Nintendo 64 crashes after a few minutes

[Metin]

Hi

I have built 2 step down regulators.
1. Harshboy's
2. Bacteria's

When I connect them to my Nintendo 64 it works for 1 up to 15 minutes. Then the screen turns black. Power LED stays red. Reset doesn't work. I have to turn it off and on again. I do not use batteries, i tried it on different 12 V power supplies and also with the 12 V plug of my car (planning to put the N64 in my car). Also tried different games. Always crashed. The problem does not occur when i use the original Nintendo power supply. Also I noticed a humming noise coming out of my TV speakers when using my step down regulators but not when using my original Nintendo power supply. I have never opened the case of my N64. Please help me.

[blaze3927]

bad caps?
or maybe your regulator is getting too warm
i think it has an auto shutoff protection thingamybob(too tired soz) for something

[Metin]

thx for the hints, I will check that when I'm home!

[Metin]

No, it's not getting warm. But I have noticed that the PTH08080 gives up to 2.25 A output current. The N64 uses up to 2.7 A on the two 3.3 V pins. Also this time the screen didn't stay black. This time the N64 restarted repeatedly every 2 seconds. And according to that I found something very interesting in the PTH08080 documentation:

Current Limit Protection
The PTH08080 modules protect against load faults with an output overcurrent trip. Under a load fault condition,
the output current cannot exceed the current limit value. Attempting to draw current that exceeds the current limit
value causes the output voltage to enter into a hiccup mode of operation, whereby the module continues in a
cycle of successive shutdown and power up until the load fault is removed. On removal of the fault, the output
voltage promptly recovers.

Now my plan is to use both of my step down regulators to get a maximum output of
2.25 A * 2 = 4.5 A

I hope it will work

Also here is the full documentation if you are interested.

[hailrazer]

No the N64 doesn't pull near that amount.

The total MAX it pulls is 850mA on the 3.3v AND 12v line together.

[Metin]

No, you have to measure the 3.3 V line only. I got up to 1.74 A. Maybe there are peeks which i can't see on my simple multimeter and cause the reboots...

[hailrazer]

It doesnt matter what the N64 draws on the 3.3V line only what the regulator draws when connected to 7.4v. And that is less than 850mA .