VA0 Dreamcast link83 bios replacement help

ok i fust fitted a 29f160 i got pre programmed from Bad_Ad84 to my dc va0
i just get a black screen
(done 2 other dc's last few days but they are va1 with 29vf160 , both work fine)

see pics of va0 -



pin 1 lifted soldered to pin 23 thats lifted and joined to pin 1 of the IC302

pin 44 lifted and soldered to pin 7 of IC502

not sure this is quite right for a va0 with 5v bios chip

can anyone help ?

 

Pin 23 should not be lifted. It should be connected to pad 23. You should remove the wire from pin 1 of IC302

Those chips are 5v, the wiring you are doing is for a 3.3v chip (and doesnt work very well)

Also, you should swap the wires going to pin 1 and pin 44 (it will work the way you have connected it, but you wont be able to write to it)

 

so it should look like this ?

with pin 23 connected to the board

many thanks

 

correct

 

thanks very much
works spot on now :encouragement:

 

I will (eventually) do some installation instructions for the stuff I sell. Just lack of time.

I have write access to mmmonkey now (thanks pete!) so I can update his guide

 

that's what i was going by for the instructions ,i couldn't find any pics of a va0 with the 5v chip fitted , so i just went with those

but all sorted now , thanks very much for your awesome customer support :encouragement:

 

I'm now confused... I don't have a VA0 but I don't want to go wrong following the guide on mmmonkey. I'm going to install a switch for mine, is the mmmonkey guide correct?

 

You dont have a VA0 (which is what this thread is about), so why wouldnt it be?

 

IF you have a VA1 or VA2 Board the mmmonkey guide is correct (not sure if it works with the VA0 as i dont have one). did this mod not too long ago (the one that can switch between bios's). all i can say is if your inexperienced with soldering take some time with a Old/Dead circuit board and practice adding solder to the legs like the one on the dreamcast board and then do the mod. i have a dead dreamcast VA1 board (because i put a long screw in the GD-Rom assembly) that i practice with before i do any modifcations to any consoles whatsoever. good luck buddy!

*Update* It does boot-up self-booting backups (CDI's) .

 

link83 supports backups just fine...

 

Indeed the link83 modified BIOS supports backups just fine, booted one last week on a freshly flashed Dreamcast. This sort of misinformation gets caught up in Google resulting in fun problems for people.

 

It does? hmm it must of been a bad rip or something. im gonna try again. there was this video on youtube someone did the mod with out the switch and supposedly it wasn't able to run backups.



*Update* Wow. it does boot up. shit my bad. looks like buddy is a moron.

 

It 110% runs backups

 

hahahaha. i guess thats another lesson learned dont trust anyone about these thing's unless Assembler forums says so .

 

Awesome - this thread has just answered the same question I was going to ask.

I did the exact same thing last night!

 

Just a word of warning, I've heard that running burnt disks on a Dreamcast can stress the laser, so maybe avoid playing backups. It's not like DC games are expensive or anything, you can pick up brand new sealed games for under $10.

 

Copied discs are "harder" to read than pressed discs. This is across the board. You worry far too much about things that dont really need worrying about.

Uhm, you only bought VA1 chips - you shouldnt follow the installation in this thread

 

Dam! I didn't think there was a difference. I need some VA0 chips then as got acouple of early jap DC's to do.

 

Here some new schematics to avoid further confusion: