Saturn PSU dead, need advice

OK! When I touch the two exterior "legs" of the TOP102YAI with my multimeter, my Saturn powers up! Does that mean it is my faulty part? Or if you jump that part, it will start up anyway?

 

Luckily there's also a readily available power supply you can get for 20ish bucks that works great in the Saturn. If all else fails that is, sounds like yours has hope.

 

Don't bypass the part.

It sounds like internally (to the TOP102YAI) that part of the circuit is damaged. There is a modern replacement with a very close part number available.

 

Really? I searched and didn't find anything, do you have a link?

Do you know how to find it? I tried on Digi-key and beside the TOP102YAI, I do not find any replacements with the same sepcifications.

 

TOP224 off the top of my head. The second gen ones work with 100-250v or so. Rather than the old top102 and top202 which were 100v and 220v respectively

 

I followed the instruction in this post
http://segasaturngroup.proboards.com/thread/8336/saturn-noobs-guide?page=1&scrollTo=122617

Which has links to the PSU and regulator, but here they are anyway:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Durable-DC-A...werSupplies_EH&hash=item3ce66196e8&rmvSB=true
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1-x-L7809CV-...efaultDomain_0&hash=item20ec6cfb01&rmvSB=true

I made a shitty guide video if you're interested as well.

Been using this setup in my Saturn for almost a year now, works great.

 

That's quite a project. I'll change the PWM switch like Bad_Ad84 suggest.

 

It's actually not bad at all. Like I said though, try and revive yours first, always nice to have original. This is more if one were to decide the PSU is beyond repair.

 

for sure!

Thanks all for the inputs, I'll post an update when I receive the part.

 

Received the parts, time to fix this now.

 

It works! I noticed that the plate where the PWM switch mounts get super hot. Is it normal or do I have another problem and the switch will die again?

 

It's normal for that chip to operate very hot. It's why it is attached to a plate, to act as a heatsink.
Quite a bunch of other components also get very hot during operation. The ba6798S on the CD drive for example gets hot enough to burn your finger at a touch.