Saturn drive not working, where does this loose cable go?

[usman]

Much thanks in advance to anyone who can help with this.

Have a Saturn with ENR 007 board with laser not working at all. Seems to have no power? There is a loose red cable. The one I'm holding in the photo below.

I have an idea of where it's supposed to be, the connector thing on the boards with 4 wires running out-of it, as my Hitachi HiSaturn has a similar cable going there. However I have no idea how to get it in there.



Here is the Hitachi HiSaturn board with a similar yellow wire going into the connector thingy on the board :


I'm worried I'll rip the thing right off and have no soldering ability or equipment, so was hoping to get advice here on how to sort this. No joy in searching google etc, although I'm probably using the wrong terms in search as I know jack all about these things.

[speedlolita]

Both machines have a modchip.

The second one, you can remove that green plug from the white and you'll be able to remove that grey wire. That grey wire is only to provide the modchip with 5V.

The red wire on the first one also appears to be 5V. Perhaps the circuit isn't complete in the chip when the chip isn't powered. Try removing the chip from the equation if you have no soldering ability.

[randombs]

It looks like the red wire was meant to be shoved into the 5v pin from the row of 5 on the PSU. I did that with my Saturn's modchip when I was testing it(although I later soldered it to keep it secure). You can click the picture to visit the guide I took it from:

Lift the power supply up a bit off the metal spikes. Then push the wire into the clamp and push the power supply down again onto the metal spikes. Try to pull the cable a little bit to make sure it is clamped tight

If you do this, please make doubly sure you're connecting to 5v and not 9v. Don't just follow the image. All the Saturns I've come across have 5v in the same place but it's best not to assume yours is the same.

Or, as Speedy said, you can remove the mod chip and just connect the CD drive's white ribbon connector directly to the Saturn's motherboard. I agree that would be the best way to check if the drive is actually ok because right now the unpowered modchip is blocking the signals. I saw the same thing when I did mine which is why I soldered the wire.

In both cases, it looks like whoever did it either wanted it to be easily reversible or had too much faith in things just staying put

[speedlolita]

I always solder the 5V connection to the underside of the motherboard myself, or directly to the pin coming up from the motherboard.

Secure connection ftw.

[usman]

Thanks very much guys. I ended up just pulling out the modchip I had no idea was even on there. But now I've connected yhe ribbon cable back directly, there's nothing. No video output and access light is not coming on. Have I possibly fried something?��

[usman]

Never mind the above....was pushing the ribbon cable in the wrong way. Only realised this when I'd decimated the connector bits. Im such an imbecile with these things, as clueless as a two-year old girl who probably betters me in dexterity, too. Will try to find a replacement locally tomorrow morning and see if that works.

Many thanks @randombs and @speedlolita

[randombs]

Sexist!

Glad you got it sorted, though

I did the same thing, once, don't worry!

[usman]

Yes defo sexist, edited for weird momentary misogyny. I don't even talk like that, actually tell off people who say 'crying like a girl' et al. Stupid thing to say.

Thanks mate, I may bother you guys again if my effort tomorrow fails also! but I'm hopeful it's a simple fix

[randombs]

Hopefully. I love seeing the insides of Saturns

Haha, loving the edit!

[usman]

Hopefully. I love seeing the insides of Saturns

Haha, loving the edit!

By the way, is it a 20-pin ribbon cable I should be asking for? Apologies, totally clueless

[randombs]

I'm not sure. In my experience, the Saturns with oval shaped buttons had 20 pin cables and the ones with the round, grey buttons had 21 pin cables.

I suppose you could just count or have a look at the connector on the motherboard for the PIN numbers although looking at photos of motherboards it seems they number the connector from 1-22 for a 21-pin so it could get confusing!

If you can't choose, I think a 21-pin cable would be best because you can cut an end pin off to make it 20-pin. Seriously.

[usman]

Go it sorted. As suspected, I am an imbecile. When I was trying to stick that red modchip cable in the pin things on the PSU I bent it thereby losing power aside from the green power LED. Then I destroyed the contacts on the FFC ribbon cable but over-and-over jamming it in the wrong damned way, expecting the end result to be different eventually (ie. insanity defined).

So I called some local electrics shop, they said they had FFC ribbon cable and could strip it down to 20 pins for me. They had it on a spool of course, of courser with no contacts. This is a very specialised ribbon cable and I should've known better.

So I come home, and do the only thing there is left to do. I can't wait for a cable to arrive in the post as I've sold this Samsung Saturn. It needs to get shipped today. I tried to cannibalise my HiSaturn's cable but it's too short, different board, despite being MK1. Painfully decided to cannibalise my rare HongKOng VideoCD Saturn, no joy, same, MK2 after all.

So I ended up having to pop open my brand new, untouched since 1995, Brazilian Model 1 Saturn, and cannibalise it for the a damn ribbon cable.

So now this lucky buyer sod not only gets the only Samsung Saturn known to man (or collecting forums at least) with the Japanese language option intact and a proper functioning Access red LED, he also gets one with a perfect, impeccable, utterly new, untouched in 20 years ribbon cable in it from one of the rarest Saturn variants on earth. Muppet.
Since you like Saturn innards [MENTION=2625]randombs[/MENTION] here are the rare sights that are photos of the innards of 1) a brand new HK VideoCD Saturn; and 2) a brand new Brazilian Model 2 Saturn for your pleasure. Pristine effing innards there. Thanks again for helping a moron in need.

[randombs]

Unfortunately I have no words to cheer you up but take it as a lesson and move on.

Gutted about your loss and it's a shame you had to ship it without waiting for a new cable. So did you sell it to the guy before testing it? Or did it work the last time you used it?

Anyway, I hope he appreciates the brand new cable(although something tells me he may be oblivious unless you tell him what's been going down!)