Sega Dreamcast repair question please help me.

[nesfanatic]

I am looking for some help regarding a recently purchased Sega Dreamcast. The unit was manufactured in September of 1999 but is not functioning for me. I have tested the av cord and the power supply on another console and I have tested the controllers on another console and everyhting works fine. The problem I am having is that the unit when powered up does not seem to recognize that controllers are plugged into the proper ports. I have tried three different controllers and none work on this unit. All of the controllers work well on my second console. Any suggestions? Could something need cleaning? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

This is a fairly common problem. I'd say there's a good 90% chance that all you need to do is open it up, and replace a resistor on the board that the controllers plug into.

I'd post a link to a site, but apparently my company's DNS servers are messed up so I only have access to about a 1/3 of the internet right now >

[hydr0x]

another question, i've got a 2nd dreamcast that isn't working, power supply works, menu works, but it doesn't "find" any disc. Assuming that the laser is defect, would i be able to repair this on my own? where do i get a laser from? what does it cost? is it worth the trouble? thx

[dreamcaster]

Replacing the entire laser assembly is easy - replacing the lense itself is tricky.

If you know what you're doing, the entire laser assembly is very easy to remove/replace.