I tried to region change my console and failed

[thakarra]

Hi all,

I'm after some help, I think I ruined my Dreamcast.

I purchased a console from Japan with the intent to replace the PSU and install a GDEMU.

This all went to plan perfectly fine without any issues. I installed a DreamPSU, removed the disc drive and fitted in a GDEMU.

Everything was working perfectly 100% perfectly... Until I started messing around like an idiot.

I live in a PAL country and I noticed that some of my PAL games were booting weird on the TV, they'd be like half cut off. This was obviously because the console is from Japan (NTSC). So I started poking around trying to find a way to "region change" my console.

And I found this:
https://www.retrosix.wiki/region-change-dreamcast

Now this tutorial looked super straight forward. I'm no stranger to soldering and the tutorial mentioned you only need to solder 1 wire. So I followed the guide and loaded up the region swap software via my GDEMU. For whatever reason, it just wouldn't write the PAL region to the flash like it was supposed to. I kept going back and fourth about 3-4 times, unplugging the console, disassembling, checking my soldering, reassembling, plugging back in etc. But it just wouldn't work.

I was about to give up and then I found something called Dream Shell, which seemed to also have region changing software on it. So with one final attempt, I tried to boot Dream Shell off my GDEMU. Then the whole console basically crashed and this is now where I'm at...

When I turn on the Dreamcast, the screen is black for about 20-30 seconds. Then without any intro animation the Dreamcast logo appears on screen and hangs for about 3 minutes. Finally it boots into the BIOS and asks me to set the time and date. When I do this, it takes me straight into the BIOS menu. If I click on "Play" it asks me to insert a disk.

So I removed the GDEMU and put back the original disk drive. The same thing happens.. Black screen, logo for 3 minutes, BIOS date/time and then into the menu. The only difference is that the logo swirl is black. If I click on "Play" with a disc inserted, it will start spinning and a dialogue appears saying something along the lines of "please wait while disc is being checked".. However it just stays like thins and nothing ever happens. The disc continues to spin but after a while the laser stops trying to read it. So basically I can't boot the GDEMU and I can't boot any discs.

Just to note, I've also removed the soldered wire now completely from R512 and the 12v rail on the board.

Another thing to note is that when I was trying to do the region change mod, every time I would disassemble it to check my soldering, I noticed the board was really hot underneath.

I'm absolutely gutted. I had it working. I should have been satisfied with just playing USA games... But I stupidly tried to force a region change and now it's not working at all.

If ANYONE can help me or at least help me troubleshoot.. I would greatly appreciate it. I'm completely heartbroken.

[SWAT]

Your dreamcast is currently bricked and needs to be re-soldered with a FlashROM because it died.

[chth96]

I think that you need to detach bios chip from mainboard with hot air gun and purchase pal dreamcast bios and solder this bios on mainboard.But I think that It would be quite difficult for novice to detach bios successfully from mainboard with hot air gun...
A years ago, I also have tried to detach bios chip with hot air gun,But I broke some bios solder pad,and I narrowly repaired it by soldering more than seven jumping wire like below photo.
https://img2.quasarzone.com/editor/2024/...4ae93c.jpg
https://img2.quasarzone.com/editor/2024/...5c9ad9.jpg