Followed this guide: http://web.mit.edu/bunnie/www/proj/anatak/gcmod.html - I also found several posts here on assembler with the same instructions. Attempted this on a Japanese GC and it worked perfectly at first. As most of my software is NTSC/U (USA), I decided to open the console up, bridge R6 to set it to NTSC/U, and then move the switch wire to the R5 pad closest to the heat sink mounting hole. Reassembled, tested, and it defaults to NTSC/U as expected. However, when I try to boot a NTSC/J (Japanese) disc, I get a generic read error. I double-checked the soldering job, and everything seems to be okay (I tugged on the wire pretty hard; it's connected to the pad, and it's not bridged or shorted anywhere as far as I can tell). I also happen to have a spare NTSC/U GameCube, so I also performed the mod on that console, and I am getting the exact same error. NTSC/U discs boot fine, but if I try to boot a NTSC/J disc, I get the read error. I tried swapping around disc drives, controller boards (as the reset switch is mounted to it) and even re-doing the solder job; same results. I'm using a NTSC/U and NTSC/J Game Boy Player disc to test, if that makes any difference. Anyone have any ideas? I have the guts of two GameCubes all over the floor of my apartment, and I'd love to get this sorted out ASAP. Thanks!
Try adding a SPST ON/OFF switch instead of using the reset button. If you still have issues, your GC may need additional repairs.
I think I may have figured it out after reading the GC-Forever wiki: http://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=Region_Switch#HOW_IT_WORKS tl;dr JP->US shorts Sense on R6 (unpopulated) to GND US->JP provides 3v3 to Sense on R5 (unpopulated) Using the reset switch on a JP Cube to flip to US mode works by shorting Sense to GND; since US to JP requires feeding 3v3 to Sense, instead of shorting Sense to GND like a JP to US mod, using the reset switch doesn't work. This also explains why the mod was working fine for JP to US until I permanently set the JP Cube to US by jumping R6 and opening R5. No idea if I can pull 3v3 from the reset switch, but I'm assuming I can't, so I purchased some SPST switches instead and I'm going to try that to see if it works. If it does, I'll simply repair the trace to restore functionality to the reset button and call it a day.
Checking in to confirm that my findings were correct--the reset button mod only works if your Cube is set to JP mode (that is, R5 is closed and R6 is open). You cannot use the reset button as the region switch if your console is set to US mode (R6 closed, R5 open). I wired up a SPST switch to my GameCube which is set to US mode, and the region switching works perfectly. I hoep that this information is helpful to someone out there who may run into a similar headache in the future.
Thanks for your feedback! Happy to have it sorted as well. In what way is it easier compared to a SPST switch? Or do you mean compared to using the reset button? I think the reset button method is cleaner, and it isn't terribly hard to cut a trace and solder one wire.
Haha, good to know, but adding a hex inverter to the mix is probably far more effort than it is worth, to be honest.
