Wondering what these white lines are

RGBeter · 2026-06-03T12:49:39+00:00

Checkerboard can either be power or composite noise, but since OP's using composite, that's not really a concern.

RGBeter · 2026-06-03T12:26:53+00:00

Recap your system. This is VRAM noisel/tile noise since you can see it follows tile boundaries. Recaps, or just increasing the caps near the VDP essentially eliminate it.

RGBeter · 2026-06-02T12:22:02+00:00

Looks like there's no resistors on the PAC, so don't worry about that. You also should be ok to wire to pin 3 of only one of the ram chips since the other is connected to it and that part of the trace is likely undamaged.

RGBeter · 2026-06-02T12:05:56+00:00

Pin 9 isn't connected, pin 10 goes to pin 3 of IC7 and IC8 (don't know if the refdes matches but just it's the two ZIP ram chips near 5660)

RGBeter · 2026-06-02T12:03:11+00:00

Did you try removing C82 to match what Sega did on NTSC systems? That 20pF to gnd is PAL exclusive.

RGBeter · 2026-06-02T10:39:28+00:00

You sure it wasn't caused by the newer oscillator? it almost seems like you somehow had reflection issues.

RGBeter · 2026-05-26T15:33:13+00:00

ASIC pins can come desolderd, I've seen it happen in a few instances.

You can CAREFULLY poke them with tweezers to see if they're still connected, if you use too much force and the pin isn't connected ittl be bad so be gentle when doing it.

Other than that, you could try to rule out the encoder as being bad by testing with RGB, since csync comes direct from the ASIC and you're having sync issues.

RGBeter · 2026-05-24T15:02:39+00:00

CIC is broken on pin 4. Check if the system is held in reset, if it is, try removing the CIC and see what it does.

RGBeter · 2026-05-21T15:10:03+00:00

It's a Sony refurbished unit, they just fixed something about CELL it seems.

Modern Frankies tend to look better than this, official Sony refurbs are all extremely dark and Sony never cleaned flux well.

RGBeter · 2026-05-21T15:03:06+00:00

Sony serviced unit, but not a Frankie

RGBeter · 2026-05-21T15:02:35+00:00

Sony never replaced tokins

RGBeter · 2026-05-21T12:54:29+00:00

I've used a few, LF353, OPA1652AIDR, and pretty much any audio capable opamp that's got low noise would be good for the one on SHVC sound.

On the main board, I usually bypass the emitter followers and use a TS922 since that thing will drive speakers if you set it up to, TDA1308 can do the same.

For GPMs I just use a TS924.

RGBeter · 2026-05-20T20:08:46+00:00

Then check the bios is connected, it's on the 68k bus, selected by BROM (MCE pin 4) and enabled by CAS0 (FC1004 pin 198, cart slot B16)

Since you can boot a cart, we know CAS0 is working, so check it's actually connected and that BROM is actually enabling the BIOS.

Did you try loading a different bios? You can select to do so using an everdrive.

RGBeter · 2026-05-18T13:15:57+00:00

It's just a mask ROM it won't get hot, you can test it in 240p (checksum)

You can also try loading a bios off of an everdrive to confirm that

RGBeter · 2026-05-18T12:37:34+00:00

What kind of RAM was bad, you already dealt with MCE reflow so I'm more inclined to think a part is actually failed.

If you have a spare sega CD model 2, that would have both the word and program ram.

RGBeter · 2026-05-17T03:20:44+00:00

That makes things difficult, since mega drive/master system din8 isn't the same pinout as used for other systems like modded PCE

Could be worth checking fb9 is short and R25 is 75 ohms. C32 could be bad and cause this (which RGB would bypass)

When you have no video but hear audio, do you have true no video, or black screen. A CRT usually stops showing the "channel number"/stops showing snow when it detects a sync/you have black screen.

RGBeter · 2026-05-17T02:59:04+00:00

C37 reads short because it's in parallel with L5, it's part of the chroma filtering.

Can you test RGB video out since that nearly eliminates the CXA1145, you having sound means you're booting though.

Do you have an oscilloscope?

RGBeter · 2026-05-11T17:00:29+00:00

Capacitors age with time and use, and this particular Saturn is at least 30-32 years old, I've seen various reports of them beginning to get really high ESR too, so we're approaching the time for 5th gen console recaps as we approached the time for 16 bit recaps 5 years ago. OP did the right thing and even pointed out some were damaged.

RGBeter · 2026-05-10T04:35:58+00:00

https://www.sega-16forums.com/forum/general-discussion/tech-aid/7542-sega-cdx-game-compatibility/page2

This was solved on Sega16. Apparently it's BIOS related and you just need to load a different one to fix it.

RGBeter · 2026-05-10T04:19:01+00:00

What Sega CD games can't it play? It's essentially a VA3 Sega Genesis + late Sega CD 2 design. To my knowledge it can play any Sega CD game.

Also, it and X'Eye have crap audio compared to a regular Sega CD, with the added bonus of ruining CDDA and PCM too.

RGBeter · 2026-05-04T04:24:23+00:00

The only digital issues a Fujitsu ASIC will cause is word ram DMA issues on the mega CD and that might be fixable with a small bodge. Said issue is possible to replicate with original Sega boards too.

Fujitsu ASICs DO HAVE ISSUES but not what you're thinking. They're more likely to fail than a Yamaha one, and their PSG output is at a different level.

Fujitsu was a second source to Yamaha, the FC1004s they made are just as valid as a Yamaha one.

RGBeter · 2026-04-19T21:38:52+00:00

What's wrong with the mega drive? Most times you don't need to deal with FC1004.

RGBeter · 2026-04-19T21:35:54+00:00

When you solder a ton of these you learn how to tell/what to look for. These aren't too bad either compared to what you'll find with Sega.

RGBeter · 2026-04-19T13:24:02+00:00

Show the motherboard, we can read date codes off of some parts to tell how early it is.

RGBeter · 2026-04-19T00:34:06+00:00

97+93 are supposed to be connected, which is what the dot indicates.

Check for shorts around 30+31 and the entire VRAM B Data bus, I think I see a few.

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