MVS Cart repair attempt #2 - Metal Slug 5 - Garbled graphics

[rewrite]

Alright! Round 2.

Finally got my hands on a not $500 MS5 cart, but it's in disrepair.

Unlike the last one, this one has excellent sound, but the graphics are garbled. You can see the sprite blocks moving around in the background and can play the game fine.

The PCBs themselves look super clean and relatively untouched. I already gave the contacts a thorough cleaning and here we are.

U1 and C7 on the PROG board look to have been previously replaced (or maybe C7 was bumped while replacing U1), and there's some residue on the right-hand side of both PCBs but nothing seems to have been eaten through.

No S1 on these guys, and I'm assuming this is a tile-mapping issue, so I will have to dig through others' repair logs and the neo wiki and see what I can learn!

Cart pics and everything in the link as well:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/97vmtmfZcihiEds4A




First step will be to clean up the residue and fix up U1 and C7. Then to the wiki!

 

[rewrite]

Fixing up U1 and C7 has resulted in MORE moving blocks in the background. It's basically playable now if you don't mind guessing which blocks are what!

Looking at the wiki, I think the protection bits are all okay, since they're supposed to scramble the program roms, but the game PLAYS fine. So Neo-PVC is ruled out.

Neo-CMC handles the graphics roms. Mine looks pretty okay. I'm going to reflow the graphics roms entirely since a few of the joints look dodgy.

 

[Ape Cosplay]

Hoping it's not a bad NEO-CMC.
I have a pile of carts here in need of a donor and KOF99 isn't as cheap as it used to be (for the 042 version) and all of the 050 games are expensive...

[EDIT]
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/3285...lgo_pvid=0c886ecd-436f-4d8b-9622-0cbb542a9cd1

Too cheap to be true?

 

[rewrite]

Hoping it's not a bad NEO-CMC.
I have a pile of carts here in need of a donor and KOF99 isn't as cheap as it used to be (for the 042 version) and all of the 050 games are expensive...

[EDIT]
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32859723503.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.12224d21Rapfiv&browser_id=1bc236c9dd8f44429c4a13440cb158e3&aff_trace_key=3c2a1af32ec443488ea2451dcebb6a5d-1692690579981-01462-_mMNd8VG&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=gcehshsnticadyon18b514c48791fa071846182a04&gclid=&pdp_npi=4@dis!NZD!17.50!17.5!!!10.00!!@210324e516978760356893044e1785!65345925576!sea!NZ!0!AB&isseo=y&algo_pvid=0c886ecd-436f-4d8b-9622-0cbb542a9cd1

Too cheap to be true?

Fingers crossed it isn't. Will try reflowing it one afternoon I'm feeling brave, ha.

That link says the page can't be found on my end.

 

[Ape Cosplay]

That link says the page can't be found on my end.

 

[rewrite]

Well for that price it's certainly worth a shot.

 

[ShootTheCore]

NEO-CMC goes bad on these carts all the time. Same thing happened with my Metal Slug 5 cart and I had to pull a donor chip off a King of Fighters 2003 cart.

 

[rewrite]

NEO-CMC goes bad on these carts all the time. Same thing happened with my Metal Slug 5 cart and I had to pull a donor chip off a King of Fighters 2003 cart.

Time to buy one of those qfp iron tips I guess. Or rather an excuse to try one!

Did you have similar symptoms?

 

[rewrite]

It's weird, I can get this link here or through googling and it won't show. Searching on aliexpress (even de.aliexpress) doesn't come up with this anywhere.

 

[nnap]

Try this one: https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOVdBPE

 

[rewrite]

Both on phone and desktop.

I wonder if I need to use a VPN.

 

[nnap]

Must be. I was trying it from Switzerland, so regionaly close to the original poster.

 

[ShootTheCore]

Time to buy one of those qfp iron tips I guess. Or rather an excuse to try one!

Did you have similar symptoms?

 

[rewrite]

Much more readable, but absolutely seems to be the same thing.

 

[ShootTheCore]

If you don’t want to mess with surface-mount soldering here, you could trade the mask ROMs on your MS5 CHAFIO PCB with the same PCB from a working donor.

 

[djsheep]

Does this link work @rewrite - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32859723503.html

 

[rewrite]

Does this link work @rewrite - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32859723503.html

Page not found . Tried setting my VPN through Australia, no luck. Tried Netherlands and Switzerland as well.

If you don’t want to mess with surface-mount soldering here, you could trade the mask ROMs on your MS5 CHAFIO PCB with the same PCB from a working donor.

Y'know, that's a real smart idea if I can't get this chip ordering business to work.