I just bought a dreamcast a couple of weeks ago. Everything was working fine till today. I had left it on, and came back later to find it off, and it won't turn on. I took the cover off and looked at the power supple and didn't notice any blown fuses or capacitors but I didn't notice anything amiss. If I take the power cable out and plug it back in, every now and then the power LED will flash on for a moment. Anybody have any idea what the problem might be? I'm alright with a soldering iron so if the fix requires something like that, I can do it. What I can't do is take pictures. Sorry, but something's up with my phone and nothing can write to the SD card. Pretty much everything I have is broken or breaking :v: EDIT: Oh and I have a multimeter. Just tell me where you'd like me test the voltage and what setting I should usee.
Gently unscrew and lift the powersupply up off the base/motherboard. You'll notice a series of about 6-8 long pins about 2/3rds down from the back panel that the power supply used to sit over and through. Gently push the pins back towards the back panel, bending them slightly, be careful not to snap them or break the connection to the base. Resit the power supply back over the pins and try powering on again.
I tried that, but I've still got the same problem. I may not have bent them enough though, because I was real nervous about snapping them. I wish there was a picture of some kind to show how far they should be bent. Edit: Tried it again. I know I bent the contacts enough because I hard to pull back on the board to get the socket end of the power supply in. Still the same problem.
I would have never suggested bending them, but whatever. I had the same problem with mine years ago, it got worse over time. I pulled the part off of the pins, cleaned the pins with rubbing alcohol, and I has worked perfectly for the last 5+ years since then. Cleaning them should be the only thing you need to do.
Cleaning them didn't work either. I disassembled the whole thing, wondering if it overheated and ruined something on the main board itself. I didn't notice anything wrong, though, and the problem remains the same.
Wow...fuck me. While browsing, I came across a forum post with someone having a similar problem. They said removing the disk drive and powering on the DC worked for them (but obviously, you can't do anything with it). So I tried it with mine for kicks, and my DC stayed on. So...my power supply is somehow not giving enough juice to the GD-ROM? How does that happen?
I'm guessing corrosion on the pins is creating resistance to the current? Give em a real good polish and clean and also with the pins to the GD-rom. Otherwise, I'm at a loss.
I'll give that a try on the GD-ROM pins later (the power pins are spotless). With any luck, that'll do the trick. Though I'm not a very lucky guy :v:
Bumping this cause I had the same problem and fixed my Dreamcast: The issue for me was that the motor that drives the lens shorted (stopped rotating) causing the Dreamcast to fail to power up. I removed the said motor, soldered in a new one (same serial #), and viola - Dreamcast is now chugging along. Also: Cutting out the motor and putting the GD-Rom assembly back should allow it to continue powering up. This can be used to at least validate it is the motor. Edit: Under NO circumstance touch the potentiometer for the laser. It is rarely the solution to any Dreamcast problem and getting it wrong is a death sentence to the whole drive.
That is probably what killed my dreamcast. Last thing that I tried was a complicated motor repair. I eventually just gave up trying to open it properly and just wanted to see what it looked like on the inside. Then I just wrote off the whole thing. I wish I didn't get as frustrated as I did, cause if I had kept my cool I probably would've thought to try to find a motor replacement instead of trying a risky repair.. It's something to keep in mind for the future though if I buy myself another one.
(Please, please, please: the word you're looking for is "voilà". "Viola" is the past tense of "to rape").
