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I got Saturn Problems...
Rorscach - Aug 16, 2002
  Rorscach Aug 16, 2002
Howee! Well, I got a question for you all concerning my Saturn!

I'm no mechanic or engineer, but i can tell a problem when i see one, and this here is a problem. Yep.

Lately, I've been playing Sega AM2 games, and every so often the sprites/polys would simply dissapear. From an odd annoyance, this has become a somwehat regular occurance, and it's affecting all my games like a whore with leprosy. Now i'm no leper, but I'm thinking that my Model 1 Saturn's Fucked. And yes, Fucked deserved a capital.

I don't wanna sound desparate, but i wanna know what's wrong and how i can fix it. When the sprites dissapear, it usually happens at a screen change (i.e. Round 2 of Fighting Vipers) and causes garbage-like static lines around the screen. Afer such an occurance, even the 'Saturn loading sccreen' becomes botched. And yes, i remove the old game and try a new one...

I'm also swapping so...that could be it. Oh, woe is me...What can i do? Any help in advance...yadda yadda...thanks... ???

From an existential lemur who has just discovered the bliss that is Dynamite Heady. Man that's one great game!

 ExCyber Aug 16, 2002

  
	
	

		
		

			I don't wanna sound desparate, but i wanna know what's wrong and how i can fix it. When the sprites dissapear, it usually happens at a screen change (i.e. Round 2 of Fighting Vipers) and causes garbage-like static lines around the screen. Afer such an occurance, even the 'Saturn loading sccreen' becomes botched.


I'm not really an expert in these matters, but it sounds like your VDP1 is getting bad power or a bad clock signal. This could be caused by a flaky solder joint on the appropriate pins, or perhaps a problem with its bypass capacitor. This may be fixable, but it would probably be a bit tough to do.


  
	
	

		
		

			I'm also swapping so...that could be it.


That is almost certainly not it. You'd be more likely to see other problems such as crashes, texture corruption, background table corruption, and audio corruption as well if you were screwing up the disk or drive by swapping.

 Rorscach Aug 16, 2002
So swapping's good hey... I'm glad to hear it!

But on a different note, I've given the Saturn a test run with a few different games and they all ran perefecty. Flawlessly. Unbelievably good-like-ey. Yes.

What you said with the pins being loosened, thus incompleting the circuit(?) could be true, and probably accounts for the inconsitency in service..Like Burger King...man i hate that place...

I know you're no expert, and i sure as hell ain't, so it'd be unwise for a sheep to follow a goat (your'e the wiser on this issue ExCyber...hence the goat reference). If anyone has any more help it'd be great, otherwise i'ma gonna hafta get dirty with the machine and take a photo of the inside. Eh, it's not so bad...

 ExCyber Aug 16, 2002

  
	
	

		
		

			I've given the Saturn a test run with a few different games and they all ran perefecty. Flawlessly. Unbelievably good-like-ey. Yes.


That could point to a power problem, then. Different operations put different demands on power, so there could be something that the AM2 games are doing that pushes power usage over the edge and causes some funky brownout effects.


  
	
	

		
		

			I know you're no expert


Sure I am... just not when it comes to diagnosing Saturn hardware problems.

 Rorscach Aug 17, 2002
LOL! Well, thanks for attempting to help, but i think i've figured it out -in retards terms anyway. You know the cable shaped like an 8 that plugs into the back of the saturn? (AV cable i think it is...) Well, I've been playing around with it, and have been hearing the old electrical 'click.' I had the same problem with the old PS1 1002, where i'd get an incomplete circuit with the AV cable, letting off the odd spark or two. Needless to say we fixed it and all is well. So, i'll try to get to the bottom of this. And thank's for the golden advice ExCyber!