Dreamcast-Talk.com

I have an issue with a PAL console, it seems to think it's Japanese.
I bought it as a never used console to keep as a spare. When I started using it I think I played homebrew games on it. The problem now is that it wont load PAL games but it will load Japanese games without the need of a boot disc.
Some PAL games will load with the boot disc, some wont.
I was wondering if anyone else had this happen, and is there a way to rest the console?
All the games I've tried are original discs. The only copy disc I have is Half Life, and it works without needing a boot disc as well.

I'm guessing someone repaired it and replaced the main board from another dreamcast from spare parts and took the board from a Japanese Dreamcast to put in your Pal dreamcast. You could get a boot disc for all your pal games

Nope, it was brand new, sealed when i bought it. I'm thinking it more likely the operating system reacts to the first game put into it?
The boot disc only plays some PAL games, and in a really small letterbox.
Is there a way to reset the operating system?

Perhaps the seller used his own shrinkwrap machine to seal the box again. The DC doesn't have an OS; the BIOS is stored on a chip on the mainboard.

Seriously guys, the console had never been used, that's not the answer. Having a DC that plays Jap games without boot discs, power converters or mods is great, I just thought it was something interesting for the community to mull over.
I will just have to buy another one for playing PAL games.

I'm not saying its not new im not arguing with you, but how Do you know it had never been used? I mean I have most of original boxes and manuals for all my electronics in perfect condition and I keep all my stuff clean enough it looks still new and as Ives said shrinkwrap and plastic wraps are easy to get, don't even need a machine for some of them just a blow dryer will do lol. Was it actually wrapped in plastic? or was it taped shut seal? even then a lot of new dreamcasts were not sealed in any way. so it doesn't mean much anyway. lol
But that is odd. Its a blue swirl says Pal E on the bottom? plays J region games hmmm

If it's a European console, and it plays Japanese games only, then it has been tinkered with. Plain and simple. Changing the console's region requires both a hardmod and a softmod. There's no easy way to change the region on the hardware. So either that's what has been done here, or someone simply swapped the innards of a JP console with those of the Euro console. Maybe the seller kept the new innards and gave you a new console with old innards. A trick he then would've pulled off successfully had he not forgotten about the different regions... lol

I'm sorta out of the loop on PAL region stuff but I do know that US Dreamcast didn't come in shrink wrap. In fact to my recollection I've never seen a console of any brand or era in shrink wrap.

It wasn't shrink wrapped, the box was taped, as were all the cables in their bags and twist ties attached. It seems an awful lot of effort to go to, considering its probably worth more being Jap compatible out of the box. I can't see a Jap motherboard working with UK Power inputs either, surely that would be a job to rewire in itself?
This is why I was wondering if it's related to the windows system getting confused on initial boot up.

kingmonkey75 wrote:This is why I was wondering if it's related to the windows system getting confused on initial boot up.

The Dreamcast does not have Windows on it. As it says on the front, it's "Compatible with" Windows CE. Games that use Windows CE would include it on the disc. The region is hard coded into the motherboard's BIOS and cannot be changed without a hard mod.