CDX Restarts on it's own and affects other consoles!?

[moltomolto]

I've been having the weirdest problem with my CDX for the past few months, was hoping someone could shed some light on this.

My CDX will restart on it's own randomly during gameplay. Not only that, but if it's hooked up through the same SCART switch as my other consoles, it affects those too..even when the CDX is powered off!

At first I thought it was the surge protector, or SCART switch, but removing the CDX fixes the issue for other consoles, and testing the CDX on another TV I get the same issue.

Any ideas what this could be? I purchased a new CDX PSU and the problem still persists. The CDX was modded with a Mega Amp back in 2016, but the problems seem to have started over the past few months.

Thank you in advance.

[Hoagtech]

Yes your using a bad SCART switch. I fried my dreamcast using a cheap one.

I would buy a better one and just plug in one scart at a time for the console your using in the mean time

I don’t know about your CDX restarting but the fact it’s effecting consoles shows me you have a bad scart switch

[moltomolto]

Thanks, but I don't think it could be the switch. As it's a brand new GSCARTSW lite, and we all know that's quality. Plus all my other consoles run fine through the switch. When I unplug the CDX from the chain, the other consoles work with no problems at all. The CDX also has the same issue when I use it through an OSSC as well as another SCART switch I had lying around (Bandridge)

[Link83]

Have you tried removing pins 8 and 16 from the SCART plug? (Or disconnecting the +5V wire inside the plug)

[Hoagtech]

Thanks, but I don't think it could be the switch. As it's a brand new GSCARTSW lite, and we all know that's quality. Plus all my other consoles run fine through the switch. When I unplug the CDX from the chain, the other consoles work with no problems at all. The CDX also has the same issue when I use it through an OSSC as well as another SCART switch I had lying around (Bandridge)

Well if anything is happening to nearby consoles it means your leaking power. It’s usually from the SCART switch but I do understand the quality of the gscart lite.

Does this issue still happen when the Scart from the cdx is unplugged but the power is still plugged in?

Even if it was the surge protector as long as your grounded you shouldn’t be having issues with nearby consoles.

I still think it’s your switch. You may have gotten a bad one

[moltomolto]

Have you tried removing pins 8 and 16 from the SCART plug? (Or disconnecting the +5V wire inside the plug)

I've never even opened any of my SCART cables, so no. What would removing these pins/wires possibly accomplish?

Thanks, but I don't think it could be the switch. As it's a brand new GSCARTSW lite, and we all know that's quality. Plus all my other consoles run fine through the switch. When I unplug the CDX from the chain, the other consoles work with no problems at all. The CDX also has the same issue when I use it through an OSSC as well as another SCART switch I had lying around (Bandridge)

Well if anything is happening to nearby consoles it means your leaking power. It’s usually from the SCART switch but I do understand the quality of the gscart lite.

Does this issue still happen when the Scart from the cdx is unplugged but the power is still plugged in?

Even if it was the surge protector as long as your grounded you shouldn’t be having issues with nearby consoles.

I still think it’s your switch. You may have gotten a bad one

I would agree that it's the switch, but it's unlikely that both of my SCART switches AND the OSSC are defective. And that the defect only occurs with this specific console. One switch sure, but all of my switches?

I'll have to try your suggestion with the power plugged in but the CDX SCART unplugged and see if that has any effect.

[Link83]

Have you tried removing pins 8 and 16 from the SCART plug? (Or disconnecting the +5V wire inside the plug)

I've never even opened any of my SCART cables, so no. What would removing these pins/wires possibly accomplish?

Pins 8 and 16 carry voltages used for SCART switching:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART#Bla ... _switching
This could potentially be affecting your other consoles (Years ago I used a cheap passive SCART switch which would feedback power to any connected consoles when only one console was powered up. I only realised this when I noticed my PAL SNES power LED was faintly lit up when it wasn't even switched on!)

These two signals are not necessary for the GSCARTSW Lite's auto switching to function, as it uses composite sync detection instead.

[gray117]

engh ... I'd be inclined at the power end of all of this.

You're 100% certain that if your cdx is not plugged in then nothing restarts ever? ... what's the kind of frequency here of faults here? Gone like a week without cdx plugged in and nothing restarting and then stuff restarts within an hour or two of it being plugged in?

Similarly you've tried running the cdx with the scart connecter, but not on the same surge protector as other consoles?

What happens to everything else if you just manually restart/turn on off cdx?

... it's just I'd be a little wary of blaming the cdx outright.

... But would could be happening? Suspect some kind of cut/lowering in supply power. Could maybe be external, could maybe be a grounding issue somewhere. Why does it only occur occasionally - could be somehow capacitance based or a frayed wire somewhere within the power flex or something that moves somewhere.

Really don't see how it could be scart that effects everything - whilst you could, say, fry everything connected to any metal cable, I can't see how it could interrupt power to simply restart/turn on/off a device via scart and seems inconceivable that multiple devices might act in a similar way even if you found one that did this.

Seems much more likely is some kind of common power/connection issue - maybe effects cdx worse, or maybe cdx worsen's the situation/fault ... but still inclined to look to power supply as the commen link...

[mvsfan]

I cut the wires in some of my scart cables for the switching voltages because i had an issue where my Snes would turn on my Genesis at the same time.

i think thats the problem youve got.

[moltomolto]

I really appreciate all the feedback and ideas so far. I tried testing last night with the CDX power supply unplugged, but leaving the SCART plugged in. And in about an hour of gameplay I did not encounter the issue at all.

With the PSU plugged in the issue seems to occur at random intervals. Sometimes within a few minutes of gameplay, sometimes it takes 15-20 minutes to occur.

But the main thing I want to figure out is what is going on specifically with the CDX? Since I can't properly use it on any setup without it restarting randomly...direct through my PVM, through either SCART switch, or with an OSSC.

Would cutting the wires in the SCART switch potentially fix that issue? Or is that only related to how it's affecting the other consoles?

What I don't understand is that the CDX seemed to work fine in the past. I didn't encounter this issue until months after I had the Mega Amp mod done on the CDX.

[mvsfan]

as long as your not using an automatic scart switch, and dont live in Europe, you dont need those.

[Kez]

I really appreciate all the feedback and ideas so far. I tried testing last night with the CDX power supply unplugged, but leaving the SCART plugged in. And in about an hour of gameplay I did not encounter the issue at all.

With the PSU plugged in the issue seems to occur at random intervals. Sometimes within a few minutes of gameplay, sometimes it takes 15-20 minutes to occur.

But the main thing I want to figure out is what is going on specifically with the CDX? Since I can't properly use it on any setup without it restarting randomly...direct through my PVM, through either SCART switch, or with an OSSC.

Would cutting the wires in the SCART switch potentially fix that issue? Or is that only related to how it's affecting the other consoles?

What I don't understand is that the CDX seemed to work fine in the past. I didn't encounter this issue until months after I had the Mega Amp mod done on the CDX.

This does seem to go beyond regular leaking SCART switches.. it could be that something more serious is wrong with your CDX. Some other things to try:

- Do you have an alternative PSU to use with the CDX? Are you using an original PSU or something else?
- Does the problem occur on other consoles if the CDX is plugged into the power but not into the SCART switch?
- Do you have an alternative AV cable to use? Even if it's just a composite or something, you could try that (straight into the TV) and see if it still loses power.

[Link83]

What I don't understand is that the CDX seemed to work fine in the past. I didn't encounter this issue until months after I had the Mega Amp mod done on the CDX.

Do you have any pictures of the install?

I had a thought that perhaps the Mega Amp has been connected to the CDX +5V line before the systems power switch, so in other words the Mega Amp is being powered all the time whenever the system is connected to a power supply (Its also possible the CDX has an unusual power arrangement, since it is designed to also run off batteries)

[Gazza]

... it's just I'd be a little wary of blaming the cdx outright.

... But would could be happening? Suspect some kind of cut/lowering in supply power. Could maybe be external, could maybe be a grounding issue somewhere. Why does it only occur occasionally - could be somehow capacitance based.

Had the same issue where my CDX would randomly restart. It used to happen every now and again, so not very frequently.
However, as time went on, those intervals became shorter and shorter.

A friend of mine suggested giving to him to check out. He ended up ordering and replacing the caps.
Apart from one Sega CD game- Silpheed (read errors on a scratch-free, pristine game disc), I've not had any issues thereafter.

[moltomolto]

Here's a pic of the install, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking for honestly, as the modwork wasn't done by me. I thought it might be something involving the Mega Amp mod, but I'm not sure how to confirm that.

https://i.imgur.com/EA8CBIk.jpg

I don't have the original CDX PSU but I have been using this replacement one from Retro Game Supply: https://en.retrogamesupply.com/products ... i-mega-cdx. It seemed to work fine in the past, and I ended up buying a second PSU from them to confirm if the first PSU was faulty. Same issue with both of them. Unfortunately the OEM PSU is way too expensive to buy when I'm not even sure that the PSU is the actual problem.

I have a few Genesis SCART cables lying around and the issue occurs with all of them.

So PSU and SCART cables don't seem to be the issue. It must be something in the CDX itself...I may have to just send this in to somebody reputable for repair.

Had the same issue where my CDX would randomly restart. It used to happen every now and again, so not very frequently.
However, as time went on, those intervals became shorter and shorter.

A friend of mine suggested giving to him to check out. He ended up ordering and replacing the caps.
Apart from one Sega CD game- Silpheed (read errors on a scratch-free, pristine game disc), I've not had any issues thereafter.

Wow thanks for the tip! Since you had the same issue I'll assume this is probably/hopefully the problem for mine too. It also seems to be occurring more frequently recently.

[PFG 9000]

Sorry for the bump, but I thought it would be better than creating a new topic. My CDX has been doing the same thing, although I don't use SCART, and my other consoles aren't effected. Did you ever figure out the source of the problem, moltomolto? Did you get your CDX recapped, or was it something else?

[nmalinoski]

Is it possible that the AV cables being used are not attenuating the Genesis's TTL sync? That's the only thing I can think of that would affect a gscartsw lite/4-series, since, as mentioned earlier, pins 8 and 16 aren't connected on the switch, but the lites don't have any overvolting protection.

If the the problem was limited to the CDX, then I might imagine one or more caps would need to be replaced; but, to affect the switch and other consoles, something in the AV output would need to be affecting the switch in some way.