I think my model 1 saturn has an heat issue, when I play if for longer than +-30 minutes the load times become longer (or almost slow to a stop), starts having problems reading discs and gets hot on the PSU side. It there a simple solution/easy mod for this? And what could be the cause (apart from, the likely, heat)?
Well I just opened it up and I have a different PSU (stupid from me not to check first) I reverse image searched the image and I saw mine was a good one (http://www.assemblergames.com/forum...aturn-Power-Supply-Failing-Repair-Ideas/page4) apart from the number it look exactly the same as this one: http://i.imgur.com/JfoMJE1.jpg I've also noticed it getting a harder time reading audio (and trying to read the audio again/restart audio after if failing) and it doesn't have the rolling bars when booting after warmup. It almost seems like the laser is dying when the saturn is on for longer, and gets better again if it cools down.
I've switched the 2200uF cap with a new one (because I bought one, before opening the saturn up and checking if it's the same board). That seemed to help a little, instead on getting to the sixth opponent in street fighter Alpha 3 I now can go to the 10th with failing once and at least the first and second opponent's level track fully functions without "hick ups" or complete "stuttering". So I'll tomorrow get the rest of the caps for the board and order a TOP224YN if recapping doesn't completely solves the issue.
If I switched the PWN switch and the problem is still there, how could I check and fix that CD drive?
That would be pretty great. Would the TOP work with models that don't suffer from this issue too, just in case someone wanted to keep the heat down in their machine?
There's several "modes" of failure for LASER DIODES. One of them is related to temperature. When it has that kind of damage, it get over sensitive to temperature variations and the automatic gain control of the drive is not capable of correcting (the laser now would need more current than the circuit is capable to supply to produce a powerful enough laser beam). That is death sentence for the optical pickup. How that relates to the power supply ? That makes the interior of the console hotter.