hi, i know this is a VERY common problem. my dreamcast sometimes gets a black screen, out of nowhere. while this happens the gd-drive will also stop working. i already tried soldering the powersupply via wires to the mother board, i also only use the dreamcasts power cable(i heard that might also be source of the problem), but nothing helps. i just guess the power supply is kinda borken, maybe..... .richie
One possibility is the fan is slowing down or getting stuck? I found the other day that the DC gets held in reset if the fan is unplugged or runs too slow. If the fan looks OK, the next thing might be that the Electrolytic caps in the PSU are starting to fail. If you don't mind a bit of basic soldering, you could try replacing the big caps on the PSU. There are about 6 caps on the secondary side (closest to the controller ports / DC power pins). Even some cheap caps might give it a new lease of life. OzOnE.
thanks i might give it try, but i should mention this, when i hit the dreamcast with my hand, then it boots and lasts for a period of time until it starts all over.
Its something that seems to inherently happen to all dreamcasts after a while, the way I ended up fixing it sounds insane but after losing several items on PSO myself and many others went to insane lengths to figure out what was wrong and this has worked for and everyone I know since back in the day. Open up your dreamcast with the control ports facing you, remove the top case, next unscrew and remove the board on the left. (This can feel very tight due to the connector pins) but just lift it straight up being careful of the wires still attached. Now very lightly spray WD40 across the bottom of the board and dab it dry, now put it back together and It should work fine and no longer reset. I believe its probably something to do with the pins and the connectors but we never really did too much experimentation once we found this method that fixed the issue. No soldering necessary just a can of wd40 and a screwdriver.
could also be a grounding / dry joints issue. the fact that it'll work if u give it a whack points to dodgy connection somewhere or dry joints take both power board and motherboard out n have a good look amd re-solder anything that looks remotely suspect also check any resistors / caps or diodes if you have a multi meter
Soldering the PSU and/or Voodoo spells should do the trick, especially as you said that to shake it makes it boots.
sorry for late replay, didnt had much time... i'll look at the psu again, and try to check as much solderjoints as possible, but i dont have much hope....
I'd say try the wd40 on the bottom of the board before breaking out the soldering iron. I've had this problem on 3 dreamcasts and sorted a few friends consoles out too.
