Updated - Black Screen on Boot...any suggestions? Recently bought a Jap Saturn which has no Video or Sound upon boot so after trying different leads I thought I'd delve inside and see if there was anything obvious. I've attached a picture of what looks to be some non manufactured soldering around IC23 but that's about where my skills end. Does anyone have any idea what/why this is there and would it be safe to remove? The saturn powers up fine, disc spins just no image or sound. I've tried a different powerboard that I know to be working fine and that does the same too. Any help appreciated!
I think it's probably an extra decoupling cap soldered across the power pins on the clock buffer. It's hard to see from the photo, but one end is going to pin 7 and the other appears to be connected to a trace going to pin 14 - and they are the power pins on the chip. My guess is that it was installed to reduce noise on the clock signals. I can't see removing it would cause any problems, but I dont expect it would help, either.
Thanks for the replies......now knowing this has anyone any pointers on why I can't get an image from the machine? Ive tried RGB, s-video and composite to no avail. The TV flickers and auto changes channel on RGB just no sound or image. Disc drive spins up fine too. Long shot trying to guess but if there's any common faults that lead to it it would be helpful!
Thanks for the update, so is there any suggestions at all to try to attempt to fix this machine? Or anyone in the UK that fancies a project on trying to solve this 'black screen of death'? I have a feeling a new board is the easiest answer but figured I'd ask anyway
Update! It lives! I had some spare time yesterday so dissembled it again to have a better look at the board. Nothing obvious, all cap's look ok etc. Still the same issue as above. I tried again, and again, nothing. THEN I turned it on without the battery in, then put the battery in while it was turned on. The next boot went straight to the set-time screen and its been perfect ever since! Its been left running a game overnight, turned it off for a couple of hours unplugged, turned it back on and its fine! I've no idea why this has worked and I genuinely thought it was a broken motherboard. I've previously installed the battery, tried it with a battery in, out, nothing but the black screen but doing above seems to have kicked it into life. Strange, but I'm very happy!
Very curious! Druid, want to give that a shot on your one? Glad to see another Saturn lives another day!
Similar things can happen with PCs - some values in CMOS RAM settings generated when battery voltage is below lower limit can prevent system from booting.
I've seen it on PC's when a bios battery has been low like you said but not when one has been taken out and left long enough for any charge to dissipate. Its still working great btw
