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DARKSOFT CPS III Bios and CD Releases

Mitsurugi-w said:
And fixed the super sensitive menu cursor glitch
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I was so confused why this was happening before. It isn't a big deal but to get it resolved is a nice idea. I have a friend who may be able to do the work for me but is there any recommended installers that can perform the upgrade if they aren't able to pull through? Sadly I don't have access to hot air or a programmer myself.
 
I have a CPS3 with full ram, bluescsi, and CD Ultrabios for standard. Whenever I start it up - the "Not Enough Ram" screen shows up with the the "Press 1p to Darksoft.." at the bottom. However, no matter how many times I press start or any other button, it won't go to the menu. I've cleaned all the contacts on the board, cart, and simms extensively, using an eraser, alcohol, and deoxit.
I know the controller works fine because it works fine with other boards and was working fine prior because originally it was a NOCD cart and I could select my region

I'm pretty new to flashing ics but everything seemed to go fine and I verified it afterwards.
At this point I might re-flash the bios but wanted to get some thoughts before I did so.
 

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I have this same problem on one of my cps3s.

When I use a NOCD cart with 3s pre loaded, it works perfectly fine.

If I use a CD cart, it'll come up as not enough memory when I try to write the game.

It might be worthwhile, cleaning your slots and the contacts of the simms.

Are you holding P1 start during the boot sequence?
 
mR_CaESaR said:
I have this same problem on one of my cps3s.

When I use a NOCD cart with 3s pre loaded, it works perfectly fine.

If I use a CD cart, it'll come up as not enough memory when I try to write the game.

It might be worthwhile, cleaning your slots and the contacts of the simms.

Are you holding P1 start during the boot sequence?
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Interesting that you have the same issue. But yeah, as previously stated, I did clean the contacts on the simms and slots with deoxit. And yeah, holding down start while booting. Even tried with 3 different controllers.
I'm just going to try flashing the bios one more time and see what happens. Will post the results.

****Update

So I re flashed with SuperBios this time and did another round of cleaning on the simms and connectors. No dice, same thing. I get to the same screen and holding start at startup does nothing. Neither does pressing start, holding any other button, or pressing any other button.
For those more experienced, even if one of the simms is bad I should still be able to boot into the Darksoft menu, correct?

I'm pretty new to CPS3 and the cart I purchased was sold as "custom" sh2 but everything I've read tells me I have standard. I've included a pic of the SH2.
 

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brainpann said:
For those more experienced, even if one of the simms is bad I should still be able to boot into the Darksoft menu, correct?
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Depends, but most probably if the cartridge boots and at least shows something on the screen, then yes, you should be able to go to the menu. If you dont, then I'd say the cart is bad.
brainpann said:
I'm pretty new to CPS3 and the cart I purchased was sold as "custom" sh2 but everything I've read tells me I have standard. I've included a pic of the SH2.
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Yes, that picture is a standard SH2 cart.
 
Progress is being made! For whatever reason I decided to swap simms 1 and 2, powered it on and it worked! Not sure why - maybe swapping cleaned a little extra of whatever off the simms. You'd think that 2 rounds of pencil eraser, alcohol, and deoxit would be enough.

Did a quick simm check and everything seemed to be fine but not going to celebrate whole heartedly until I'm actually playing some rounds of SF3.


**** Update

Played a few rounds of SF3:TS and now loading up Warzard. Everything seems to be working fine other than the sound but I think I just need to replace the potentiometer because messing with it does produce sound. It's just really low and the volume doesn't seem to change.

I never thought I'd own a CPS3 but randomly found this one for a good price with the word of the seller that it worked. :)
 

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brainpann said:
Played a few rounds of SF3:TS and now loading up Warzard. Everything seems to be working fine other than the sound but I think I just need to replace the potentiometer because messing with it does produce sound. It's just really low and the volume doesn't seem to change.
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I've owned 5 CPS3 board sets and all 5 needed the pot replaced.
 
@XeD was looking in to it at some point.

There is no way Capcom was reprogramming these by removing the flash, so it has to be possible by some means.
 
I transferred a few of these images at the beginning of this thread to my RP2040 and I can't get to the menu when I press 1P start. If I hold it down, I get the reading cd-rom and if I want to rewrite option. This only happens if I have one stick on the board. If I add more, I get a garbage screen. I don't know if my cart may be bad or possibly the sticks?
 
I'm currently installing games from the image that contains 4th strike. 2nd impact does not install and hangs on reading data before installation. Can anyone else confirm to see if they have the same issue?
 
kinooshi823 said:
I'm currently installing games from the image that contains 4th strike. 2nd impact does not install and hangs on reading data before installation. Can anyone else confirm to see if they have the same issue?
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I would set a baseline.

You say 2nd impact does not install and hangs.

  • Does anything else install fine?
  • Can you confirm 3s installs fine?
  • Are you using a fully populated cps3 that's known to work previously?
  • Do you have a darksoft super/ultra bios cart installed?
  • Are you using the correct cd rom image?
  • Do you have a custom or standard SH3? I'm assuming you have a standard if you're wanting to use 4th strike.

But first and foremost, confirm you can write another game like 3s because that's the only game that uses 6 sockets and if it writes fine, then you have an operational kit (ie. your baseline). If you can't write the game, then maybe it's worthwhile cleaning your simm sockets and simm pins then try again. If you still can't, then maybe worthwhile writing a new disc and check that or maybe even your disc drive is faulty. There's plenty of different variables, you just have to do a process of elimination. Maybe a faulty scsi cable too?

Once you have a baseline, then you can go from there.
 
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