Sega Saturn - No boot

Hello everyone!

Long time lurker, first time poster here. Decided to make an account and reach out the to community as my Saturn issue has me stumped!

I picked up this particular Saturn a few years ago for free, being told (It should work fine). Sure enough when I got around to testing it, it would not read/recognize any discs. So back into the closet it went. Fast forward another year, I've been feeling ambitious about restoring some older systems that I have in my collection.

Upon powering up the Saturn, I get the usual Set time & date - battery dead issue. I noticed there was no sound while setting it up. After setting the time and date, the Saturn splash screen appears without the startup animation... and then nothing. If I reset at this point, I may get just a black screen, or the splash screen again.

I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to electronics repair, not a electrical engineer by any means, but I have taken apart and repaired my fair share of game systems. The only thing I noticed (other than it being somewhat dusty/dirty inside) is a bit of corrosion residue on a few of the Motorola CPU pins. The corrosion was green/white which usually means moisture. I was able to carefully scrub away the corrosion and could not see any real damage (pins appear to be intact). I also checked for bubbled caps, but could not see anything too obvious.

*Big inhale*

Soooooooo... Does anyone have any ideas if this thing is fixable? If I can get the system to boot, I would purchase a replacement laser assembly to restore it. I have had a look around online, but didn't find anything too specific to the issue I'm having.

Anywho.. Thanks in advance for any advice suggestions and sorry about the wall of text

 

It could be a BIOS issue. As for the laser, put the strongest % rubbing alcohol you have on a q tip and gently rub that on the laser. It should clean it and make games playable again (after the other issue is fixed). If you still have laser trouble, then you need to replace the laser.

If it truly is a BIOS issue, I recommend installing a region-free BIOS to see if that fixes the problem.

 

x

 

Thanks for the replies guys, I will re-seat the ribbon cable when I get home and report back.

 

Well I disassembled the unit again and cleaned everything. Still no joy.

- No sound during time/date setting
- If cd lid is closed, then only get black screen when switched on (after setting time/date)
- If cd lid is open, get the Saturn splash picture with no boot animation. Gets stuck at that screen (No cd player).

Would a laser replacement fix this issue? I noticed when I turned the orange pot all the way clockwise, the cd would spin a little, but not for long. Still no boot either.

Thanks again!

 

x

 

So without any drive at all, it still does the samething. I put a working CD unit from another good mk80000A and it does the same thing. I did my best to resolder the motorola CPU and scsp but nope still doing the samething. Any repairs past this point might be out of my skill level. Might have to call this one.

 

Can you check the voltages coming from your power supply?