Dreamcast Dreamcast Katana Dev.Box restoration

[snuci]

Hi all,

I recently acquired an Dev.Box HKT-01 that was in bad shape. The GD-ROM drive latch was broken so the drive would not stay in. I fixed that with some super glue and 3d printed rings to hold the latch together. In addition, after some troubleshooting, I had to replace the ATX power supply. Luckily I had one that did -5 volts. The cables were barely long enough and I had to route the PS cables from the left side instead of right but it sorta works.

At the moment I get nothing but a black screen. I tried VGA and composite. Tried the internal test and still nothing on screen. The caps on the board all look good and the solder joints are shiny so I think they are okay. I've done lots of capacitor rework (I restore vintage computers) so have seen much worse caps but I will consider recapping if needed. When the power supply was weak, the SCSI hard drive had issues. The power supply failed completely after maybe 10 power cycles so I knew that was toast. I believe that replacing the power supply got the drive going (although it's a bit noisy as it spins up and down which I don't like hearing). So I need to archive the drive.
Question 1: Should I see the internal test if the box is working at all?
Question 2: I am guessing I need to replace the battery or can I remove it completely? That's a rechargeable one, correct?

I have ordered an Adaptec AHA-2940 and the HD50 cable (too new for what I usually work on). I have a PC with an Adaptec AHA-1542 card so I would like to back up the drive (if it's working) before I do anything.
Question 3: Is the drive straight FAT32 so I can attempt to connect it to a Windows 95 box (my diskette archiving box) an just copy it to a USB stick or use WinImage or something?

Anyway, I will update progress here. It is a SET5, specifically 5.24 according to the serial number? I've read off the EPROM marked "SET5 7676 VO.71 98-11-13" and it's on an ST27C160. My checksum is off, however. I assume the checksum is supposed to be "7676" but it's actually "7671" when read. I am thinking that may be a possible problem too?

I don't know where to find the board model numbers but if I need to find those, I will. For now, if someone can assist with the questions, I prefer not to try anything if there is something on the hard drive. This one is in Canada.

Thanks for any help.

 

[jshep]

I've only work on repairing more modern PCs, but I'd say replacing the battery is a good first step considering how old it probably is. Assuming that's the CMOS battery it could be why it's not posting.

 

[snuci]

I checked the battery. Since I didn't power it on for long before, I removed the hard drive and left it on for 30 minutes to charge the battery. It got to 2.8 volts but when I shut the machine off, it slowly died. VL2020 battery ordered.

 

[deadlegion]

I could be wrong, but I think the partitions might be fat16.
It should be compatible with win95/NT as these dev units could be connected to win95/NT machines externally (SCSI).

I would make a backup image of the drive first (using EaseUS or whatever), but I'm not sure how to do that on win95. Maybe I did in the past but I forget a lot of stuff if unused.

No personal experience with your current issue. As I said I could be wrong about the partitions.

 

[HI_RICKY]

there 2 fast way test ....( no screen issue)
1. make sure the ATX power supply is fine or try other power supply
2. remove all cable too Cross board , the main board can board it by DC bios

 

[T_chan]

Q1: internal test is based on the content of the ST M27C160-100F1... if the checksum is bad, the ST M27C160-100F1 might be corrupted.
I would suppose the BIOS is corrupted too then, and needs a reflash via SCSI.

Q3: several possibilities, the GD-M board supports FAT-16 (default), FAT-32 and NTFS

Best thing to do (besides doing an image of the HDD) is to connect to a SCSI host card, to see if the GD-DA & GD-M are recognized.

 

[snuci]

Well, I am trying to back up the files. The hard drive does not sound great and it's taking a while.

Looks like there is "Grinch" and "VVE"?



I'll try to grab a full image if it allows.

 

[snuci]

I think it is working. I only got so far at this point because I don't have a controller and can't change the time which popped up so I await that to arrive. I did run the DA-Checker and both sides passed the test. In the meantime, I have the new battery and will put that in. I still don't know if the internal GD-ROM drive works.

Where is the firmware update for the DA flasher? I am using version 10 of the SDK.

 

[jshep]

I think it is working. I only got so far at this point because I don't have a controller and can't change the time which popped up so I await that to arrive. I did run the DA-Checker and both sides passed the test. In the meantime, I have the new battery and will put that in. I still don't know if the internal GD-ROM drive works.

Where is the firmware update for the DA flasher? I am using version 10 of the SDK.

View attachment 14387

What ended up being the issue?

 

[snuci]

What ended up being the issue?

I haven't quite figured it out yet. It still does nothing when it is by itself. If I connect it via SCSI to the SDK on a PC, it seems to test out fine. I need to do some more investigation as I am not even sure the GD-ROM drive works yet.

 

[T_chan]

Was probably stuck in "CPU mode", the mode used for development.
The other mode is "OS mode", when it boots into the bios.
DACheck enables you to choose one of the modes, and to switch the devkit to that mode.

Since you are seeing the bios, and DACheck works, no need to reflash things I would say.

 

[snuci]

Was probably stuck in "CPU mode", the mode used for development.
The other mode is "OS mode", when it boots into the bios.
DACheck enables you to choose one of the modes, and to switch the devkit to that mode.

Since you are seeing the bios, and DACheck works, no need to reflash things I would say.

Thank you. I think I'm good. I am just waiting on a controller as I can't get past the "change date" screen. I also was able to run the switch 4 diagnostics once I put a new battery in. I wasn't able to save the mode I was in after turning it off and on so that was why I had the issues.

BTW, I ordered an Adaptec AH-2940 SCSI card and HD50 cable but I was able to run with no issues on Windows 98SE with an Adaptec AHA-1542CF along with the appropriate Centronics SCSI to HD50 cable I already had. Just wanted to note that in case anyone is wondering if that would work. I do get a "New device" pop-up when I start Windows 98SE that has no drivers in the SDK but I can access the DA and hard drive so I think everything is working fine. I have just not been able to test the GD-ROM drive in the Devkit yet.

 

[T_chan]

nice to hear.

BTW, if you want to replace the GD-ROM drive latch, you can find cheap compatible ones on ebay

(Original is this I think: Pioneer door latch 29K0)

 

[snuci]

nice to hear.

BTW, if you want to replace the GD-ROM drive latch, you can find cheap compatible ones on ebay

(Original is this I think: Pioneer door latch 29K0)

Thank you. Yes, I found your post and already ordered the ones at the first link. I appreciate that as I searched and didn't know what to call that or what similar models there were. I think the original will hold out but it's best to replace it with a complete one that hasn't been hacked together to work