How to mod a 21 pin Saturn

I was able to get the background music working in Gurdian Heroes. I opened up the Saturn and noticed that the modchip was not pushed in all the way. After it was installed all the way in the background music in the game could be heard properly. Loading of games is still a little fussy. Sometimes the system will freeze when loading at the SEGA logo but that is resolved by resetting so I can deal with that. I hope my experience helps someone with their install.
 
Hi i have 2 Saturns both are circle buttons pw/rst neway my new unit of the 2 reads games and audio disc fine but the older one i got from a friend is precilier something all of you might find intresting i have not been able to get it to read disc without the use of a music cd i have of the first creed album but its burned to a 650mb disc after saturn logo then standard screen with blobs it reads disc checks as disc play button turns blue then i open tray place in game original not copy and it loads fine without this disc it wont load anything :p both units have the 3 pin crystal on the cd board both are 21 pin the one with the odd issue is a 32 pin and the one that is fine is a 64 pin i jus thought id give Mal's Number1 thread on the SS a Reply well later

P.S. i ordered from both racketboy and classicgaming dude jus wondering how fast ship is and if i could have the white connector for saturn chips i also ordered black connector from jandaman so i want to try all 3 out well later and all a great Modding day :)

UPDATE 1: The modchip with black connector i got from Racketboy works on my 64 pin saturn made in June 1996

Country Malaysia Model MK-80000A Serial AE64013969 i wont open system back up for motherboad model # :p but my cdrom board has a crystal on it directly in front of the device well next up my 2nd Saturn a 32 pin well L8tr
 
Originally posted by mmz16x@Fri, 2006-06-09 @ 06:04 AM

Hi i have 2 Saturns both are circle buttons pw/rst neway my new unit of the 2 reads games and audio disc fine but the older one i got from a friend is precilier something all of you might find intresting i have not been able to get it to read disc without the use of a music cd i have of the first creed album but its burned to a 650mb disc after saturn logo then standard screen with blobs it reads disc checks as disc play button turns blue then i open tray place in game original not copy and it loads fine without this disc it wont load anything :p both units have the 3 pin crystal on the cd board both are 21 pin the one with the odd issue is a 32 pin and the one that is fine is a 64 pin i jus thought id give Mal's Number1 thread on the SS a Reply well later

P.S. i ordered from both racketboy and classicgaming dude jus wondering how fast ship is and if i could have the white connector for saturn chips i also ordered black connector from jandaman so i want to try all 3 out well later and all a great Modding day :)

UPDATE 1: The modchip with black connector i got from Racketboy works on my 64 pin saturn made in June 1996

Country Malaysia Model MK-80000A Serial AE64013969 i wont open system back up for motherboad model # :p but my cdrom board has a crystal on it directly in front of the device well next up my 2nd Saturn a 32 pin well L8tr

[post=146623]Quoted post[/post]​


UPDATE 2: the 32 pin worked also crystal same place as above also a 1996 model well thats it for now l8trz
 
I have a similar problem. Just recieved and Ebay White saturn that has V2 Mod chip in it. From what I have read, and overall understand, if the mod chip it self is not working then I would not be able to play backups or originals. I am able to play both US and Jap orignals with the AR, however I am not able to boot Backups. I know the backups I am trying are good though because I have another modded saturn with a Racketboy chip in it. Works like a champ. I did not order this saturn modded from ebay. I got a hunch when I recieved it that it was. Low and behold it is. I have tried swapping 14-19 JP and also verifying that the Proper power souce is used. I have the Sanyo with a PC trap. The mod came with the PC trap and Mod board laying flat and taped in the system. If anyone could help me I would gladly appareciate it.
 
I'm having a small difficulty with modding a 32 pin saturn. I have the mod installed with the "loop back to point B" method, and have the power wire soldered to the 5V point. I do get the startup animation, with the disc spinning, however I get the "Drive Empty" message.

Everything seems to be attached properly. I felt the ribbons give in when pushing them into their respective clips, so it's not that.

Re-Edit: The drive will also not play Audio CDs. A clean disc (Aphex Twin's Richard D. James album) didn't register, and I got the "Drive Empty" message once again.

Update: Ran the Saturn with the mod uninstalled. Again, same issue. This means it's not the mod's fault but the drive's iteself. I get three good whirrs out of the drive before it quits and the Drive empty message comes up.
 
mistercqnzr said:
I'm having a small difficulty with modding a 32 pin saturn. I have the mod installed with the "loop back to point B" method, and have the power wire soldered to the 5V point. I do get the startup animation, with the disc spinning, however I get the "Drive Empty" message.

Everything seems to be attached properly. I felt the ribbons give in when pushing them into their respective clips, so it's not that.

Re-Edit: The drive will also not play Audio CDs. A clean disc (Aphex Twin's Richard D. James album) didn't register, and I got the "Drive Empty" message once again.

Update: Ran the Saturn with the mod uninstalled. Again, same issue. This means it's not the mod's fault but the drive's iteself. I get three good whirrs out of the drive before it quits and the Drive empty message comes up.

go to www.sega.com for repair info just got mine back works awsome
 
I bought a modchip from "Classic Gaming Sega Style" almost exactly a year ago. I tried installing it, back then, in a 64-pin Model 1 but it wouldn't work no matter what. So I switched an old modchip from my Model 2 32-pin into my Model 1 64-pin and it worked. The newer modchip did however work in my Model 2 32-pin US Saturn using the A+B method described here and it had been working fine since then. I've only sparingly used the Model 2 32-pin Saturn in the past year, mind you, but tonight when trying to play a game it refused to read it, or any game (commercial or otherwise) as anything other than an audio CD. Taking off the modchip makes my Saturn work fine for commercial games, but with the modchip on it won't play anything.


I've spent the past several hours now trying different configurations and nothing seems to get the modchip to work again.


I've resoldered A+B: nothing.

I've soldered A to Pin-14: nothing.

I've changed 0019 to 0014 and back again with A+B & with A+Pin-14 and it still won't work.

I've checked with a voltometer and made sure the modchip was getting power so that's been ruled out as well.


I've sanded down the sides, checked, rechecked, and tripled checked that the modchip was slid all the way down. I've resoldered, used new wire, used new solder, used wire to connect A+B, and tried just about everything I've read at "Classic Gaming Sega Style", Racketboy.com, and the advice in this thread all to no avail. I'm really frustrated here and would appreciate any help.


Is there any other way to get this modchip to work or should I just conclude that it was defective and/or has just up and died?
 
I bought a model 1 20-pin Saturn (yeah, I know, poor me), got a chip from Racketboy, and attempted to modify and install the chip myself. I followed all the instructions as best I could, but all I get is nothing. The light comes on, and that's it. The CD doesn't even spin. Works fine without the chip, though, so what could I have done wrong? I checked all the solder connections, double- and even triple checked them, and I still can't see what I did wrong. The only thing I can think of is the part in the instructions that mention "traces to cut." I don't see anything on those areas specified that I could cut, so I don't know what else it could possibly be... maybe the modchip is faulty?
 
This has to be one of the easiest mods ever. Took me longer to prep the short wire and heat up my iron than to solder the actual points.

I have the oval button. I snapped the wire off that came with the chip on position A so I just made a shorter one from some Kynar 30AWG that you can get at any Ratshack (radioshack).

Soldering A to B will save you time and you can't really screw up the +5V one.

Now to get some games.
 
I have a SEGA Saturn with the round buttons. The CD device has a square chip on the left of the circuit board with 64 legs. The ribbon cable from the CD circuit board is twisted. I ordered a modchip from racketboy.com.

What should I do to mod my SEGA Saturn? Can somebody give me a step by step explanation?

racketboy has two tutorials:

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2005/01/sega-saturn-mod-chip-installation.html

AND

http://www.racketboy.com/saturn-modchip/model-1-install.htm

Which one should I follow, or should I do something else?

I have read through this whole topic, and sort of understand what I should do, but I think a guide would help many people with my type of SS.

Thanks!
 
anyone modding saturns these days? i have a model 2 64 pin i am trying to mod.i tried a modchip from rob webb but that one did not work.i am going to try one from Racketboy,are those any more compatible?
 
Wow, bigdog302, not only did you join the forums today but you also made 5 different posts all having to do with moding the saturn. Almost spam like :p anyways I am getting a bit off topic. To answer your question I will be moding my saturn soon, yes the 64 pin is one of the hardest to mod. Only mod chip I have ever used I bought from Racketboy. They seem to be good chips. Not sure if they are more compatible or not especially with the 64 pin, you may have to not use the a b bridge thingy. I do not know.
 
well,i was looking for answers and relating to other members what i have found out.if the racketboy ship does not work i will have to look for a 32 pin saturn.at least i know how to id one now and what to look for.
 
well i got the Racketboy Mod chip and......it works.you have to boot to the cd rom screen,it will not recognize the disc as a saturn disc at first.open the lid and then close it and it will recognize it as a saturn disc.both backups and original saturn discs.i did the AB method when i installed the chip.at least it works and all is well.
 
hi, i have a model 2 saturn and bought a modchip from Rob Webb's store (consolegoods.co.uk). the problem is that all discs are played as audio cds, even the original ones. sometimes the original discs are played normally but only if i have unplugged the console from the AC for some time or i restart it many times (i really mean many!)... the strange thing is that when the disc starts spinning, the laser doesn't move to the outside for checking the protection ring, it just checks the inner circle and shows it as audio cd :(
 
I bought a saturn modchip from robwebb and it works like a charm.

I've installed the mod in a saturn model 2 with a sanyo drive.

Well my problem is about the space the mod takes. Because of the pc trap board i don't have space to put the big black plastic protection . I still don't know where i will get the space.


Does anyone here knows how to fit the modchip correctly without removing the pc trap board? Thanks
 
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