![region free sega cd bios bin to md region free sega cd bios bin to md](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/92whcYbW5LA/hqdefault.jpg)
I'm wondering now if perhaps one or both of them actually do connect to something and need solder all the way through the hole from the bottom side if that's the case, I might be completely screwed, or I guess I could attempt to create a "pad" with a blob of solder or something but that would likely be very difficult indeed (it won't stick if there's nothing metallic there to bond to). One potential thing that might be a problem is that I noticed when I removed the BIOS chip that two of the pads from the top side of the PCB came off with the chip, which made me panic at the time but then I looked at the board and found that neither one of those pads seemed to actually connect to anything. My first mistake was most likely not reassembling it all before I took the BIOS chip out to make sure it was all hunky dory after I lubed up the gears (but frankly I saw no reason to at that point since I've no reason to believe that would stop it booting - it's just some grease and it's only on mechanical parts, not anything electrical) - so I don't know, strictly speaking, if it's the mechanism or the PCB that's stopping the BIOS from starting. maybe damaged a pad on the top side of the board and can't see it underneath the socket, or accidentally damaged one of the tiny traces somewhere on the top or bottom) or if it's something else entirely e.g. I don't know if I've accidentally bridged something I shouldn't have, broken a connection I shouldn't have (e.g. maybe I just soldered badly so BIOS chip isn't readable?) but the fact it's clearly reading the chip at least to a certain extent is confusing me. If it just wasn't doing anything whatsoever I'd perhaps be less surprised (e.g. This is significantly trickier for me because I don't have a multimeter at the moment (I've ordered one but I'm not even sure if that's going to help me much since I'm not au fait with using one these days, it's been years) and have no idea what it might be that's stopping the BIOS from starting. Booking with the MD in PAL mode results in a black screen. But here's the weird part: if I try to boot it with a modded Mega Drive set to the wrong region, it *does* give me the message saying that it's the wrong region for the Mega Drive - which tells me that it's reading the BIOS chip, at least partially, in order to know that the BIOS region is PAL (it does this if I book the Mega Drive in either NTSC US or NTSC JP mode). It's apparently quite common to have a blown power supply fuse so I checked by temporarily bridging it and it didn't change a damn thing - still no BIOS startup, still no LED, still no disc check. Here's the problem: after doing the above, the Mega CD disc mechanism no longer spins up (and the LED no longer lights), and the BIOS doesn't start up either. desolder the 40-bin BIOS ROM chip from the PCB, then solder in a socket (which is actually a 42-pin socket except I broke off the extra 2 pins) and place the BIOS chip back in via the socket to test.disassemble the unit further by disconnecting the ribbon cable and reconnecting it once done (theoretically I might have connected it backwards when I reassembled but I highly doubt it because the cable has bends in it from how it was folded before disassembly).grease up the gears on the disc mechanism.I found a handful of people online who've done just that using the various versions of the switchless MD region mod, which *isn't* what I've got on my consoles, but on breaking it down it seems that it should theoretically be possible (explanation below because it isn't directly relevant to the problem I'm currently experiencing but might be handy as context).
#Region free sega cd bios bin to md mods#
see, I have region-modded multiple Mega Drives, and I want to have those region mods extend to the Mega CD as well. While I had it open, I also decided to start doing something else, though. I therefore grabbed some lithium grease and lubed 'em up. My Mega CD is an eBay job from years ago (I don't have my original one, long story) and has always been horrible and grind-y when it seeks around a disc. I dunno if anyone here will maybe know more than I do about the specifics of how the Mega CD II functions and might be able to hit me with an idea of what I might have done wrong here I'm going nuts trying to think what it might be.