Topvint

Unsurprisingly many of the SEGA consoles have similar characteristics. When it gets to Sega CD, Saturn and Dreamcast, replacement BIOS is an easy way to enable region free (without the clock!). FRAM mods are also common, although saves did not exist in-console before the Sega CD.

Customer didn't book a full clean but everyday is a good day for some console cleaning 😁

All games now play with no issue. You can clearly hear the slow down of the music at 50hz 😅

We are also doing a region mod on this console. Essentially we are replacing the stock clock with a new PCB that controls the frequency according to the selected region, and changes the colour of a new LED to let you know which region is on. All this through the reset button, hence switchless

Finally, the audio wires need to be connected. Everything works fine through the new DIN9 connector. Looks great and it sounds great too.

We then need to grab the RGB signal from the video chip. For that, this kit also comes with an interface board. 5V, ground and the sync signal are also required to be connected to the 3BP board

Apart from the audio caps mentioned above, we also need to remove a few SMD resistors and capacitors since we are restoring composite and the headphone jack use. I'll keep them around just in case...

Next up is the 3BP install. First we need to remove the RF module because the new DIN9 connector is going to take that space. This kit from RetroUpgrades comes with an interface PCB to make the positioning easy

First recap. There is no need to replace the audio caps as the 3BP is going to need them removed, but I want to test the console after the recap, so I'm leaving them in.

The board is marked as M5 PAL, and jumpers JP2 and JP3 are bridged. Yet it wouldn't play PAL games but it would play japanese games 🤔 There is no physical latch in this one. So I'm not sure what this is, but we are going to region mod it anyway 😅

Order #5597

I recapped, installed a Triple Bypass as well as a switchless region mod into this #Sega Megadrive!

Want to see how I did it? check below! 👇

Use it more? 😁

Maybe I could do it, but frankly there are so many things that could go wrong that you are probably better off investing in somebody that has done that before

BennVenn makes an awesome IPS screen for the Game Gear as well (but not the Nomad, as you know 😜)

The quality of screen is good but the Lynx I is an awkward install. Are there any other IPS screen kits out there that fit better this model?

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Putting both together, the Lynx I is clearly more messy. Also, since the first model doesn't have a backlight button, the only way to activate scanlines is through an internal touch sensor which doesn't work particularly well in some models with conductive internal paint.

Recapping and replacing the power circuit is similar. In this case, I did this for the Lynx II only

Another difference is that for the Lynx II, the IPS screen sits well in place with a screwed bracket, while in the Lynx I, the bracket doesn't get screwed to the shell so you need to stick it place, which is really not ideal

The main difference between the two installation methods is that the model 1 requires to solder wires and the model 2 doesn't, and this is because, pretty much like the Game Gear, the screen ribbon is soldered to the motherboard in Lynx I, but Lynx II has a connector

Orders #5534 and #5545

I installed BennVenn IPS screens in these Model 1 and Model 2 #Atari Lynx handhelds! The process is quite different depending on the model. For the Lynx II I also recapped it and replaced the power circuit.

Want to see what I did? Check below! 👇

🤷 I'd say unleaded with no flux and a bad iron...

This one was a bit a of rabbit hole, and even if it wasn't my installation, it didn't feel right to send the console back with a bad region mod installation.

I will be adding this mod to my list soon, as I have already installed a couple of them.
topvint.co.uk/product-cate...

Following a checklist from ConsolesUnleashed, I finally traced the fault to a broken trace between PIN 7 of IC9 and JP10. The customer must have accidentally cut it while doing the JP10 cut, and I didn't see it. I restored the trace and the console started to work as intended

However the console would still say that some games were not suitable even if the right region was selected. The BIOS message in the console settings clearly said the console was in PAL mode and the game was PAL, yet it wouldn't play. What was going on?

So I revised all the installation and found that R29 should have been removed. But that didn't fix it, and made the games that were running well before show a black screen on boot. Talking to ConsolesUnleashed (they make the mod), I physically grounded Pin of the PLL and that fixed the black screen

The tidy up went well but when I tested the functionality of the region mod, I now found that only japanese games would play 🤔

I noticed the console would only play PAL games in PAL mode, but nothing else in any other combination, so I offered the customer to tidy up his install which was looking somewhat perilous 😅 As I always say, kudos for trying (but should have probably practiced elsewhere first!)

Customer actually didn't mention the console wouldn't display an image, but looking at the caps, it was obvious where was the culprit. Somewhat seems that cap was already replaced? 🤔 Anyway, the recap went well and there was a picture again.