Repairing Dreamcast Controller Ports

Hey everyone, this is a tech support section, so im posting a quick techie question in here. Even though it isnt Neo Geo, I know I can count on you guys for help.

Any way, i come back from florida, which i so excitedley brought my DC with me for the car trip, I plug it in at home and it just doesnt recognize the controller in any port. I opened the girl up, and i find a little pcb with the red light, 4 ports and a 3volt battery. My question is... Could the battery be my problem or does it most likely lie in the controller board itself? And if it does, can anyone lend me a working controller board? Id be glad to send cash or MO.
Thanks guys.

Yeah..common problem. The only real way to fix it is to buy a busted dc and swap out the boards.

I cant definetly say this is the problem ..but try cleaning the metal part on the controller..
The part that you plug into the DC..

I get this problem all the time..for some reason the bare metal gets corroded..but you can't see it..

<small>[ April 30, 2003, 03:58 PM: Message edited by: chris1 ]</small>

c.t.h:
Yeah..common problem. The only real way to fix it is to buy a busted dc and swap out the boards.

Click to expand...

No no... no need for that.

Most probably the fuse blew up, theres a fuse in the controler port pcb that looks just like a resistor(the blue one if im not mistaken).

Check the fuse to see if its ok, if not then just replace it and everything should be ok.

Hmm, that's funny, I always have read that you need to replace the controller board.

c.t.h:
Hmm, that's funny, I always have read that you need to replace the controller board.

Click to expand...

Where have you read that? spock
Probably some online store's way of tricking people into spending more money than they have to...

I know most people here are very uptight about emulation but for more info about the DC hardware and repairs I think the best place to go are the forums of <a href="http://www.dcemulation.com." target="_blank">www.dcemulation.com.</a>

The controller PCB is very simple. it only has the rechargable battery, one fuse/resistor and a capacitor.
Unless the PCB or the ports themselves are broken everything else can be easily replaced.

Did you fix it?