Hi there,
I recently purchased a Dreamcast and it finally showed up in the mail today. (For reference, I purchased from Lukiegames. I know they aren't held in universally high regard but they've been good to me in the past.) I plugged everything in (controllers included-- I've done my research and don't want to fry the controller ports now that I've finally got the console), switched my TV to AV mode, and booted up the system.
The orange light turned on and the VMU screeched (all normal things, to my understanding). But, nothing showed up on the display and there was no sound. The VMU, plugged into the front slot on the first controller, displayed a big "B." This all baffled me. For reference, I tested both with and without a game in the system. Results were identical either way. I did a bit of reading, and it seems that the usual culprits are:
A) I might be an idiot and plugged into the wrong ports (this is possible, I don't have a good view of the back of my TV, but unlikely since I unplugged my N64 right as I was plugging it in; also I checked and it appears everything is good).
B) Something is potentially wrong with the AV out port on my Dreamcast. (I unplugged the AV at both ends a few times and retried to no greater success.)
C) Something is potentially wrong with the power supply on my Dreamcast. (Similar situation to B.)
D) Something is potentially wrong with the motherboard on my Dreamcast. (I have my doubts; the console doesn't smell of smoke when it's running, and also the VMU in the controller seems to get power so stuff seems to be passing through the motherboard.)
E) Something is potentially wrong with the grounding in the case. (I have no idea.)
What are some things I might be able to do to fix this? Long range I hope to get my hands on an HDMI adapter to do this that way, but that's a later purchase. I need to consider university expenses here, so I intend to look into solutions that don't involve any extra purchases before solutions that do involve extra purchases.
Thank you in advance. Any help here would be very appreciated.