Is the GD Rom Drive interchangable between Dreamcasts

Hi people, it's been a while- work has otherwise taken my attention away from working on any of these Beasties I have laying here.

there appears to be some Damage on one of the GD rom Drives- I have another console here as Spares and wondered if a straight Swap as possible?

Both are the Same Region (uk Pal)
Is there anything else i need to look out for to make this work?

Regard Dakar

 

It'll work unless one is a VA2 and the other isn't, the main change in VA2 was the elimination of the GD-ROM board, the parts are too different for that to work, VA0/1 units share the same drive.

 

Thanks for the Quick Answer Fella, both are Va1 and have a GD rom Daughter Board so happy days

 

After lots of Tinkering, I have found them not to be Compatible Different lasers and Different model Drive units cause then not to work- Samsung Hitachi to name a few- and just swapping over the laser will not work either as the casing for the motors appear to be Different

 

cant say I've ever had a problem with changing the GD Drive from one machine to another.... All UK units are the same layout as far as I've ever seen and work regardless. I know the lens assembly is a different story between Samsung/Yamaha etc ....

have you retraced your workings to make sure the ribbon cable hasn't come loose? Was the other donor console alright -laser wise?

 

I think it depends on what gd drive means. It's an ATAPI drive with a custom connector, I'd have thought you should be able to replace the whole thing from one console to another at some level. If you try and swap parts around then you could run into problems & as the drive isn't in a box like it is in a PC then you might not realise what is considered part of the drive..

 

You cant swap between models.

The VA0 is 5v, the VA1 is 3.3V and the VA2 uses a different drive.

Inbetween the same motherboard revision works fine though

 

Well, I've never run into any problems with UK released machines. I've swapped the whole unit straight into another without a problem and it hasn't mattered about the manufacturer of the GD Unit. Wasn't there only one DC unit in the UK anyway? 3030 or something ? Does that have something to do with it or am I just lucky with the 20+ units I have here?

i know US and Jap machines are different revisions. But isn't it a VA02 the guy said he's got for both his machines?