How to boot games in a region modded Saturn.

TeamShake

Kuroko's Training Dummy
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Oct 22, 2013
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Hi, First time poster here but you might of seen me around ASSEMbler and TiZ selling the Phantom (Mine and Bad_Ad84's chip).

I agree that APE wouldn't of sold it to you unless it was working correctly. I wouldn't mess with the pot, it's most likely your burner and/or CD-R's you're using. What CD-R brand you using? Generic, Taiyo Yuden?

He said above they were real games which I am assuming means they are not cd-r. Also he said it plays music cds fine, so I'm not sure what could be the issue.
 

Zer0-2k11

n00b
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May 18, 2015
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He said above they were real games which I am assuming means they are not cd-r. Also he said it plays music cds fine, so I'm not sure what could be the issue.

Ah shoot, sorry about that, i just skimmed through the thread and somehow in my head, i thought he was trying to boot CD-R's so i assumed he was trying to play backups.

Never mind, you're all on the right track, it's most likely the laser. Is the original's you're trying to boot scratched up at all?. Your reading sounds right when your multmeter is in "2K" mode. Try lowering the reading by turning the orange pot clockwise by increments of 10 - 20. So if it's reading "1.167" Try lowering it to "1.150" and so on. If you go past .900 or 900 you might burn it out laser out so if you don't get the games to read around that range then it's possible there's something wrong with the chip but it shouldn't be though, I can't see APE shipping a console out if it wasn't working.
 

skate323k137

Professional College Dropout
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PULL THE GOD DAMN CHIP AND RULE IT OUT. Throubleshooting these things is not that hard.
 

greedostick

Obsessed Neo-Fan
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Victoly!

I got it working!

I think there was a loose connection on the mod chip to the ground. I pulled the chip and the console booted up fine, when I put it back together the ground wire fell off, soldered it back on to the Phantom Chip nice and good and it seems to be working.

The wire he used was super fragile. Not sure if it's even a standard coated wire, but I bet it was partly broken from bouncing during shipment.

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it!
 

skate323k137

Professional College Dropout
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Hell yeah man, glad you got it worked out! Probably just a cold joint on that one connection. Like I had mentioned, these things don't take kindly to shipping (unfortunately).

Victoly indeed :)
 
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greedostick

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Weird thing just happened. I was playing PDS, I saved at the beginning right before the first cave, left the save screen up and stepped away for about 10 min. When I came back to enter the Cave I got a hanging black screen. I tried turning off the console and rebooting with no luck. So I boxed up the game, this is the euro version by the way, and stepped away again for about 5 min. I decided to try jp salamander, and USA Astal. Both booted up fine.

I'm gonna try PDS again later, but something weird is going on. Hopefully it was just a fluke.

Oh, and to be clear, the game was fine when I came back. I exited the save screen, and then attempted to enter the Cave, that's where it froze to a black screen.
 
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greedostick

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This thing is starting to piss me off. I don't know why I have bad luck. I was playing Panzer Dragoon Saga (PAL) earlier and the damn thing froze again, nevermind I played for 3 hours last night no issues. But today it froze after 10 minutes then went directly to the checking disc dashboard and tried to do that CD stuff again instead of start application. So I turned off the console, and tried to boot every single Panzer Dragoon Disc, each one after about a 1 minute power off. Not a single Disc works. They are all in great condition. There is no reason they should not be booting. Then I tried Salamander Deluxe Pack. That won't boot either.

But guess what, all my USA games work perfect. Shining the Holy Ark works flawless, as does Shining Force III and Astal.

Does anyone have any idea what the flip is going on?

I really have no idea what to do, except pull this mod chip and see if it functions fine with just the bios mod. I can live without playing burns, but I really would like to figure out the issue because saturn stuff is ridiculous now. I really do not think I have laser issues. English stuff runs flawless. Just play Shining the Holy Ark for 3 hours, after Panzer Dragoon Saga crapped out after 10 minutes of play.
 

kuze

Akari's Big Brother
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Could be bad burns or the images you are using. I'd say try using different CDRs and ensuring you are burning them as slow as possible. Also you might have to tweak the laser pot.
 

greedostick

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I'm using real games, not burns.


I just don't understand why USA games work perfect, but PAL and JP games work when they feel like it.

Could there be any reason a laser reads USA perfect without issue, but has issues with other regions?
 

Craig

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My chipped saturn is jap region...

I dumped all my games, euro and us and used the saturn region patcher and made the isos all jap...

Burn a fresh one and don't put wear and tear on my orginals.
 

greedostick

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My chipped saturn is jap region...

I dumped all my games, euro and us and used the saturn region patcher and made the isos all jap...

Burn a fresh one and don't put wear and tear on my orginals.

Do you by chance know how to do a 1/1 verified dump like the dark water iso's? I would like to learn how to do this.
 

Craig

Stupid Bitch.,
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I used alcohol 120 or img burn, make as a bin/cue... They all work perfectly. The region patcher is also a pretty useful tool to have.
 

SmokeMonster

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Yes, burn with ImgBurn on high-quality media. The region patcher is called "Saturn Region Patcher 3.0 Gold" when you're searching for it.

I'm a little confused as to why your console isn't playing original Japanese region discs though. I hate to suggest this, but maybe it's an issue with the region-free bios install? I was wrong about the laser though...
 

greedostick

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Yes, burn with ImgBurn on high-quality media. The region patcher is called "Saturn Region Patcher 3.0 Gold" when you're searching for it.

I'm a little confused as to why your console isn't playing original Japanese region discs though. I hate to suggest this, but maybe it's an issue with the region-free bios install? I was wrong about the laser though...

The weird thing is it works all the time in any region, until panzer dragoon saga PAL effs up. Then only USA works. But if I step away for about 10 minutes everything is back to normal.
 
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