dreamcast crashed?

well there wasn´t too much dust inside, less than i expected.
i´ve also thought of having overheated the DC, but i can promise that the few times i´ve tried it after the crash the DC was cold and it showed the same useless picture. that´s why i really thougth the DC is crashed. i didn´t expect to change this by clearing it out. but it´s working again and i hope it´ll do so a long time

 

I would think so too, though I can tell you from personal experience that it doesn't take a thick coat of dust to act as an insulator as I'm sure you're too aware.

Could be a problem that was there and will continue to be there but the overheating forced it from asymptomatic to having problems. If that is the case I'd not look a gift horse in the mouth and continue playing it as usual seeing as the problem is gone.

I've seen similar to what TmEE said with an N64 during overclocking experiments. It would simply lock up at 15 minutes or so and refuse to turn on at all until it dropped to x°C, even at stock speed. After it dropped below a certain temperature it would allow itself to run games again but if it was overclocked it would quickly freeze back up unless absolutely dead cold.

At stock speeds it would continue as usual. That data suggests there is a temperature based shut off but I'm not well versed with N64 architecture to know for sure.

 

Yes, but the issue persisted after a day or 2 of cooling - therefore not just a heat issue as they do not instantly get hot enough to cause issues. You would expect to see it work, then after a few minutes get the issue again.

This sounds like debris between legs of a chip or something - something I have seen a couple of times already with the dreamcast.

 

Lady Dreamcast is a capricious little piece of hardware. Treat it well and she shall give it back, maybe...

 

True, I could see debris acting as a high resistance conductor or induce capacitance. Dust is typically of biologic origin but volcanic and metallic particles are likely to be floating in the air we all are breathing. Unless someone is posting from a clean room in a bunny suit.

 

I did that a few times... Sadly I am not right now...

Of course, if metallic/conductive dust is in the DC it can causes bigger problems than normal dust!

 

My region is rich on oxidized iron so our soil is RED as Mars, our air is dry as the Sahara and that kind of dust is very conductive so even if we don't have humidity to go with it making things go bad, the low humidity helps making sure that red dust gets into everything. :shrug: