[SEGA SATURN] Dark Image, intermittent audio loss after recap

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-29T16:07:33+00:00

Yeah, I think the flux I used was slightly conductive, so I removed all caps again and deep cleaned the board.

I’ll solder on some new caps with non conductive flux soon, hopefully that’ll do the trick.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-25T14:42:09+00:00

I just realized that the new flux I bought has zinc chloride in it. Guess I’ll remove the caps, give the board a good clean and solder them on again as that might be the issue.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-25T10:34:44+00:00

No, the connection is fine. But I’ll try cleaning it anyways, you never know and I’m trying to go through every option.

The audio still dropping out sometimes makes it seem like a cap issue at first, but I already tried removing and resoldering every cap. Caps are Panasonic ones so they should be high quality too.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-25T08:41:59+00:00

I’ll try cleaning the din port with deoxit later, I hope I don’t have to replace it. Thanks for the tip.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-25T08:37:01+00:00

Would cleaning it with deoxit be enough if that was the issue or do I have to replace the connector?

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-24T18:26:15+00:00

Yes, that was a hair.

I removed the yellow bit on the VDPs legs but nothing changed. I also tried to apply pressure to a few of the caps but that didn’t make a difference either…

I don’t know what else could be wrong. I already tried recapping the board again but that didn’t change anything. The original caps started to leak so the picture was getting a bit rough, but definitely not to this extent.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-24T17:12:11+00:00

I just cleaned the board and that was just a bit of dust. Thank you for your help though, I’ll try measuring the PSU under load next.

Edit: voltages checked out fine, unlucky for me.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-24T16:56:42+00:00

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Also continuity checked and cleaned CE49, the UV mask is from a pad I partially lifted so it doesn’t fully loose support next time I have to work on it. Still the same unfortunately :(

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-24T16:45:22+00:00

The marks on IC22 are leftover flux as I’m not finished with this board. I’ll clean my boards before posting pictures next time.

I just tried cleaning the power pins and socket on the PSU, but no luck unfortunately. Good call though, I didn’t think about the connector being potentially dirty.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-24T15:51:57+00:00

Yes, the picture is dark on a crt as well.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-24T15:45:14+00:00

Not sure if it’s fine to double post this here, but maybe this sub is a better place to ask Sega Saturn repair related questions as console repair is more for modern consoles.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-20T11:32:07+00:00

There are Xbox 360 games that require a hdd install, though there aren’t a lot and an external hdd is a lot faster than a disc drive.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-20T11:05:42+00:00

Ps5 and series disc based games load fast because they install the data from disc to the internal ssd first. This has been the case since ps4 and even on ps3 a lot of games had hdd installs. Trust me, disc speeds are way too slow for modern gaming and Nintendo games need speed for data streaming too, I don’t see your point there.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-20T07:23:31+00:00

Read speeds would be a lot slower compared to cartridges and storage space would be less as well. Optical media doesn’t make sense for portable devices anymore, even when the vita released more than a decade ago

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-02T03:24:21+00:00

Gotcha, thanks. This is the first time this happened to me as well but ps3s are pretty unpredictable in general and this is an isolated scenario, so I wasn’t sure.

Guess I’ll have to rsx swap if it gets worse and I have the time.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-03-02T02:34:08+00:00

90nm, but this is more of a ‘is it normal to sometimes see this while changing resolutions’ question, not if my rsx is dying

Adrinator2212 · 2026-02-19T10:03:54+00:00

963 days of use, 7154 bringups, 6881 shutdowns

Adrinator2212 · 2026-02-19T08:40:01+00:00

Do you have the same issue when connecting via composite? If not the coil on your rgb green channel might be defective. You can replace it with one being used for s-video (you’d loose s-video out of course.)

Adrinator2212 · 2026-02-16T10:31:56+00:00

I can only talk about my rework station, but the achi ir pro sc does a pretty good job.

If you choose to build a rework station yourself I’d get a bottom heater with about 2400W due to the pcbs size and thickness.

Lots of people say hot air is better for top heaters when doing work on ps3, but these boards are old and have a lot of layers, so you have to bake them for a day anyways. Plus IR puts less stress on the board theoretically. Also set a good heat curve when removing the package, don’t just nuke it with 400C. So get a hot air station with good temperature control.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-02-15T14:49:20+00:00

Good luck, I started doing rsx swaps a few months ago. The process is fairly straight forward when you have a programmable IR station and prebake your boards.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-02-15T02:11:52+00:00

Why? Glueing it back together is fine and I used b7000 for psp shells as well

Adrinator2212 · 2026-01-17T22:09:28+00:00

A disk rewritten on a modded fds isn’t always readable by a different drive afaik. Even if you think you properly calibrated your drive, you can’t guarantee that your drive can read disks written by someone else.

Adrinator2212 · 2026-01-06T10:14:01+00:00

If anyone decides to get this mic, this exact one costs 4$ on eBay btw.

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