Anchor points:
Looking at the pic from the bottom view of the DOL-101 vs DOL-001, circled in red is the anchor points for the dvd port connector. Notice the DOL-001 has anchors to hold the connector firmly onto the mainboard and the DOL-101 just has smooth solder with no anchor. I do not know if all DOL-101's are missing these anchors or maybe this was a manufacturer defect that went unnoticed, but without anchors, the only thing keeping the connector in place is the 32 pins.
DVD port removal:
With the pic above showing the anchors for the dvd connector, one leg of the connector has been cut. This cut was made during the removal process. Without anchors on the connector, only one leg needs to be cut and the 32 pins. With anchors, then cut both anchors and pins. The cut should be made as shown in the pic where the pins are inserted to the top part of the connector.
damn iphone captured the video in a "slim" sideways aspect so i had to rely on youtube editor to rotate the filming
...and also stopped filming as i started removing the pins....piece of shit
YOUTUBE VIDEO >>>>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IyoOfvRPM
a dremel is actually pretty safe to make the cut since you are actually cutting about 10cm/.5in above the board. I understanding cutting with a dremel, you only get one chance, so to make this fair, i have never cut a connector before with a dremel. The video shows my first attempt to cut the connector right after waking up and still groggy. I mention this so others can understand how simple the process really is and not to be afraid to cut the connector. So after slicing the connector and cutting thru the pins i move on to the MEGAdrive install....
MEGAdrive install:
Remember, i just finished cutting the pins with a dremel at medium-hi (20) speed and the pins did not get mangled at all....
and since there has been discussion about trying to slide the MEGAdrive onto the mainboard pins I thought this would be a great time to try it out so I can provide an experienced opinion rather than speculation. Since i had a feeling trying to slide the board onto all four rows (32pins) was gonna be really difficult, I thought about what would be the most practical direction to accomplish this. Considering the GND pins and 5v pins are usually the most difficult to desolder, i thought i would target those two rows (16) pins. After over one hour of attempting to align the pins properly and sliding the board, and trying again and again, I was successful, but only partially successful, 16 pins is not 32 pins. This was an extremely difficult tack to accomplish and I dont think i would have the patience to try all 32 pins. If anyone wants to attempt to slide on the MEGAdrive, i recommend only to try 16 pins had have a lot of time on your hands with plenty of patience. After those 16 pins are in, then there is only 16 more to go.
