This posts describes the refurbishment and modding of a japanese white Sega Saturn. The console was cleaned and retrobrigthed, recapped, the BIOS was replaced for a region-free BIOS, and the SRAM was replaced with an FRAM.
Some photos of the console before work started.
First disassembly and recap of the motherboard
Next the shell was washed with water and soap and subsequently retrobrighted. A magic eraser was also used to remove all the scuffs and marks. Very little scratches or actual dents were found in the plastic shell
The BIOS and the SRAM were then replaced. Both require removal of the stock chips, soldering of the new chips, and installing a couple of extra wires in various pins to enable the chips.
The CD drive was also disassembled, cleaned and lubricated. All the capacitors were replaced
Finally, the PSU was recapped and the console tested both with PAL and NTSC-J games
