Need help with a non starting Dreamcast

[erehwon]

I recently picked up a working dreamcast at a garage sale and the lady threw in this non-working one along with it. I tested it and it started up and I got to the menu. I hit open, put a disk in, and shortly after I close the lid, it shuts down. After that it would not start up. Could someone give me a clue of what's wrong?

[davidleeroth]

The Knowledge Base here is a great place to start for this kind of stuff. Main page -> Knowledge Base (on the left frame) -> Sega Systems -> Dreamcast.

[erehwon]

I checked that before I posted and the only topic was one on DC's that constantly reset. The only thing I could get from that is that I might have a bad power supply. I wonder how hard that might be to replace.

[InsaneDavid]

I've said it many times because you'd be amazed at how much this question comes up but is dismissed as other things. More than likely you're power supply isn't bad, it probably just needs to be reseated. Here's some information that I posted in other threads that should help you...


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.

[erehwon]

Thanks for the tip. I tried it, but it didn't work. I pulled it off and put it back on. It booted back up. I tried putting a disc in and it shut down. I pushed down on the power supply and it started again. This time i put the disk in and slowly closed the lid. I didn't get it all the way down and it shut off. Could the issue be with the drive?

[SkiDragon]

Its only when you close the lid? How long does it stay on if you leave the lid open?

[InsaneDavid]

When it "shuts down" what happens exactly? Does the power light stay on? Is it still sending a signal to the TV but no picture? Do you still hear an audio signal being produced? Can you hear the drive motor running? etc.

Sometimes, related to the power supply reseat thing, the problems happen when the GD-ROM drive spins up and spins down during disc initalization. Usually the power supply just got knocked a little loose from the rest of the system. However you may want to try a full disassemble down to the bottom of the system shell, and then replug and reseat everything. It still sounds to me like there's something shorting or not connected properly - usually both caused by the system taking a good fall. Probably wrong however. LOL

[erehwon]

When it shuts down, it does just that. Light goes out and so does video. I don't recall any audio. I don't know if the drive ever spun up. I even tried reseating the power supply and trying to start it up with a disk inside it from the begining. It wouldn't start up at all.

[InsaneDavid]

Light goes out...

Alright, then it's not a loose connection somewhere. The power supply board could be bad but I haven't seen that symptom in a LONG time and don't remember what I did to fix it - sorry. :/

[alec006]

If you cant fix your problem in anyway possible,you can try this website i had found when i had my problem with the controller ports then later fixed with a simple short LOL ,you can actally replace the parts for reasonable prices,again this is if you have tried everything to fix it. http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/d-main.htm

My friend had ordered some stuff from them and i belive he said it took about 3-5 weeks to get to the US becuase it was comming from Hong Kong. Hope this helps.

[johno590]

Wow, I just bought a Dreamcast and I am having this EXACT problem.

I turn on the dreamcast and it is working fine. I open it up and put a disc in, start to close the lid and boom. Everything goes away. You can see the disc start to spin and then nothing. I took EVERYTHING apart in the dreamcast, and still does the same thing. Whenever the lid closes with a disc in, it just shuts off. And then it won't come back on for a while. You have it give it some time until it'll come back on... weird.

Any help would be appreciated.

[InsaneDavid]

Wow, I just bought a Dreamcast and I am having this EXACT problem.

I turn on the dreamcast and it is working fine. I open it up and put a disc in, start to close the lid and boom. Everything goes away. You can see the disc start to spin and then nothing. I took EVERYTHING apart in the dreamcast, and still does the same thing. Whenever the lid closes with a disc in, it just shuts off. And then it won't come back on for a while. You have it give it some time until it'll come back on... weird.

Any help would be appreciated.

It is possible that the power supply is just bad - it does happen. Thank you for attempting to reseat everything first, I love when people listen. :)

[johno590]

With the top of the case off, If I put pressure on the cd spindle thing and press the little lever, it will spin no problem (and the laser-reader is moving up and down trying to read a cd), but as soon as I put a cd on the spindle and press the little lever it shuts off...

Are you sure that is a power problem? (Im not saying its not, but for some reason that just doesn't make sense to me)

[InsaneDavid]

With the top of the case off, If I put pressure on the cd spindle thing and press the little lever, it will spin no problem (and the laser-reader is moving up and down trying to read a cd), but as soon as I put a cd on the spindle and press the little lever it shuts off...

Are you sure that is a power problem? (Im not saying its not, but for some reason that just doesn't make sense to me)

It could very well be something else. When a Dreamcast loads a CD it throttles the CD speed up and down - of course this is controlled by increasing / decreasing power to the spindle motor which is effected by the power supply. There could be a short somewhere in your drive.

[johno590]

Well I just bought another Dreamcast off ebay, so maybe Ill try putting the new board in the old one and see if it works... If not, oh well.

[InsaneDavid]

Well I just bought another Dreamcast off ebay, so maybe Ill try putting the new board in the old one and see if it works... If not, oh well.

If anything it may lead you to figure out if there was a bad component in the first Dreamcast / what the bad component was.

[johno590]

Welp, I got my new Dreamcast today and put in the power supply in my old DC, and it is still doing the same thing. So now I have no clue what the problem is haha.

[erehwon]

Welp, I got my new Dreamcast today and put in the power supply in my old DC, and it is still doing the same thing. So now I have no clue what the problem is haha.
I haven't looked into this for awhile, but I've been thinking of trying to fix it again. What johno590 did is interesting, I've been thinking of trying that as well. When I got this non-working dreamcast, it was bundled with a working one. I was thinking of switching out the PS or disc drive. Before I did that, there is something I thought I should ask. Did Sega do different models of the dreamcast with some having different parts? If there are different models, are there incompatabilities between them? I don't want to switch out the power supply and damage it.

[erehwon]

I picked up another dreamcast at a garage sale yesterday. It had a label saying it was broken. I got it for parts, but it ended up working when I powered it up. I tried the power supply swap with no success. One thing I did do was take a closer look as I tried to recreate the problem, after I switched power supplies back. I was able to power up the broken dreamcast as normal, without a disc. I put the disc in and watched closely as I slowly closed the lid. I noticed at the point where I'm just about to close the lid, the drive spins up just a little and then the system shuts down like everyother time I've tried. Does this mean the problem is with the drive?

I really don't need to fix this dreamcast, but I really want to figure this out.

[johno590]

I picked up another dreamcast at a garage sale yesterday. It had a label saying it was broken. I got it for parts, but it ended up working when I powered it up. I tried the power supply swap with no success. One thing I did do was take a closer look as I tried to recreate the problem, after I switched power supplies back. I was able to power up the broken dreamcast as normal, without a disc. I put the disc in and watched closely as I slowly closed the lid. I noticed at the point where I'm just about to close the lid, the drive spins up just a little and then the system shuts down like everyother time I've tried. Does this mean the problem is with the drive?

I really don't need to fix this dreamcast, but I really want to figure this out.
That's exactly what mine does. As soon as its about to read the disc it shuts down.

[Slate]

I picked up another dreamcast at a garage sale yesterday. It had a label saying it was broken. I got it for parts, but it ended up working when I powered it up. I tried the power supply swap with no success. One thing I did do was take a closer look as I tried to recreate the problem, after I switched power supplies back. I was able to power up the broken dreamcast as normal, without a disc. I put the disc in and watched closely as I slowly closed the lid. I noticed at the point where I'm just about to close the lid, the drive spins up just a little and then the system shuts down like everyother time I've tried. Does this mean the problem is with the drive?

I really don't need to fix this dreamcast, but I really want to figure this out.
That's exactly what mine does. As soon as its about to read the disc it shuts down.

This sounds more like a software problem, Maybe this dreamcast was used online while it lasted and downloaded a virus accidentally?

[Niku-Sama]

it sounds like to me something in the lend assembly/motor area is shorting out, those come apart really easily.

i rember a long time ago hearing something along those lines, the GD rom unit would go bad or get out fo wack thus giving way to the nick name

"God Damn Rom unit"