DC Hardware problem - please help!

[slak]

Hello there folks!

I'm a newbie to this forum (well, to posting on it anyway :rolleyes: ) but I was wondering if anyone could give me a hand.

I've had my current DC for a few months now (my old one as sold a couple of years ago - I regretted it and now have another :D ) and had been running fine until about a week ago. Suddenly, usually upon it's first boot for a few hours, it restarted itself a few minutes into playing a game, and sometimes even did it twice, but then carried on as normal. Before this all games had played fine.

Now, about a week on, it's unusable. I can't play any game, it wont go more than a minute without rebooting, and as of the time of posting, it wont boot at all. It doesn't "reboot" as such, the screen flashes white and then stays black for a few seconds, flashes again, and then reboots, for a few seconds, and then the flashing starts again etc. It's very bizzare! I've just turned it on, and all I have is a black screen, with or without a disc :-( I've tried different discs, VMU no VMU, a different power lead. I thought it may have been the fan after reading other posts but it sounds like it's running fine and when placing my hand next to it, you can feel the air blowing out.

Could it be a problem with the power board? It can't be the laser if it wont start up at all, even without a disc in. Any help would be VERY much appreciated, as at the moment I'm completely bewildered.

I may be able to try and post an mpeg video of what happens if it would help anyone (might have to wait 'till the weekend so I can access the right PC for the job though :-P) Thanks again!

[Saoshyant]

I have heard of a similar problem before. A friend (RX, never more saw him :/ ) showed me these pics on what you are supposed to fix. I suppose it can work here in this case too.

http://www.geocities.com/ice_darkrose/stuff/dc-fix1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/ice_darkrose/stuff/dc-fix2.jpg

I don't know how to post the images directly with this forum software, I really hate vBulletin -_-... Hope it helps anyway.

[slak]

Cheers mate :) I shall give it a try and let you know the outcome :p

[Mekanaizer]

Hi

Here is the help you will need to solve your DC problem:
http://www.consolevision.com/members/fackue/tut_resetfix.shtml

Now, thanks goto Fackue for this wonderful tut that even i used it to fix some DC's. So Fackue ;-)

-Mekanaizer-

[slak]

The problem that that page describes sounds exactly like mine, and it would make sense, so I'll give that a go. If that doesn't work I'll give the first suggested method a try. Thankyou both for your help, I'm hoping one of the solutions works! I'll post back on here to let you know!

Just can't believe it went wrong overnight! :confused:

[Darksaviour69]

it random reset is the most common problem, it happened to me, but the good thing is easy to fix

[Cap'n 1time]

I one had a problem where my DC would boot up and have this funky green shade to everything. So I performed a difficult this difficult operation to go about fixing it.

1: Turn your Dreamcast on its back and lay it on the carpet.
2: Hit it really hard.
3: repeat as needed

If your dreamcast still acts funky... dont hit it any more, its probably dead.

This dosnt help you much... but i sure enjoyed typing this out!

[slak]

Seems like quite a few peeps have had this problem! It is qute sucky, but like you say, at least the fix i srelatively easy. I'm giving it a go tomorrow. And if worst comes to worst, I'll use 1timeuser's technique! ;)

[ptr.exe]

1timeuser, did you fix that problem? ive got a DC that outputs a completely ****ed Hsync, and has a dark grey shade over everything. Im completely at a loss on how to fix it as ive never heard of anyone having this problem.

[slak]

Hi

Here is the help you will need to solve your DC problem:
http://www.consolevision.com/members/fackue/tut_resetfix.shtml

Now, thanks goto Fackue for this wonderful tut that even i used it to fix some DC's. So Fackue ;-)

-Mekanaizer-


Have just tried this method (I finally found my screwdriver kit ;) ) and now my DreamCast works perfectly! Thankyou, you're a life saver! The guide was brilliant, described everything superbly. Thankyou ever so much. I am now going to go and very happily play Chu Chu Rocket with friends :D