Replacing DC internal fans...will this cause a problem?

DoctorFaust · Post by **DoctorFaust** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:31 am

Hi, as you can see I'm a newbie here but I have long since been an admirer of the Dreamcast and the thriving underground scene that surrounds it, long may it continue!

I recently got myself back into the joys of the DC and bought myself a Japanese model ( HKT 3000 ) and upon booting up I noticed that the fan was making an unusually high pitched sound. I could hear the 'normal' fan sound but there was also another sound on top of that, which just sounded wrong.

I opened up the DC to see if anything was obstructing the fan blades but all seemed fine. It was at this point that I remembered that my brother had a PAL DC up in his loft that he didn't use anymore and I decided to do a little investigating.

Inside the PAL DC was a better quality metal fan ( my Jap fan was black plastic ) and both seemed identical. With this, I removed the plastic Jap fan from my DC and put in its place the metal PAL fan from my brothers.

Both fans seemed indentical, same size, both had three wires connecting it to the DC, here's what each fan had written on them:

JAP FAN: DC5V 0.06A

PAL FAN: DC5V 0.09A

My question is this, what is the difference between these two fans and it is safe for me to use a PAL fan in a JAP DC based on that info above?

Thanks in advance

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:20 pm

One uses more electricty, I wouldn't worry about it, they should work fine if you switch them

dcmodder · Post by **dcmodder** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:17 pm

nice thing about the dreamcast almost all of the parts are interchangable between regions

DoctorFaust · Post by **DoctorFaust** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:38 am

Thanks for the info guys, I booted up the Jap DC ( with the PAL fan in it ) yesterday and there were no problems. The horrible high pitched sound was eliminated and all I could hear was the lovely low sound of the fan and flowing air and nothing else.

Talking of interchangeable parts, could you put a UK PAL power board into a Jap DC? I noticed that both the PAL and JAP circuit parts where you plug the power into round the back ( and that has those long silver pins ) look exactly the same.

Could doing this swap totally replace the need for using a step down converter or would that definately be a recipe for disaster?

Thanks

semicolo · Post by **semicolo** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:48 am

yeah it'd work, the japanese dc would then run on 230V instead of 110V.
It'd be outputting ntsc though.

DoctorFaust · Post by **DoctorFaust** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:59 am

Excuse my obvious naiveity but is there a problem with outputting in NTSC? I thought having an NTSC console was always preferrable to a PAL model.

I thought that NTSC ( especially the NTSC-J ) meant true uncensored gaming, all the blood, guts and boobs, no crappy borders and full screen colour.

Why did I detect a downside tone to your post semicolo?

DoctorFaust · Post by **DoctorFaust** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:14 am

Sorry semicolo, looking at your post again I think I read it wrong, you was simply stating that the power would now be 230V but it would still be an NTSC console at heart. I read it fast and it seemed like you thought that would be a bad thing.

Sorry boss

Has anyone else ever swapped out region parts, especially when it comes to power?

Thanks

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:58 am

A Japanese motherboard will output NTSC. All modern UK TV's can handle it. It does not change censorship but there is a refresh rate difference. You'll probably only notice it in fast games like MSR