Dreamcast-Talk.com

Hello, my console has started giving me some issues and i will describe it the best i can.

It first started a few days ago. I was a few hours into some PSO online gameplay, when suddenly the screen went black and the sound was gone. The console led was still illuminated and fan was still spinning. I held my hand by the fan and didn't feel anymore heat than normal. I opened the lid and felt for heat but there wasn't any. I felt the bottom of the console and it was warm, but not hot. I powered off then back on, the led came on and the vmu beeped, but the screen stayed black. After letting it sit for more than an hour, i powered on and it worked again like normal.

The next few days everything was fine and i could play for many hours with no problems.

Yesterday the problem returned. I was about 40 minutes into a game and it happened again. This time and the previous time both happened during a livestream. I let the console sit for a couple hours and it worked again like normal after sitting. However, this time it only lasted about 5 minutes before it happened again for a third time.

This third time happened when i was online in PSO in a team with another PSO character on my PC. When it happened, i was able to look over at my DC character on my PC monitor. It was still there, but it wouldn't move or anything when i pressed any buttons on the controller. I'm my mind this rules out an A/V problem.

Console details: NTSC-U VA1, GDEMU w/ 12v removed, noctua fan and DCHDMI.

Your thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

1) poor contact in the power supply connector
2) poor contact on the flat cable connecting the motherboard and the controller board

I had a Dreamcast that I had to tighten the back screws up in the area where the AV port was. Never died after that.

While the Dreamcast top is off, do as Megavolt85 recommended, remove the DC power supply and clean up the contacts with alcohol and carefully re-seat the flat cable connecting the motherboard and the controller board.

Good luck and see you on PSO, Genopsyde.

Thank you both. I will do so asap and test then reply back with results.

Well, I cleaned and reseated the connections for the ribbon cable that connects the mainboard to the controller board, both ends. I also cleaned and reseated all the psu connections. Turned the console on and loaded up PSO and let it idle. It lasted about 10 minutes before cutting out again and not restarting. I swapped in a known good psu, and still no response. Any other suggestions before I send it out to have dchdmi transferred to a different console?

Thanks again.

I had a similar issue a while back and it turned out to be a loose fan connector. If the fan stops spinning the Dreamcast screen will go black. I fixed the broken solder joints on the fan connector and everything was good again.

I agree with pcwzrd13 on that doing it after a while

Unfortunately the fan was ruled out as well. It was still spinning the entire time.

It sounds like the dc is overheating.
Maybe clean the thermal pads and the chips that they are on, then reseat them?
or use different thermal pads?
Idk?

I will give that a try. Thanks