I was having trouble updating my GDEMU firmware; my Dreamcast was in a DreamCase and that meant a different power supply and an SD card extension. I'm only 50% sure I used the listed compatible SD cards (including the one that my games were on), so after putting my Dreamcast back in its original shell with its original power supply (not even with resistors added) and using the somewhat well-known SD card popular with GameCube homebrew, I was finally able to update my GDEMU firmware.
Why was I so insistent on updating the GDEMU firmware?
Turns out, the GDEMU freezes on certain sections, apparently for loading certain sections too fast. I can reliably get Soulcalibur to freeze by going to Museum > Exhibition Mode > Yoshimitsu; the game will freeze during the fade to black after Yoshimitsu's demo ends. I also learned the hard way that House of the Dead 2 will freeze after beating the game, right before you get to save your game, losing any progress you may have made along the way. I can confirm setting the GDEMU load speed to 600 fixes the Soulcalibur problem, and hopefully all other freezing problems. My characters in Phantasy Star Online 2 still loaded from the GDEMU much faster than from disc at 600, so I may just keep it at that speed.
I don't know if the GDEMU is getting any more updates, but if there are any, I'll need clear access to the SD card slot (no extensions), and I'll need to watch out for LED patterns, which not only means the DreamCase is out, but also a good number of 3D-printed trays are out as well.
Other things I've learned when swapping cases:
Generally helpful vid here.
Not all replacement shells are equal. (I will link to a future Twitter post with pictures)
You can't do a case swap for the Broadband Adapter. The hole is a little wider and all the 3rd party shells I've seen are only big enough for the standard modem.
If your Dreamcast turns off after a while, especially shortly after turning it on, cleaning the power pins with alcohol may or may not help, but bending them towards the back of the console most certainly will. HOWEVER, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART IS TO CHECK IF YOU REATTACHED THE SMALL RIBBON CABLE FROM THE CONTROLLER PORT. MY DUMB ASS KEEPS MISSING THIS!
SD card compatibility here (TLDR: up to 32 GB for SDHC; with SDXC being unsupported), and the best, largest, cheapest officially compatible SD cards here. Format in FAT32, with 64kB clusters.
Screws needed: Lists from iFixit, or just buy the screw sets here.
Or to put it another way:
- 9 black medium screws
- 4 for the bottom of the Dreamcast
- 5 for the motherboard
- (VA0 units only) 1 for the fan
- 9 short brass screws
- 2 for the power supply
- 3 for the GDROM drive
- 2 for the power button switch
- 2 for the motherboard
- 6 long brass screws
- 4 for the controller port
- 2 for modem
- (VA1 and maybe VA2 models only)
- 2 tiny black screws for the fan
