Repairing a broken Saturn

o1s1n

Well, I just picked up a PAL Saturn from DR Bob which wasn't working for him. Drive seemed to either be dead or else the laser was gone.

So I bought it in the knowledge that I fixed this exact problem with my NTSC Jap Saturn - it gives the impression that the drive has stopped working, but the spindle is just too low. If it wasn't that, the PSU would be taken out for use in the NTSC Saturn.

Anyway, turned it on initially, drive wouldn't spin. Just said there was no disc. Looks borked.

After opening it up, messed about a bit. Reset the ribbon cables. No joy. So decided to move on to the previous fix - the spindle height.

Tried it a few times, no luck. Did a 'ah **** it, one last try' thing, and what do you know, the disc magically started spinning!

Still not reading, so it must be a few mm too high or low for the laser - but at least the motor isn't dead.

So people, don't throw out your broken Saturns! If they're not reading discs, and the spindle doesn't seem to be spinning, it's just too high or low! It only seems to spin once the laser has read it.

Anyway, back to the Saturn..hopefully I'll be able to report back in a bit saying it's 100%

Dr Bob

Hopefully you can resurrect her man

o1s1n

Decided to take some pics and video just so you can hear the noises and tell what needs to be done. (I think Sera had this problem too?)

First, take the hood off.



Or maybe not!

It helps to have another Saturn handy which was through the same ordeal to give the broken one a bit of moral support.



Here's the offending part, blurry to obscure the horror.



Pop it off the metal bar it sits on and swear at it if you want.



Put it back on the bar, but high enough so that it spins freely with a disc on it. Just to note that without the top on the console, it refuses to read a disc (piracy protection and all that jazz). So you'll need to hold a switch at the back beside the power supply to make the console think the lid is down. (You'll see this in the video)

The laser should start to work and then the disc will spin -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdKkoz7UxUc

As you can hear though, it's too high! You can clearly tell the laser is struggling to read the disc. Still, you've now confirmed that the motor works fine. Thank feck!

Try pushing the spindle down a bit now. This is the tricky part, as you're trying to get it to go down far enough for the laser to read, but high enough so it won't meet any resistance and will spin.

Here's what it sounds like if you've pushed it too low, but just high enough for the disc to spin. The first time it happend I freaked out thinking it was scratching the disc, but the disc is always fine. I think the sound is the spindle itself rubbing off the edge of the console. It shows how little resistance the thing needs though to stop it from working. Look at it struggle in the beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtSduAR7FAA

If you push it too far and the disc stops spinning, pop the whole spindle off and try again from the beginning. This can become a real pain in the arse

Anyway, just keep trying, and trying, and trying.

Eventually, after all your hard work, this should happen -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caaWYEIeTBc

Reassembled. (and a bit of me playing Soukygourentai with one hand while holding a camera!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpbHTBnG12I

Delighted with that so I am! I can now enjoy Saturn games in 50hz glory!

The Last Bandit

Laser pulses a few times to detect a disc before spinning it up alright, so dirty lens bad connections etc can prevent the disc from been detected.

Don't think the laser height is adjustable as such.

Good fix

o1s1n

You can also adjust the pot on that laser too. Something else I did before messing about with the spindle. Not sure if it made any difference in this case, but worth trying out.

Doge

Congratulations man! How sensitive is it to the height of the spindle, are we talking by less than a mm here?

Fantastic post!

o1s1n

Thanks!

I think it's in the mm. I guess it depends how good the laser is in the console too.

The NTSC Jap one I did before this one took me hours to get at the right height. Plus in that case, I was working on the asumption that the console was broken. As I'd never fixed one before, so as far as I knew it was gone. Just kept at it though. Had a gut feeling!

At one point, I was pressing the spindle down and the metal rod which goes through the middle of it went under my thumb nail at a very high pressure (you have to press this down with a lot of force) and I bled. A lot.

Something to be careful of folks!

Doge

Owsies!

a5y

o1s1n wrote: »

Would I be right in guessing your newly acquired PAL Saturn has has a model number ending in an "A" on the top right of the sticker at the back?

I've an "A" as well, and I was thinking if you could get me a clear photo of the exact part of the spindle that needed adjusting I could use a set of digital calipers on my "A" serial number console and give anyone else who has to do this to fix their console a height to shoot for.

I'm that "A" model console's original owner and the spindle never needed adjusting, so that measurement might help prevent a few mendable Saturns getting thrown onto the scraphead in future. I've also a B model too I could measure while I'm at it. Since I've never adjusted spindles though, that means I could easily measure the wrong height, which wouldn't be so helpful :pac:

Doge

Hay PANTRY BOI!

Y U NO HAV DGTL CALEEPERS?

Doge

FIXES SATURN CONSOLE...............







LIKE A BOSS.....


..boss!