Saturn Audio Problems

Hey,

I was testing some of my Saturns I had put away and when I got to one of them I started having these buzzing noises come out instead of the game audio. I've read about this on a few other places and they just say it is a RF problem and to replace the cable. The problem is that I was using the same A/V cable on all the consoles and this was the only one that did this to me. I know that this machine wasn't doing this prior to me putting it away. I was wondering if anyones ever heard this problem and if it is easy to fix.

I attached a wave file of how it sounds. Sorry about the quality, I was just using my computer mic. The noises you hear were not made by the mic either that is how it actually sounds. There is also a good version which I recorded using the same cable and a different Saturn.

Thanks
 

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As a recording engineer, i can definitley say that the audio problems are originating in the digital to analog conversion stage when the audio tracks are being read from the CD.

this could mean a few different things; maininly depending if you have your saturn modchipped or not.

if you have a chip installed, it could be due to the signal wire not transmitting a proper clock signal from the CD board resulting in audio becoming decoded out of sync. this causes the "tearing" sounds in the audio. I had this happen to me so I removed the signal wire altogether and bidged points A and B on the modboard

if you have no modchip installed, then it most likley the D/A converter in the CD drive is shot and will likely need to be replaced. try going into the sound test option in a game that allows this and see if in game sound effect sound normal as opposed to the CD audio tracks. if everything sound screwed up, then it looks like the audio converters are toast. if SFX work okay but music is glitching, then its either the D/A converter on the drive itself, or the modchip not syncing properly with the CD drive's clock if a chip is installed.
 
Hey,

Thanks for the reply logicbomb.de. I did get to test Panzer Dragoons audio in the Sound Test after I recorded those Wave files and the music in Stage 2 worked normal and didn't scramble like the one recorded. I only tested it for about 30 seconds though so I might need to look at it again.

Another weird thing is when I put a normal audio cd in (Mozart at the time) it plays fine for about 1min then it starts to make those screeching noises you heard in that bad pd file.

I will try the Panzer Dragoon game in the audio options again today to see if this happens after a few minutes. I will see if I can get you a better description of what is happening with other games audio. I don't have a mod chip installed by the way. Also if it is the problems you said it can be how would I have this replaced ?

Thanks for the help :cheers
 
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