Inside Look: The Treamcast - A SEGA Dreamcast Mod/Clone

So a while back I purchased this device as broken via the place where you can bid on items that everyone uses.

When it came I tried to get it to work. Problem was that there was no power supply. I researched a bit and found out that it uses a power supply that is nearly identical to the one that came with the PSone console. (The "facelift" model, not the original Playstation)

My brother had one and I fetched it only to recognise that the connector does not fit. So I roamed around the internet searching for a PSU that provided 3A. Not an easy task. I scrapped the project for a while until I decided to come back to it two weeks ago.

I managed to find a fitting PSU. I remembered I had this LCD PC Monitor with an external PSU. It read promising: DC 12V with a max 4.2A output and the polarity even matched too (-)--(o--(+).

Perfect! I connected it and the first time the Treamcast including the LCD powered on. I was very happy as this device is hard to come by because SEGA sued the maker of this clone device and prohibited sales after half a year of producing this system, and popped in my japanese Street Fighter 3rd Strike.

It loaded the GD and I was in the game. Now I realized how poor the LCD looks and that it had a black line running horizontally across the screen. Due to that line I decided to open it up and have a look at the innards.

This task really pissed me off as the makers of this system did not want anyone to have a look inside it. No wonder if you see how the inside is build...

So here it was: Everything cramped in there. A real nightmare, if you ask me.

  This is the pcb that powers the LCD screen. The power board underneath is very similar to the DC.

Genuine DC Controller board

Genuine DC Mainboard with additional wiring

AV Port with additional wiring

Oh look... seems like it has a  (chinese) factory installed modchip!

Flipside of the mainboard with additional wiring

closeup

LCD screen power pcb unplugged

After not beeing able to figure out what problem the black line caused I decided to reassemble the system. Done!

And guess what? It refused to read discs at that point. I spent all night inspecting the power board and even swapping the GD-Rom Drive with my Dreamcast. The GD-Rom Unit is fully functional. I placed it in my Dreamcast and it had no problem playing games. Project is on ice until I have the nerve to continue it.

Any help is appreciated! Thank you.