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Neo-Alec

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I just got a Martial Masters cart from Sheep Nova. It's a Chinese version, seems authentic, with holographic label.

When playing, the controls are very strange, and moves seem to come out without even pressing any buttons. Super meter often gets activated automatically at the beginning of the match, and specials come out by just pressing directions. The buttons don't seem to do the normal punch and kick functions.

I played the game in MAME and verified that the game definitely isn't supposed to be have like this. Buttons and directions test normal in the PGM hardware test menu -- same result on both of my PGM motherboards.

I tested on both my supergun and cab, with the same result. Is this a hack rom?

Photos attached.
 

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The stickers on the rom chips seem to be original stamped, but are nearly impossible to read. The long green adapter board seems to say "V102 U9"

The normal sized rom chip is almost impossible to read, but I think it says "V101 U10" It looks like a normal factory PGM rom label.
 
Can you take a video of these auto moves?
 
I tried replacing u10 with the one from the US rom used by MAME and it just gives an error instead of booting:

ASIC27 ASSERT ERROR11

Is it an anti-piracy/encryption problem?
 
Never mind last post. I burned the correct Chinese V101 U10 rom and it booted.

Replacing the U10 rom didn't help the problem unfortunately.

I will post a video of the problem tomorrow.
 
Noticed this hack on the back of the board (lower middle-center). When I tried removing it, it seems to disable the U10 rom. That pin on the rom is for "Byte Mode / Program Supply"

Also, I learned more about the inputs:

While holding up, it's the only time that all four buttons do what they're supposed to.

When holding any direction other than up, all four buttons always do the same thing, depending one which of the three directions is held.

While holding no directions, the buttons sometimes works, and sometimes don't. It's hit or miss.

The start button seems to be ignored as it should be during gameplay.
 

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Noticed this hack on the back of the board (lower middle-center). When I tried removing it, it seems to disable the U10 rom. That pin on the rom is for "Byte Mode / Program Supply"
It is needed when using a 27C160 EPROM to force it in 16bit mode.

Otherwise it looks like a protection issue to me, you can get a similar behaviour in MAME by corrupting data coming from the custom chip. Might worth checking its legs are properly soldered.
 
Noticed this hack on the back of the board (lower middle-center). When I tried removing it, it seems to disable the U10 rom. That pin on the rom is for "Byte Mode / Program Supply"
It is needed when using a 27C160 EPROM to force it in 16bit mode.
Otherwise it looks like a protection issue to me, you can get a similar behaviour in MAME by corrupting data coming from the custom chip. Might worth checking its legs are properly soldered.
The ARM?
 
No, it's the big one with a "B7" sticker on it (does silkscreen say U5?).
But could also be the LS245s tied to it or the RAM chips (program is decrypted on bootup by the "B7" chip then stored on the cart in RAM).
 
I really appreciate all the help. Seems like you identified at least the nature of the issue. Yes, the position for B7 is marked U5.

I visually inspected these and coildn't see an issue with the factory soldering. I really don't want to start reflowing any of these surface mount components as long as I can still try to get the money back for my purchase.

I also looked for bad traces and checked for continuity on the back of the board. No luck. So instead I just cleaned everything with IPA. No luck.
 
Here's the video of the issue. It doesn't capture how bad the issue is, but it does show it's not working normally (buttons all doing the same thing if a direction is held):

 
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Some closeups of that chip and the back of the board in that area. Please let me know if you can find anything I should check. (I already checked the traces on the back that look like they have a light scratch through them.)
 

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Great advice, thanks! Unfortunately, I couldn't find any loose pins using that method.
 
sheep nova gave me a refund. As always, a good seller.

It's very odd that I couldn't find the problem. I wonder if the B7 is just bad.
 
sheep nova gave me a refund. As always, a good seller.

It's very odd that I couldn't find the problem. I wonder if the B7 is just bad.
If you're not returning it to SN, maybe you should mail it to someone to try and troubleshoot it. It seems like an odd ball problem!
 
Yeah, sheep nova has never asked me to return defect or likely bootleg carts, so I still have this cart if anyone wants to help fix it.

If I were to get it working, I'd give sheep nova some of the money back. I wouldn't be comfortable getting such an expensive game for free.
 
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Yeah, I'm just curious as to the cause, but your point is good about giving SN the money back if possible.

I'm not the one to do this by the way, I'm just following out of curiosity.
 
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