I tried to mod my console and failed

[thakarra]

Hi all,

I'm after some help, I think I ruined my Dreamcast.

I purchased a console from Japan with the intent to replace the PSU and install a GDEMU.

This all went to plan perfectly fine without any issues. I installed a DreamPSU, removed the disc drive and fitted in a GDEMU.

Everything was working perfectly 100% perfectly... Until I started messing around like an idiot.

I live in a PAL country and I noticed that some of my PAL games were booting weird on the TV, they'd be like half cut off. This was obviously because the console is from Japan (NTSC). So I started poking around trying to find a way to "region change" my console.

And I found this:
https://www.retrosix.wiki/region-change-dreamcast

Now this tutorial looked super straight forward. I'm no stranger to soldering and the tutorial mentioned you only need to solder 1 wire. So I followed the guide and loaded up the region swap software via my GDEMU. For whatever reason, it just wouldn't write the PAL region to the flash like it was supposed to. I kept going back and fourth about 3-4 times, unplugging the console, disassembling, checking my soldering, reassembling, plugging back in etc. But it just wouldn't work.

I was about to give up and then I found something called Dream Shell, which seemed to also have region changing software on it. So with one final attempt, I tried to boot Dream Shell off my GDEMU. Then the whole console basically crashed and this is now where I'm at...

When I turn on the Dreamcast, the screen is black for about 20-30 seconds. Then without any intro animation the Dreamcast logo appears on screen and hangs for about 3 minutes. Finally it boots into the BIOS and asks me to set the time and date. When I do this, it takes me straight into the BIOS menu. If I click on "Play" it asks me to insert a disk.

So I removed the GDEMU and put back the original disk drive. The same thing happens.. Black screen, logo for 3 minutes, BIOS date/time and then into the menu. The only difference is that the logo swirl is black. If I click on "Play" with a disc inserted, it will start spinning and a dialogue appears saying something along the lines of "please wait while disc is being checked".. However it just stays like thins and nothing ever happens. The disc continues to spin but after a while the laser stops trying to read it. So basically I can't boot the GDEMU and I can't boot any discs.

Just to note, I've also removed the soldered wire now completely from R512 and the 12v rail on the board.

Another thing to note is that when I was trying to do the region change mod, every time I would disassemble it to check my soldering, I noticed the board was really hot underneath.

I'm absolutely gutted. I had it working. I should have been satisfied with just playing USA games... But I stupidly tried to force a region change and now it's not working at all.

If ANYONE can help me or at least help me troubleshoot.. I would greatly appreciate it. I'm completely heartbroken.

[PengoJetz]

Black logo swirl on boot - sounds like the flash rom config was borked. You aren’t able to boot games because there’s probably no valid region setting anymore.

You could try installing one of the region free BIOS replacement chips as a workaround - the Japanese cake one like v1.32 are designed to boot up any game regardless of software region. You will need to have a hot air station to remove the old one and some solder experience to install the replacement - photos below of the most recent one I installed.

I can’t vouch that this will fix for sure but from there you might be able to reflash to a valid region in DreamShell (after reconnecting wire from R512 to 12v rail.

[thakarra]

Hey thanks for the reply!

I did some further research after making this post, and it looks like all people who have similar symptoms all attempted a region switch. The only issue is that from all of the threads I read through, there doesn't seem to be a solution.

I also thought about purchasing a region free bios chip (like the one you mention) but I'm unsure if it would work since the corruption seems to stem from the flashrom.

[MoeFoh]

@thakarra Is this a 5v model JP VA0 with a Japan (not Universal) v1.004 BIOS?

[PengoJetz]

@thakarra Is this a model JP VA0 with a Japan (not Universal) v1.004 BIOS?

That is a good point - if it’s a VA0, I think the early BIOS revision these models don’t rely on flash setting to determine the region. With the VA1 models these rely on a value of J, U or E in flash to determine the region code.

Dragon city has mention of solving the issue with a few other options - machine translated below:
“ Be aware that changing areas is very easy, but there may be the "Black Swirl Of Death" if you don't respect the tutorial!

This "Black Swirl Of Death" is a boot with "BLACK logo"..and clearly your console becomes unusable because it no longer knows in which region it is located!

There are solutions if this happens to you:

Solution 1: Change the original bios to a Freezone bios
This will allow the console to find 3/4 of its games!”

Why 3/4? Because quite simply some games like Shenmue need the IC502 component..and as it is "flinged" by the flash...the game no longer works!

Solution 2: Retrieve the IC502 component on another console

This one is clearly the best, but requires you to retrieve the IC502 component on a Dreamcast HS to install it instead.

A practice not given to everyone..!

Solution 3: Rewrite the flashrom with a backup via RetroDream!

https://dragoncity17.wordpress.com/2018 ... anger-1-5/