Randomly Freezing Saturn

[richi902]

hi,

i have a problem with my saturn,

sometimes it turns on without a problem, and i could then also play for hours without a problem.
but then sometimes, it randomly freezes in the middle of games, the bios menu, and somtimes just gives a black-screen when turning it on,
and i also noticed, the screen is also sometimes slighty distored, like it has problems with the sync.

so i'm not really sure what may cause this problem.

maybe some bad chips on the mainboard?
i couldnt find anything that looks like bad solderjoints.

it has no modchip, but a 50/60hz switch.
i'm not sure which exact model it is(forgot to look at it), but the mainboard looks like the "PC BD SATURN MAIN VA9".

.richie


P.S. right now it works fine, playing pal original sega-rally

[Druid II]

The sync problem is normal for that model. Either the power supply or the cd-rom is not shielded, and they mess with the sync signal whenever the cd drive is working. It really only shows on my plasma screen though, and never on CRT.

The freeze probably happens because of some dust or other objects on the motherboard that shouldn't be there. I've fixed a bunch of machines that froze up exactly like yours (they were also model 2 VA9 boards as well), and they all just had to be cleaned up because they had some foreign object stuck inside. The last one I cleaned had a pebble the size of my thumb inside, underneath the video output, I can't even imagine how that thing got in the machine...

[TheRedKnight]

The last one I cleaned had a pebble the size of my thumb inside, underneath the video output, I can't even imagine how that thing got in the machine...

[richi902]

it is working fine since a few houres, playing different games,
but i will try cleaning the mainboard later, thanks for the hint.

[HEX1GON]

Yep, it's dirt on the motherboard, happened with mine.