Japanese PS1 fat models peculiarities.

Hi. First it turned out that later fat japanese ps1 models with modchip won't boot other region games than japanese.
Today I plugged gameshark to SCPH-5500 and it doesn't boot it. I have two gamesharks PRO and non PRO versions with original firmwares and none of them boots on this console.
Also in this particular one there was PSU with "125 v 2a" mark on PSU board near the fuse. Today I received 3 more japanese fat models and all of them have mark on PSU "250 v 2a" while console's sticker says 100 v.
I wonder what does it all mean? Any thoughts?

 

Someone swapped out the power supplies.

 

Possible but inlikely. Actually I suspect them to be dual voltage 110/220 but don't want to try it before someone comfirm this. )

 

Based on the fact you mention GameShark Pro, I assume you're talking about the cartridge version of these.
I've been recently investigating these cartridges and haven't found any information about these being region-dependent (unlike their CD versions). Are you sure these cartridges are in working condition?

 

Actually I've heard that for something to boot from the parallel port some kind of license text is expected at certain points. So like the discs the license data could differ from region to region.

 

AR/GS carts are not region dependent. If multiple carts don't work then it's more likely that the parallel port connector is to blame. It could be dirty or just oxidized, or one of the necessary pins could be bent, or the connector's solder joints to the board could have cracked.

 

Well, these psu's are not dual voltage. Despite the fact they have 250v fuses, they have 200v input capacitors. But prior to check them I plugged it to 220v and psu has blown up with lots of smoke.
Now to gameshark. I've plugged it (yes, its cartridge) to those three consoles for which I have true 220v psu to replace and it boots only on one of them. It might be bad connection, I'll check it out later, but I noticed that the one that booted gameshark has low serial number and other two have high serial numbers.

 

Early Gameshark/Action Replay ROMs only boot when the BIOS shows the PS logo so a DISC in the drive is required for it to show up.

 

I thought there was a fuse or something that can burn out component wise on the parallel ports? I'd swear I read somewhere about someone leaving a bad AR on a store shelf for people to steal to burn out their port generating repair work in a lovely cycle of theft and stupidity.

 

There's a voltage regulator on the PAR board for the 5V flash chip they use. Yes one can blow the 8v fuse that goes for the parallel port, preventing the PAR from working as it's flash needs 5v to power on.