*Help* Sega Saturn no video

Hello, I was trying to play a Japanese copy of Sega Rally Championship, and I was getting no video to the screen. I have an Action Replay that I used to boot the game. My Saturn works with multiple other games including a Japanese copy of Sonic Jam. When I try to launch Sega Rally, it shows the Sega logo, then the screen goes black. I am still able to hear the sound from the game, and it seems that I can interact with menus even though I can't see a thing. Does anyone know how to fix this?

 

Could be as simple as a dead electrolytic capacitor like in this video:

 

Would this somehow affect only a certain game? Because it works with the other games I mentioned in the OP.

 

You never know.

 

Okay, I finally got around to checking this out, and all of my capacitors are fine. I also recently purchased a Japanese copy of Sonic R, and I get the same issue. It works with my Japanese copy of Sonic Jam, as well as my American copy of Daytona USA.
Any more ideas of how to fix this?

 

seems to me there are a couple things here:
1) are we sure this isn't the pro-action replay? have you tried these games on a japanese saturn or as burns or converted ISOs?
2) it could be particular revisions of certain games in certain regions dont work on certain models
3) have you looked into the exact revision of your system / bios to see if anyone else has the issue?

I don't really suspect a hardware problem here.

-Segasonicfan

 

Well Action Replay doesn't change the internal system region. Games that explicitly check for Japanese mode, may have issues.
Like original version Soukyugurentai loads buggy leftovers of its Terra Diver localization.

 

could it be that your Saturn is ouputing in the video format not suitable for your TV?
For example somehow it's outputing PAL or M-PAL instead of NTSC or something? Fact that you can hear the audio means the game itself is running on your Saturn.

 

I don't know if Sega Rally Championship has a different video mode than other games.
Now 50hz or 60hz is determined by the Saturn, not the game disc. If using a PAL system expect 16% slowness. (except games written to account for it)

 

x

 

Thanks for all the replies! I am using a Pro Action Replay that has the 4mb RAM expansion as well. My copy of Daytona USA (American version) runs fine, so the 352px shouldn't be an issue. My Japanese Sonic Jam copy runs perfectly. I just wanna find a way to play my games haha.

 

Install a region-free BIOS. I might be able to help you if you want to work out a trade / sale as I have some in stock.

-Segasonicfan

 

So I finally got around to installing a region free BIOS chip that I had for about a year and a half but unfortunately I now have no video. I get power and the optical drive spins. I double checked my work on the motherboard and reflowed all the pads again but no change. Even swapped a known good power supply and optical drive from another working console but had same results.

The console worked prior to this so I must’ve missed or done something amiss. Anyone have any tips/ideas for things to check? Could the BIOS chip lose its programming?

I lifted the pins needed, bridged where needed, and ran the power & ground wires needed. If nothing else i’ll probably have to swap the old BIOS chip back and see if it returns to normal operation.