mismocanibalismo
New member
Hi all -
I completed my DCDigital install a few days ago, and I've been experiencing a few strange issues. Hopefully someone is able to help me out.
Firstly, I am experiencing an odd ESD issue. I have a camp chair set up between 3 and 4 feet away from my 50" Samsung that I like to sit in when I game. The chair material and metal legs can cause a small static shock when standing up, which isn't really painful or a big deal. However, I have noticed that when playing my Dreamcast, standing up and the resulting static shock actually causes the Dreamcast to reboot! It doesn't matter if I'm holding the controller or not; in fact, it will even occur when no controllers are connected at all. Here's a vid showing what happens - the only things plugged into the Dreamcast are the OEM power cable and a 6 foot mini HDMI cable. It also seems to be a "soft" reset; if the DCDigital OSD is open when the reset occurs, it will be open when the Dreamcast reboots. I have noticed that the rebooting only occurs when the mini HDMI cable is plugged in to the Dreamcast, if that narrows down the cause. Potential causes that I can figure: lack of shielding, bad mini HDMI cable, PSU needs to be recapped? Maybe the ground connection requiring high heat is poor - can anyone suggest a good way to test it with a multimeter?
ESD Issue
Secondly, while troubleshooting the above, I discovered that the analog output no longer seems to work. I tested the console by playing a few rounds of Crazy Taxi before doing the install, and the composite cable worked fine. Now, I've tested on three different TVs, and don't seem to get a signal with Cable Select turned on. To troubleshoot this, I have checked the VCLK/CSYNC/HSYNC/VSYNC pins on the video DAC for bridging using a multimeter, and everything seems to check out. I have also tested the resistor pack RN4 and found no bridging. Lastly, I checked continuity between the through-hole solder points on the flex cable and pins 6 and 7 on the multi-out, and I have continuity there, too. Using HDMI, I do not see a visual difference between Force VGA and Cable Select. Is it possible that the switch isn't happening for some reason, despite the menu showing the correct selection?
Lastly, and least importantly, I am seeing a garbled logo when I cold boot the console, as seen in this video. It corrects itself, but I just find it odd.
Garbled Boot Logo
Additional details:
I completed my DCDigital install a few days ago, and I've been experiencing a few strange issues. Hopefully someone is able to help me out.
Firstly, I am experiencing an odd ESD issue. I have a camp chair set up between 3 and 4 feet away from my 50" Samsung that I like to sit in when I game. The chair material and metal legs can cause a small static shock when standing up, which isn't really painful or a big deal. However, I have noticed that when playing my Dreamcast, standing up and the resulting static shock actually causes the Dreamcast to reboot! It doesn't matter if I'm holding the controller or not; in fact, it will even occur when no controllers are connected at all. Here's a vid showing what happens - the only things plugged into the Dreamcast are the OEM power cable and a 6 foot mini HDMI cable. It also seems to be a "soft" reset; if the DCDigital OSD is open when the reset occurs, it will be open when the Dreamcast reboots. I have noticed that the rebooting only occurs when the mini HDMI cable is plugged in to the Dreamcast, if that narrows down the cause. Potential causes that I can figure: lack of shielding, bad mini HDMI cable, PSU needs to be recapped? Maybe the ground connection requiring high heat is poor - can anyone suggest a good way to test it with a multimeter?
ESD Issue
Secondly, while troubleshooting the above, I discovered that the analog output no longer seems to work. I tested the console by playing a few rounds of Crazy Taxi before doing the install, and the composite cable worked fine. Now, I've tested on three different TVs, and don't seem to get a signal with Cable Select turned on. To troubleshoot this, I have checked the VCLK/CSYNC/HSYNC/VSYNC pins on the video DAC for bridging using a multimeter, and everything seems to check out. I have also tested the resistor pack RN4 and found no bridging. Lastly, I checked continuity between the through-hole solder points on the flex cable and pins 6 and 7 on the multi-out, and I have continuity there, too. Using HDMI, I do not see a visual difference between Force VGA and Cable Select. Is it possible that the switch isn't happening for some reason, despite the menu showing the correct selection?
Lastly, and least importantly, I am seeing a garbled logo when I cold boot the console, as seen in this video. It corrects itself, but I just find it odd.
Garbled Boot Logo
Additional details:
- Dreamcast VA1 NTSC-U
- All hearts on the Test/Info screen
- DCDigital Firmware 4.8 (have tried both Standard and Relaxed flavors)
- Only other mods are rechargeable console battery and healable fuse
- Tried and cannot see LED on DCDigital - not sure how you are supposed to with the console assembled (edit - booted without GDROM drive and saw a solid blue glow. No signal due to unplugged optical drive, obviously)
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