The four other pads weren’t a big problem because the new chip has a larger footprint. Sega Saturn BIOS chip removedįor the missing pad on the left, I soldered a small piece of Kynar wire to the via hole underneath the chip and to the lifted pin 40 of the new flash memory chip. Five solder pads were damaged during the rescue operation nine years ago, so I removed what was left of them. This time, I carefully removed the old BIOS chip with hot air and plenty of flux and examined the damage. EU/US 1.01a with JP 1.01 or the more exotic GameNavi HiSaturn 1.03 BIOS to switch between different startup animations.) Replacing the BIOS chip (Hint: It is also possible to combine two different versions, e.g.
If for whatever reason the region-free BIOS didn’t work, I could still fall back to the original BIOS by connecting address line A18 (pin 2) to +5 V instead to GND. Instead of duplicating it, I combined the region-free and the original JP 1.01 BIOS file ( copy /B Sega Saturn BIOS v1.01 (multinorm).bin + sega_101.bin newbios.bin).
Since all was fine, I was ready to proceed, but I still took one last precautionary measure: Usually, the region-free BIOS file is duplicated, byte-swapped and then written onto the chip. If it was really byte-swapped, it should say OCYPIRHG. I was able to successfully extract the content and searched for the copyright string. Batronix BX48 Batego II with SOP-44 adapter and flash memory chip
#SEGA SATURN BIOS FILES FOR ORA DRIVER#
My EPROM programmer did not have a driver for this type ( Macronix MX29F800TMC-90), so I chose the driver for the newer, pin-compatible variant MX29F800CTMI-90. It was assumed that it failed because the content wasn’t byte-swapped. There is an excellent tutorial by mmmonkey that also takes care of the video mode.īut, before attempting to swap the BIOS chips again, I had a thorough look at the content of the remaining flash memory chips that I had ordered years ago. The region-free BIOS has the region lockout removed and allows you to play (original) games from all regions. One last, successful test with an original Japanese game before I started with the new modifications. I even soldered the original green LED back in. All jumpers and cut traces (yellow circles) were changed back to the factory configuration (except the one next to the reset button). Let’s see how the fake Kapton tape that I have since started using instead looks and feels in 10 years.)Īfter removing all modifications and cleaning up the goo, the mainboard looks like this. However, the ingredients dissolve over the years the tape has dried out and the goo is stuck to all components and cables. (I really like this kind of insulation tape because it sticks where it is supposed to stick. Here are some impressions of the VA15 mainboard with the various modifications: It’s getting nasty underneath the metal case. Saturn Type C EU power supply, CD-ROM drive and modchip
Also on the pictures: The JVC CD-ROM drive with 21-pin connector. There’s nothing too suspicious under the lid: A Type C EU power supply with the 9 V wire to the A/V port on the left and the modchip with the +5 V wire that goes to some place inside on the right. Starting overįor a clean start, I did a physical inventory and changed almost everything back to factory state. I also wanted to replace the battery-backed SRAM with an FRAM and simplify the 50/60 Hz switching. This year, I wanted to finally finish what I had started back then. The Saturn has worked fine for the past nine years, by the way. The region-free BIOS, however, gave me plenty of trouble and I had to put the original BIOS back in.
#SEGA SATURN BIOS FILES FOR ORA MOD#
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