Saturn region switch- Does It matter which jumpers I connect

[NWA]

I heard something rumbling around in my saturn and assumed my region switch came apart. I accidently pulled off the solder pads on JP10 AND JP11. Can I just connect 12 and 13 together?

[Warp2063]

The fact that you asked this question terrifies me.

http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id= ... ega_saturn - My favorite guide to the Saturn Region Mod

I'm assuming you pulled a single wire that was connected to one pad each on 10 and 11 free. If this is the case, you pulled free the common point which is needed for providing +5V to the chip for the North American region, or Ground-level to the chip for Japan. (6/7 are the other relevant ones for those two regions, except while one is high, the other is low.)

Connecting to 12/13 wouldn't do you any good - it'd get you closer to some of the PAL settings, but you'd have to do more work than moving just that one wire. A lot of the closest matches are Sega Reserved settings, which I highly doubt will do you any good - I assume they're for regions that don't exist.

With the switch set to the Japan position and the loose wire secured so that it doesn't come in contact with anything else in the Saturn, my guess is that at best, you've got a permanent Japanese-region system. Of course, it may not register even as that without 10/11 connected to Ground. Unless you're able to provide +5 to the correct pin on the chip again, the North American setting is likely gone forever. I wouldn't recommend trying to find and solder a wire to the leg of a chip - I tried that once, and I actually ended up tearing the delicate leg of the chip clean off. Someone might be able to find another point on the board to solder to, but that's a lot of careful work, making sure to find a point that won't interfere with anything else.

With the switch set the other way, you'd likely be in the all-ground DO NOT USE setting, and I don't know what that will do to your system.

My recommendation is this - if the switch works at all in the Japan region, leave it set to that permanently. Or convert the system permanently to the Japanese region and remove the switch altogether. Either way, you can use an Action Replay to play pretty much any game.

[NWA]

I actually had an old saturn that has the same VA0 board, I gave the noard to a friend. He's looking for it for me, so I f he finds it, I'll just slide in that board. Its still a real shame though, that board was a REALLY early one- 40,000 range serial

[Warp2063]

Did you try what I asked - try the system with the switch set to Japan (and making sure that the stray wire doesn't touch anything else)? The board may not be unsalvageable - I suspect it'll still play Japanese games, and with the help of an Action Replay, any other region. And, while very challenging and risky, it may not be impossible to repair the region switch, but as I said, you'd have to isolate the correct pin on whatever chip that pad was wired to, or perhaps find another solder point on the board between those pads and the chip. A good eye and a multimeter are very useful tools.

[NWA]

Yah, I did, but no success (

[Warp2063]

It wouldn't even boot?

Well, if it's that far gone, you risk very little by trying the riskier repairs. If it were me, I would, but I don't know how comfortable you are with delicate operations like that.

[NWA]

oh, it turns on and all that, but everything comes out as "disc unsuitable for this system". One day I might take a crack at it again, but for now im fine with the spare board I got

[Warp2063]

Disc unsuitable for this system - with a Japanese disc and the region switch set to Japan?

[NWA]

Yup. I accidently cut a bunch of other traces looking for where jp10 and 11 go, so its pretty much done.

[NWA]

I fixed it :PP I ran the 5v and the grounds to theyre respectful pins on one of the chips and BAM! I'm playin' Shining Force III Words cant describe how happy I am

[Warp2063]

I told you it was possible - just potentially challenging and risky.

Congrats! =P

[NWA]

New problem- i think the ground touched to the 5v and popped the fuse on the psu. I switched it out, but the video signal is awful (colors all outta wack) what do you think is the problem?

[Warp2063]

I can only make guesses, but I'd assume that one or more of the chips are actually damaged now... or capacitors or resistors... If that's the case, there's not really a whole lot you can do, short of figuring out exactly which parts were damaged and replacing them.