Saturn SAROO isn’t booting

TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24

The Little Fella in your CD-ROM Drive
The Little Fella in your CD-ROM Drive
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Hello! I’ve finally decided to join the magic that is ODE’s with the relatively cheaper option that is SAROO. While I only had an hour and a half with it today, as I’ve had to leave for a vacation, I was met with severe issues.

THE PROBLEM:
My cart would have the red light flash and also a green light, which indicates power was going to it, but it never booted. I also tried a 4MB Expansion game in the CD drive, and it spat out the “insert ram expansion” error on me. It seems the SAROO itself just wasn’t booting.

USEFUL STUFF:
Here are screenshots of my SD path:

Screenshot_2025-12-12_at_4.03.31_PM.png
Screenshot_2025-12-12_at_4.03.52_PM.png
Screenshot_2025-12-12_at_4.04.02_PM.png


Here’s the link I bought it from:
I just found this on AliExpress: $71.21 | Saroo ODE Sega Saturn Optical Drive Emulator, SD HC TF Card Reader, Replace CD Laser Lens, DIY Console Mod 1.37 https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqFsDnn
(Boy, I sure do love that it defaults to a massive ad for AliExpress when I give people a link. -_-)

My console is a Japanese model 2. I’m unaware of which motherboard revision, which I’ve just been made aware may be a concern. I’ve done a thorough scrub of the contacts of both cart and system, as well as checking a different cartridge I use on my Saturn. The Action Replay worked like it always has, which singled out that at least the cartridge slot works fine.

CONCLUSION:
My end goal is to workshop this with people over the next week, getting a plan of action for when I return home from my trip. I’ll be kinda boned if it’s an issue with the system itself, but if it’s not than I hope this thread will be what I need to get my SAROO up and running.
Post automatically merged:

IMPORTANT STUFF I FORGOT TO ADD:
I downloaded the 0.8 firmware that TPUnix put out earlier this week, as I wanted to be on the most recent firmware. I’ve found very little documentation of that firmware online, so that was, in hindsight, probably a bad move. I also grabbed the “game covers” .zip file from the 0.7 update, since that file wasn’t contained in the files for the 0.8 update.
 
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I've avoided the Saroo for a few reasons, but mainly for a lack of build quality. There's not really a reputable seller you can get these from, so the build quality is going to be all over the place. All I can say is I hope you didn't get a bad one. ::sailor-embarrassed
(also your link doesn't work, it gives me this)
1765600677411.png
 

Here is a reputable seller/build of the Saroo, it is the one that I personally have. I found that the Saroo doesn't play nice when a disk is inside of the console. It could also depend of the sd card you have in it, I have a SanDIsk Extreme 128 GB and it seems to work well.
 
I’ve got a little time before the flight to reply.
I've avoided the Saroo for a few reasons, but mainly for a lack of build quality. There's not really a reputable seller you can get these from, so the build quality is going to be all over the place. All I can say is I hope you didn't get a bad one. ::sailor-embarrassed
(also your link doesn't work, it gives me this)
View attachment 135301
Yup! Sorry about that! Here’s a different one that hopefully works!

Here is a reputable seller/build of the Saroo, it is the one that I personally have. I found that the Saroo doesn't play nice when a disk is inside of the console. It could also depend of the sd card you have in it, I have a SanDIsk Extreme 128 GB and it seems to work well.
That’s definitely something I planned to try first. The micro SD card I used was always intended to be a “demo” card for just trying the device out. The one I used was the only one I had on hand: the same kind of micro SD card that was packed in with my 2DS XL back from when I modded it and replaced the card. That means it was a 4 GB microSDHC card without a brand. My thought was “if it was good enough for a 2DS, it’s good enough for the SAROO! At least until I get a better, bigger card.”
 
The CD Block is being inaccurately emulated in the cartridge which is leading everybody down a rabbit hole, needing per-game settings to get games running properly, potentially breaking with updates and patches.


Trekkies has been pointing out problems for a long time. Hopefully the fundamental ones get fixed so this circlejerk product will stop causing people who don't know any better to run into performance issues and believe Saturn games are worse than they actually are.
 
The CD Block is being inaccurately emulated in the cartridge which is leading everybody down a rabbit hole, needing per-game settings to get games running properly, potentially breaking with updates and patches.


Trekkies has been pointing out problems for a long time. Hopefully the fundamental ones get fixed so this circlejerk product will stop causing people who don't know any better to run into performance issues and believe Saturn games are worse than they actually are.
For a while every time someone asked about the Saroo I used to tell them just get a Fenrir instead. It any cost slightly more and has much better compatibility. I say "used to" because I got sick of hearing people crying about having to open the console and losing the disc drive. It's 2025, these drives are failing, you should be thankful there's a long term replacement for them. Plus these systems need maintenance, you should be opening these things up anyway. It's not even a difficult mod, the laser is on the very top. you literally just unplug it and replace it with the Fenrir.
 

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