Sega Saturn Sophia Programming Box Repair Log

I happened to come across two more Sega Saturn Sophias in non-working condition.
Symptoms are the same as my other repaired Sophia - See here for information, and here for photos.
First thing I did, since I had the old GQ-4X programmer out anyway was try dumping the two BIOS chips.
They are labelled "BTRD 1.003 94-10-13", which is the same as the Japanese unit I have (Oh yeah, these ones are European by the way...).
Now the contents seem to differ significantly between the Japanese and European units - to the point where I'd say the European ones are rubbish.
Both the European units have identical contents on their BIOS and swapping in the BIOS from the Japanese unit had no effect.

Here's a snap of the contents of the BIOS from the European units...
and here's the working BIOS from the Japanese unit...

Quite different aren't they? I'll probably either reflash the European chips (or buy some replacements to flash).
Here's a download link to the BIOS for the European Sophia, see if you can make any sense of it

Stay tuned for more on this project, I'm sure it will take me an extended period of time to complete like the last one

 

x

 

i just really want to ya kown... touch a sophia...

 

Search me! But to happen on two chips twice. Maybe I'm just not reading them properly... *glares at GQ-4X*
I'll just get some replacement chips that match the other Sophia I have, wouldn't mind a spare 27C4096 chip or two.

Hahaha, one day - these new ones are a lot less smoke covered. What does that mean? European developers aren't as cigarette addicted as the Japanese were in the mid-90s? Although one looks like someone spilt some bleach on the top of it... How does that even happen? Ughhh.

 

I think that might apply to Japanese in general. I got that PSX DESR-7100 from Japan and other misc PS2 related items and them all were caked in cigarette smoke. >_<

 

Ah-ha! Revisited this just now, sure am glad I made this post to remind me of what I was doing. Looks like I'd picked a generic 27C4096 instead of a HN27C4096G-12 which is more like a 27C800 class chip than a 27C4096 if I'm reading the devices.txt file right for the GQ-4X. The actual chip that I was attempting to dump was an MX 27C4096DC-12. Not surprisingly, the code is the same when compared with the 1.003 BIOS out in the wild. A datasheet could have probably told me that though, right?

What's weird though is that the HN27C4096G-10 reads perfectly with either a generic 27C4096 or the HN27C4096G-12 profile selected...

I've since found it's not just Japan! Adelaide is like that too, bought a Dreamcast steering wheel in box and the box... and oh dear it was overwhelming!