My (solderless) mod to save my DC by changing PSU and improving airflow Hi there, as I wrote in the huge GD emulation thread I ran in some random freezes ingame with my old DC. I simply used what Deunan suggest on his site as well as the precious info in the PSU swap mod suggested here, so credits to these people! By my side, I have no skills in electronics, painting or anything related, so this is just my experience and should no considered in any way a tutorial. It's just a sharing of experience. That's it. Items used: ATX 20 pin - ATX 20 pin extension cable (20 cm), modular PC ATX PSU pci-e power cord, fan. I ordered my picoPSU as written in this useful thread (https://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?53856-Replacing-the-DC-PSU), but I wanted to prepare everything waiting for the shipment to come. So I purchased a $3 ATX - ATX extension cord. ATX pinout I found in Google is this: for 20 pin ATX connector the pinout is that marked as "version 1.0". Then I had some extra power cords of my seasonic's PSUs used on my PCs. Accidentally, I discovered that the GPU power cord fits almost perfectly (very very little bending of power pins) the power connector of the DC's mainboard: For my DC, even in case of GD-rom use, all I needed were 3.3, 5 and 12 v as well as 3 ground connectors. So I took out of the ATX female connector all of the cables, except the 14 & 15 (these, when connected, enable ATX PSU). I then inserted the cables coming from the DC in the right holes referring the ATX pinout to provide the 3 regulated power rails as well as the 3 ground connections. Double checked everything, and tested. Still freeze. I then ordered some replacement 1mm thick thermal pads (commonly used in water cooling), to replace those originally placed on CPU & GPU. I also placed another 5v fan using the big room left free by the original PSU. I also painted my case, but have to wait it to dry out before posting some picture. I'll update this thread later. My only conclusion so far: I had my DC freezing ingame. Thanks to the sharing of knowledge in both the sources mentioned, I was able to workaround the problem. Interesting thing is that everything showed here is solderless and totally undoable.
Ok this is how it looks like now. Once my picoPSU will be here there will be no more cables in the rear, just the pico's power one. Detail of the holes on the side (credits to Deunan for this) I also downvolted the added fan to 3.3v from 5v. It is quieter now, the noise is almost identical as a stock unit, but my DC let me play (at the moment) without any freeze...
On ebay (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Sega-DreamCast-Label-Aufkleber-Sticker-Badge-Logo-161-/111325296159). It's not pictured, but there is also the SEGA logo on the front...
I tried to install a pico psu on mine, but just the fan is spinning and vga led is on... What am I doing wrong?
