Repairing Saturn Floppy Disk Drive (FDD) Help

[slinga]

I ordered a Sega Saturn floppy disk drive from eBay. The seller claims it worked before shipping. I'm not seeing any lights flash, any fans spin, anything. When I boot the FDD cd the drive is not detected. Things I have tried:

1) Using a multimeter on the original AC adapter. I'm having difficulty sticking my red probe in as the opening in the AC adapter is rather small. I'm getting a large negative value for voltage.
2) I swapped out the AC adapter for another one that should be compatible. Same results as before. No lights, no fans, nothing.

Trekkies recommended trying a different Saturn in case the serial port on my Saturn is the problem. I have another one but it has a busted CD-drive. So I guess I can try and get SGC to run on it via the Action Replay parallel port.

Any advice on next steps? I am a complete hardware noob. I can pop the drive open and take pictures. Thanks in advance.

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

The FDD doesn't have any fans in it so you shouldn't hear anything like that. But it should at least do a simple click and have the light flash quickly if you boot up the FDD Operator disc with no Floppy Disc inserted.

 

[slinga]

Some pictures of the inside:

 

[Waterfuell]

Interchange proves and you will see positive voltage.
AC adapter is original??
Some voltage indication in FDD case??
Blue and green wires looks like main board power, have you measure voltage??
Looks like there is a voltage regulator after power input, can you take a better pic?

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

If you don't have an actual floppy disk any activity the drive does is extremely brief, and it will only do something if a game or program is designed to check for it. So just booting the Saturn up wont get any activity. Even the FDD Operator barely does anything if there's no disk in the drive. It just does a very short flash on the LED and maybe a very quiet click. If you blink you'll miss it.

Honestly I'd suggest buying some floppy disks and trying in another Saturn before doing anything crazy like trying to swap the drive with a different one.

 

[slinga]

AC adapter is original??
Some voltage indication in FDD case??

I tried both an original AC adapter as well as an aftermarket one. I can see 5.06V in one area, and something like 5.1V going to the floppy drive.

Honestly I'd suggest buying some floppy disks and trying in another Saturn before doing anything crazy like trying to swap the drive with a different one.

I have tried with and without floppy disks inserted. I have another Saturn to test on but it's CD drive isn't working (even after replacing). I can try loading SGC via the Action Replay parallel port.