Dreamcast Guides : Bypass the Black Swirl of Death

So you probably are reading this as you did the region swap mod on your system but left the power wire connected to your flash ROM and now have that dreaded black swirl that always ask for the date and time but as soon as you set the time it just resets and ask you to do it again and it will over and over again as your flash ROM is dead. They were not designed to have constant power to them so this will ruin the ability to keep date and time and even IP settings for using the BBA or playing some games like PSO online. I will note that 56k networking still will work on a system with a fried flash ROM as the settings are stored on the VMU instead but still will not allow PSO to go online as it needs to store the games key on the flash ROM you just destroyed. Most of the others work fine but enough with that. You are here to bypass the stupid ass boot loop and use your lovely Dreamcast again aren't you? 99% of you don't game online anyhow as I have never seen you :P Anyhow boot your DC with the lid open and make it to your BIOS screen. Go to the date and time but this time you are going "back to the future" set the date and time to 01/01/1950 and press X to accept and watch in amazement as your Dreamcast suddenly boots your games again. You are stuck with the ugly black swirl but hey your system works and anyone can do this one so back to gaming!!!

~atreyu187