Making a Disc Spin Without Switch!

Hello,

I have a problem with my Dreamcast. I've had it for a while now, no problems ever except the one now. My Switch is broke, the one that spins discs when the case cover is shut. I play my Dreamcast without the cover everytime. But I accident lost my Switch as it fell off, inside the Switch was a gold 'z' shape metal. I lost it. So now I need to get my Dreamcast to spin discs without a switch or adding another.

My dad's tried all he called to get it to work, he even soldered some new wire to make it 'always' spin. But didn't do a thing. So if someone can help, it is well appreciated.

If you know how or what I should do to make my Dreamcast spin discs, please tell me.

And, if it requires more soldering, that's not a problem, just be sure to let me know.

Huge thanks,
Regards,
Shindou Hikaru

I would recommend using www.yesasia.com/? to find what you need to repair your Dreamcast.

I'll post a pic of the GD rom assembly circuit board and where to solder to to add in a switch to make it think the drive door is shut. I may be a few days as im quite busy lately.

Are you in the UK? i could send you a replacement, PM me. I wouldnt recommend Liksang as most stuff is really overpriced when it comes to spare parts.

Thanks ptr, and yes I am in the UK... and if I asked, if you were giving out a whole new Dreamcast, what will you say?

But if not, then I'll just need a GD rom chip board.

Hikaru501, if you asked me about a week ago I would of happily sold you one cheap (i had 4 to spare) but in the last week I sold three to mates and stuff as I have too much stuff, but I wanna keep the last spare one for new mods etc.

I can sell you the gd-rom board quite cheap as the DC it came from has a dead mobo, so its spare, PM me if you're interested.

I'll post that pic tommorow showing where to solder, but the chances are your dad got it right as there arent many places to go wrong, maybe the whole board is dead?

Well how much are you willing to sell it for?

And, if the board is dead, I'll tell you once my dad tries re-soldering it correctly (if he did make mistakes). =)

And also thanks for helping out.

Okay, i cant find any batteries for my camera, so this will have to do:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...h/dcSWITCH.jpg

this pic is of the under side of the GD-ROM controller board, underneath the switch, it should be in the corner. If you cant recognise this then post as you may have a differant revision DC, this is very unlikely though.

All you need to do is solder a bridge between points 1 and 2, the red numbers arent actually on you circuit board, but solder a wire/bridge between the two solder blobs marked 1 and 2.

Or alternatively, solder the two small solder blobs inside the white square marked C138 together, it will have the same effect.

Basically what you are doing is grounding the small trace that leaves off below where it says C138, this is what the closed switch would do.

Hope this helps :)

Thanks ptr. It looks like my dad was doing it wrong. But if it doesn't work this time, that means my dad must of melted the metal in the middle :/

If it doesn't work, may I PM you about the offer about GD-ROM?

Nope, didn't do a thing. This time the disc won't even spin on startup.

I think my board is dead, or maybe not. Because if I put a small soldered wire going to the opposite side, it spins on startup then stops. Oh well.

By the way ptr, I sent you a PM on about the GD-ROM. =)

Hi ptr, thanks for all your help and effort in helping with my son's problem I found that the ribbon laser cable was completly open circuit, so repaced with one from an old hard drive. It's not the right cable length but the same number of pin connections.