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It's no big secret that Dreamcasts tend to over heat. This is why people are searching and searching for bigger and better fans to put inside their Dc's to keep them staying cool. Not only from the numerous threads there are on this message board of people asking where they can find the cheapest, most reliable fans, but anybody who has a Dreamcast knows that it will over heat if played too long, and that they need to find a solution for that. So, here I am to put the companies who make those fans out of business. 
Alot of people have had more than one Dc because the ones they've had died on them. A big cause of this is the fact that they get too hot when left on for several hours. I have had my Dreamcast for about 3 years. I noticed when i first got it that after only about an hour of playing Tokyo Extreme Racer that my Dc was hot to the touch. I felt on the side where the fan is and noticed that it was blowing out hot air. At the time I didn't know that you could buy a new, more powerful fan to keep it cool. I still don't own one so I don't know if they work or not. But, I came up with the PERFECT solution for all those who don't have the money for a new fan, or just don't want to bother with putting one in. Simply unscrew the four screws on the bottom of your DC. (for the fourth screw you have to take out the modem, but don't worry you can put it back in =)) Remove the case off the top of your Dc. Of course make sure there's no game inside . Then, after you take off the case you'll see a small tab near the back. When you have the case on and you close the lid, it pushes that tab back enabling you to play your games. Opening the lid causes that tab to come back up, as it's not being pushed down anymore. That's why when you open the lid the game stops spinning and the Dc goes back to the menu. So in order for you to be able to play games with no case, you have to figure out a way to tie the tab down. Be careful with that because it is kind of flimsy, it could break if you tied it too hard and pulled on the Dc. Really it's not anything to worry about too much though. Once you have figured out a way to get that tab tied back, you are good to go! Another thing you could do is to place your Dc on a surface that has holes in it. (you'll see in the pictures) Now, not only is no heat being trapped inside the case of the Dc, you not only have the normal fan BUT when the disc spins you can feel it blowing air off the Dc. Something you have to remember is that your Dc needs to be put in a place where nothing could fall on to it and minimal dust would get into it. Just use common sense there. Another way to keep dust from getting onto the lens is to always keep a game in the Dc. It will block the lens so no dust will get in. You could also just place the case back on the Dc when not in use. Not screwing it back on but just sitting it on top.
This works wonders, trust me, I've used this method for almost three years and have never once had a problem with my Dc. I am still on my first Dreamcast =). I can keep my Dreamcast on for hours on end and it NEVER gets anything other than slightly warm. Of course for people who don't use their Dc much, this might not appeal to them. But for those of us who keep playing their Dc for even up to 12 hours in a row this will keep your Dreamcast safe from over heating and dying on you. (when i say 12 hours i mean it.... when my friend used to spend the night we would literally have it on for 2 days STRAIGHT) I've uploaded pictures for everyone to see exactly what I mean. http://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/phpBB2/album_page.php?pic_id=555 This is my Dc with no game in it. http://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/phpBB2/album_page.php?pic_id=554 Here it is with Jet Set Radio 
http://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/phpBB2/album_page.php?pic_id=556 And this is that tab in the back. I tried to draw an arrow pointing it out. If you notice, I am using a shoe string to tie it back and have the other end of the shoe string tied to the shelf it's on. You could use a twist tie, anything you can think of that would keep that tab tied back. This is also what I was talking about when I said to place your Dc on a surface with 'holes' in it. The shelf it sits on is 'ventilated'  So no heat gets trapped under the bottom either
I hope this helps some of you and saves some more Dreamcasts! |
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Uh, that looks practical, but what's protecting it from dust? | |||
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My first Dreamcast I got was 9/9/99. It died summer of 2004. And I didn't use a special fan. Or anything crazy like that. Actually, I believe the only thing that broked was the motor. And since I'm lazy, I just got another DC.
Plus: My dorm-room gets EXTREMELY dusty. Plus, I have a lot of imports so booting them might be a pain with that tab thing, and I need to use Codebreaker to play PSO online. Last edited by MK on Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| _________________ Sometimes I like chili. |
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TTS wrote:
Uh, that looks practical, but what's protecting it from dust? As I said in the original post, keep a game in it or simply place the case back on when not in use...  |
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Not like I read all of that.... | |||
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MK wrote:
My first Dreamcast I got was 9/9/99. It died summer of 2004. And I didn't use a special fan. Or anything crazy like that. Actually, I believe the only thing that broked was the motor. And since I'm lazy, I just got another DC.
Plus: My dorm-room gets EXTREMELY dusty. Plus, I have a lot of imports so booting them might be a pain with that tab thing, and I need to use Codebreaker to play PSO online. That's cool that you haven't had problems. But there are lots of people who do. And as far as the import booting thing goes, all you have to do is reach back and pull the tab back up and take out your boot disk, put your game in, let go of the tab and you're ready to go. When you tie it down, you dont tie it so hard that you can't just pull it back up. |
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nice solution, but not veery practical you know? Who wants all th dust to seep into your dc? | |||
| _________________ Down with the Neocons! Collection |
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Chile wrote:
nice solution, but not veery practical you know? Who wants all th dust to seep into your dc? Well I live in an EXTREMELY dusty room up in the attic and I have never had a problem with dust. Like I've said, simply place the Dc case back on when you're not using your Dc. While you're using it, the disc spinning around will blow off any dust. Then when not in use, the case will protect it. I'm not saying screw it back on, just set it back on. Very, very simple. |
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nice idea, although it seems somewhat inconvenient. btw, i love the avatar 2kool4skool  happy st paddy's day! |
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| _________________ TC Titans here I come! (Remember the Titans, yeah that's right) Check out my collection! |
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I still think all the DC overheating stuff is just overblown rumour, people seem to panick about it before its even happened. I have many DC's and many broken ones and not one is dead cus it overheated. Ive played BMO online on a hot summers night for 6 hours and not had the DC reset one time. Also I think a lot of the time people mistake the over heating issue with the resetting issue which can be fixed by taking apart your DC and simply bending back those pins ( see numerous other posts for details ).
Laters |
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| _________________ Now have a working PC DC server courtesy of Segadreamcaster. Bring on the DC on line games yeeee haaa. |
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I just give my DC about 6+" of clearance and I don't ever have an overheating issue. My SCPH-39001R PS2 get's considerably hotter than my Model-1 DC does after the same amount of time playing.
I guess having a current of air from a quickjly spinning disc couldn't hurt in terms of keeping your DC cool, but definately don't do that with a PS2. The way that the PS2's fan is situated means that the main cooling comes from wind chill over the heatsinks, but when you remove the casing, the fan just takes air from immediately in front of it, not forcing air through the system. I learned that while repairing 30001's. As long as there is a disc spinning in your GD-ROM driver, you should be ok. Makes sense, though, since there isn't much you would really want to do for extended periods of time on your DC without a disc in it. VMU management can only take so long... Another user once posted about cutting slits in the metal plating to allow air to flow in from the blocked vents in the bottom of the system, that might be somehting to try as well if you are in a high-dust environment. |
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I'm sometimes playing for many, many hours at once, I don't have an additional fan, I don't remove the case while playing, but my Dreamcast doesn't burn down although it's getting quite warm.
The ventilation works well. The problems I had (broken disk drive motor ,broken modems) can't be fixed that way I guess... But I really think that dust and dirt are damaging.... Do not place your Dreamcast on the ground! It needs a good position. Make sure that the ventilation gets fresh air (I recommend fresh air from the Bavarian countryside). Clean its inside sometimes
And never put an American DC on a simple German DC cable... My new US DC from ebay which was made for 110V use didn't like 220V 
Three minutes after turning it on, there was white smoke comming out of the ventilation (the DC was still running well...). -That looked really funny- When I opened it, I saw that the power unit had released some smelly brown liquid... I just put a PAL power unit for 220V use in it and it's working very well. Today I also replaced the LED. Red case, red light! I'm loving it... |
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