Help!!!

[Coleman]

OK i have a dreamcast that does not like to lpay games. It will go to the screen that says to insert game right in the middle of the game and then i tell it the game is in there. At this point it starts to load again and gets to various stages of loading before going back to this same screen. I cant understad what the problem is since it was working just fine and then all of a sudden started this crap! The advice that i keep on getting is to just buy another one since there pretty cheap... My concern is what happens when there not pretty cheap cause there all broke - are there alternative meathods of playing my dreamcast games (and all other cd based games for that matter) on a tv without an actual dreamcast? I don't want to aquire a collection of games that i wont be able to do anything with - thats why i collect video games... Any help out there?

[Damaramu]

Quick search of the Knowledge Database yielded:

THIS (http://www.digitpress.com/livefaq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=28&id=23&artlang=en).

[InsaneDavid]

I've said it many many times since it's usually always the problem - open it up, remove and reseat the power supply.

From a post about buying a Dreamcast in Classic Gaming (very hard to search for, I only found it because I remembered the words I used)...


Next problem, random resets, hanging upon bootup, random lockups, loss of video signal but power still on, etc. These are all usually caused by a poorly seated power supply and not a bad power supply. See, the DC power supply feeds power down through the different layers of DC components (the DC is built like a sandwich) through a series of posts that the power supply slides down onto. If a DC gets knocked around or the AC plug on the back is inserted and removed frequently, it can cause the power supply board to shift, which then causes fluxuations in powerflow to certain components. For instance I had a DC that had a poorly seated power supply (because I didn't reassemble it as patiently as I could have when swapping cases) and the DC would reset repeatedly whenever it would go to initalize a disc after the Dreamcast splash screen. Opened it up, removed the power supply board, slid it back down onto the posts, no problems for over a year now.

Make sure your DC is disconnected and you've had the power button down for a couple minutes to dissipate as much power as possible. Flip your DC over and remove all the screws on the bottom, then turn it back over and lift off the top. The long skinny board on the left side is the power supply board. There should be two or three (can't remember, it's been awhile) screws holding it down as well as a little plastic tab on the right. Take the screws out and carefully remove the power supply, pull it up and out. Watch your hands on the components here - I'm not responsible if you shock and/or kill yourself. LOL

Now you should see like five metal posts that come up through the bottom of the system. These posts are connected to the motherboard and are how power is distributed around your Dreamcast. You should have noticed that these posts also stick up through a connector on the power supply board. This is where the bad connection can occur.

Carefully push the power supply board back into place and screw it back down. Reconnect the power switch if you removed it when removing the power supply. Put the top shell back on your DC carefully, turn it over, and put the screws back in the bottom. That should do it.

I really need to sit my ass down soon and write a visual tutorial about this. It's simple enough but is such a common problem an easy to use visual tutorial should be out there.