Sega Saturn Sophia - Bad Electrolytic SMD Capacitors

We'll I've repaired three Sophias so far and all seem to have had the same problem! Blank screens or no video. The good news is, they can be fixed by replacing five capacitors. If you are reading this and have a Sophia dev unit with no video or no signal here's some suggestions.

1. Make sure your NTSC/PAL switch on Switch Bank 1 is set to the region your Sophia is from. If you have a 220V - 240V power supply, select PAL. If you have a 110V power supply, select NTSC. On the two mainboard revisions I have the circuitry (some crystals / XTALs around the 315-5746 IC) are missing to be able to switch between both NTSC and PAL.

2. Still no video? Try replacing the SMD caps located in the attached photos (ignore the ones on the left riser board for now...)
Druid II has made mention here of what the 315-5746 chip does - it makes clock signals, important for video output... that's why we get no video output!



3. If that fails, replace more capacitors, there's an abundance of the radial type all over the board. Don't give up on your Sophia! And if you haven't replaced them and your Sophia is currently working... you probably should anyway. The very first Sophia I recapped had C69 leak all over the board and dust settled on it. The ones I've done since then (both PAL models) have leaked capacitor crud coming out of them. I'll be popping some video of the process on YouTube in the coming weeks if you want to see what is involved.

4. Warning for VA0 Saturn owners... the same SMD looking caps are on the VA0 mainboards... a few surrounding the 315-5746 and bonus ones scattered everywhere. Maybe it's time to replace those too. Preemptively of course... or are we too late? ;;;

Replace five capacitors and you should get your video signal back! I hope this post helps someone out there. Just remember the mainboard is located under the A-Bus board (the upper board). Lots of fun ahead for you with those pesky sockets and side supports

 

Awesome!
More consoles saved from oblivion.

 

* Stares at pile of Sophias growing by the hour *

UH OH!

 

Hey! I'm about to tackle one of my 'no video' Sophia's, do you have another link to these photos mentioned above highlighting which caps to start with? it seems the original image link is no longer active.
Thanks

 

Ah yes! These ones! https://mcretro.net/blog/2014/06/sega-saturn-sophia-dev-kit-another-no-video-repair/

 

Awesome! Thanks!

 

Let us know how you go!
(Nothing like Friday night repair work!)