Do we have to start to change all the caps of our Dreamcast as many people are doing on old computers ?? Does the caps already gave problems to some dreamcast users ? I have one of the first Jap model from 98 if I good remember... I have to look! Thanks
Well i change some power supply caps i found they start to go green on the bottom of the leg once you remove the cap but only found that problem on the 250v power supply's due to it runs more hotter that's a guess. Yours is a va0 so i am unsure but would be good to replace them all. for the motherboard try and find smd caps.
I don't think the Dreamcast is quite old enough to worry about yet unless you're having problems that aren't easily explained. The reason they're replaced on old computers is either because of age or because of the bad electrolyte formulas used in a large batch of capacitors some years back.
Well my Dreamcast gets that problem where it keeps resetting and I've stripped the console down and wiped down the pins that connect to the PSU and gently pushed them inwards, and this did work for a few months but then it happened again, so I did the same thing again and another few months it happens again. Not that it's a massive effort to keep doing this but it did happen when I didn't save my game on Shenmue once :'( Do you think it's possible that the problems the caps on the PSU? or is there something else I can do to the pins?
It's very likely that it's just the connection. You could try electrical cleaner, or a non scratch washing up pad. Soldering wires from the power supply to the dreamcast would probably do it as well.
Do you know what I did to fix the reset problem? I unscrewed the lid parts and tightened it all, I discovered this after leaving the lid open with the weight of a game keeping the lid just open enough to read the disc and not having a reset, strangely enough - none of my coloured shell units reset themselves, it's not an exact science but maybe worth a go. Might be worth a try?
Mine kept resetting and once I decided to jam the lid open switch and it worked fine after, maybe he's having the same problems too?
They can be an obvious tosser when you've gone through everything to find what's causing problems and its the stupid lid cogs or switch
There are two types of reset - going back to the "desktop" browser and completely resetting and the console restarting. Me experience is that falling back to the desktop is usually GD-ROM related (quite often the lid catch), and restarting is corroded power pins (this is in my case.) If you put something around the lid switch (like a few mm's - I used a thin tube of tape) it will often solve the issues with the disc resetting and intermittent "please insert game disc" errors. The console completely resetting, especially going in to a reboot loop, is corroded power pins. I also saw very dirty video on my TV (this was using the stock RF out, before I got some composite cables cheap from eBay.) I'd assumed it was a bad cable, but after cleaning the power pins, the picture was clear and static free.
