

nha, using VGA box, should have pointed that too, sorry
Tried both compositive and VGA, no signal. Even cleaned the contacts of the conector.

EDIT: Another thing i forgot to mention, disc spins and laser unit moves at the start

 

I had a dc with a similar problem.It would power on and show the boot up logo but halfway through it would black out then no activity(but would stay powered on).But since I have no tech knowledge I just got rid of it.

 

Might be worth opening it up and seeing if there are any fried traces or evidence of someone trying to mod it. I had a similar problem when I failed to install a bios mod.

 

Have you got any sound? Check for it, because if you've re-assembled the unit and used a longer screw in the wrong place, you could've killed the video signal's tracing on the mobo. Happened to me once....

 

nope, no video and no sound, i picked these 2 DC like that already

 

My first dreamcast would randomly reboot. Then Turn black and reboot now turning it on is just BLACK.

That one is modded

 

Hmm... possible lifted BGA pad?

It is very rare, but it still can happen.

Nonetheless, there would be a cold solder joint or cracked joint somewhere. Time to get your heatgun, flux and soldering iron.

 

Have you got another video cable? It could be the cable it's self since you've got no sound/video.

 

i use it in my working dc with no problems. I think its not an easy fix like that.

Im gonna open them and take some pic to see if you guys notice something unusual, i didnt find any broken traces, blow capacitors, etc at first look, so if theres any point i could measure voltage, continuity etc for round the problem down would be great

 

I heard some times ago that some DC suffers for overheating and then reboot with black screen...
I don't know if this is the case ..

 

Heres the pictures of one DC board

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/218/img0049jd.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/883/img0050eu.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2823/img0051jn.jpg
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4674/img0052et.jpg

 

there doesn't seem to be anything massively amiss, the board looks a bit grubby on the top though, you might want to try cleaning it? I think when I had a similar problem some of the ram chips were being shorted by mould which grew on the flux of my solder. So judging by the grease and such on there, the idea isn't inconcieveable for your console

 

Your mouldy ram chip was quite funny. At least it was an easy fix ;p

 

Haha well indeed, I was quite relieved that it was so easy for you to do aswell.

 

gonna try clean with a toothbrush, but probably the PPU fried

 

Congratulations ! You KILLED that dreamcast by putting an TOO LONG screw on the drive bay. :gravedigging:

There's a CIRCLE drilled on the address lines right by the SH4 CPU.

Edit: (look the WHITE rectangle right above the SH4 chip on the first picture)

 

He got them like that, so not his doing

 

Still I get angry when I see that, because I remember that I once killed one that way .... :-(