Dreamcast Reseting Problem

[C']

I'm sure this has been covered before on the forums but a search has revealed nothing so I was hoping someone could refresh my memory. Basically my DC has picked up the problem whereby it will reset seemingly at random.

I haven't used it for a few months and played for about half-an-hour tonight before it happened. This was followed a few minutes later. I had this problem with the machine about 18 months back and there was a solution where you opened the machine up and cleaned some pins on the motherboard. Anyone refresh my memory and provide step by step instructions on how to do this. Don't want to risk going off my rather uzzy recollections of what I did last time.

Many thanks

[RLench]

Try here:

http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3907

I had to do it with mine a few weeks ago and it's been fine ever since

[Reef]

The other thing it may be is what was happening to mine (the above trick didn't work for me) and that was that the little catch that goes down when you close the lid wasn't being pushed in far enough. This way the Dreamcast kept on thinking that the lid had opened when it hadn't (very annoying during games).

2pence worth of sticky pad later and it's never reset since. Do a search on this forum for the exact instructions (you have to open the machine up)

[C']

Thanks Reef but I'm pretty certain it's the solution Rlench suggested. Like i said, the same thing happened 18 months back and it solved the problem.

I'll keep it in mind though, just in case

[Papercut]

I had this problem occuring more and more frequently with my pal Dreamcast, and it got to the point where cleaning it didn't help any more.

One of the psu pcb connector contacts was not quite tight enough, and small sparks were generated sometimes on power up. This left marks on the psu connector that built up and were very hard to remove.

Look at the psu pcb connector to see if any of the tension contacts are blackened, you might have the same problem.

I fixed mine by pushing a thin sliver of plastic from a cable tie against the marked contact, forcing it into the pin. I haven't had the resetting problem since.

[C']

Will do Papercut. Once I'm home in about an hour the blessed little console will be opened and (hopefully) sorted.

Annoying thing was, this problem started JUST as I was rediscovering the joy of Daytona USA.

[Papercut]

One thing - if you do need to wedge one of the contacts, make sure the piece of plastic you use isn't too wide, otherwise you might end up crushing the tensioned contact a little. Should be obvious whats required if you need to do it though

Hope you get Daytona sorted out

[PeteJ]

My Dreamcast suffered from the resetting problem terribly, but the first fixed managed to sort things out over the weekend. Unfortunately it is now unable to play music without skipping every five seconds, which is most annoying as I only want to play Rez and Cool Cool Toon.

[Tom Salter]

Everything that can happen to a Dreamcast has happened to mine. Laser went, I replaced it. PSU blew, I replaced it. Controller Ports blew, replaced the resistor. And last week, I had the resetting problem.

Push the pins going from the main board to the power board slightly towards the front of the Dreamcast to make sure they are touching properly. Mine's been fine since.

[Papercut]

Unfortunately it is now unable to play music without skipping every five seconds, which is most annoying as I only want to play Rez and Cool Cool Toon.

Sounds like the gd rom drive is on its way out, unless its taken a bump and is misaligned.

[C']

All sorted now.

Daytona rocks