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CPS3 Suicide?

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xodaraP

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Hi guys,

I received some boards for repair today and among them is a CPS3 SF3 New Generation cart and motherboard. There are SIMMS present so I'm all good there, when I boot the board I'm greeted with a blank screen, if I insert the cart I'm greeted with a garbage screen of mainly yellow and blue

I'm assuming this means that the cart has suicided, but I'm wondering if I should still be greeted with the spaceman CPS3 screen even without a cart present? Or is this normal?

I don't want to proceed any further buying a CD drive or having the cart modded if it's a stone dead board, so I figured I'd check first :)
 
No cart and suicided cart will both look about the same. No spaceman. Just blank or garbled screen. Just make sure to clean the cart really well before confirming death.
 
I definitely get a different reaction between no cart (completely blank) and with cart which is why I wasn't sure. I guess this means the SIMMS are empty so there's no code on them to boot?

I'll give the cart a really good clean and try it again tonight.

Hopefully it's not suicided and I can just replace the battery. Sounds like the board itself is ok. Might have found a CD drive too.
 
Doubt the simms are empty at this point. The processor is on the cart so if the cart is not functioning properly the pcb won't boot at all.
 
Ok I have an update

I bought some screwdrivers that came with a Gamebit so I opened the security cart and metered the battery to confirm suicide and got 3.3v which suggests that the battery is fine and the cart hasn't suicided

I'm wondering if anyone has a photo of the original battery that comes in the cps3 cart? I'm now thinking there are 3 possibilities here

1) The board is not functioning correctly for whatever reason (I bought it with other boards requiring repair)

2) The battery in the cart has been replaced in spite of the cart suiciding so the battery is good but the encryption keys are lost (Edit: Googled the battery and it is the original one so this is not the case)

3) I'm doing something wrong
 
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You can't go by the battery voltage. Dead battery is probably the least likely reason for suicide on cps3 carts. More likely it died because of a dirty cart or cart slot.
 
Mitsurugi-w said:
You can't go by the battery voltage. Dead battery is probably the least likely reason for suicide on cps3 carts. More likely it died because of a dirty cart or cart slot.
Click to expand...
Never had a CPS3, so I'm curious: are they really that sensitive? Is it intended in Capcom's design, like in triggering a tamper detection mechanism, or is it just a mix of poor design and bad luck?
 
I'm interested to know the same thing, I've read somewhere that if you move it slightly while it's powered on it will suicide or if you touch anything to the JAMMA edge (like a multimeter to test voltage) it will suicide etc.

I guess that explains the giant locking bar that came standard on the CPS3 boards (which mine is missing) - but it seems to be a really solid connection once it's inserted.

Given this information, how do I confirm that the board is good? I don't want to buy additional SIMMS etc. if the board is dead, if I have the security cart modded with the Darksoft BIOS, is this going to allow me to boot it if it works and test the SIMMS that are already on the board?
 
xodaraP said:
Given this information, how do I confirm that the board is good? I don't want to buy additional SIMMS etc. if the board is dead, if I have the security cart modded with the Darksoft BIOS, is this going to allow me to boot it if it works and test the SIMMS that are already on the board?
Click to expand...
Get the Darksoft mod to your cart. Then run the custom Darksoft CD (not the standard one) and write the game which your amount of SIMM's will handle to test your board. Assuming you have a programmer or know someone who does and can solder in the flash chip youself, this is a small effort.
 
I do have a programmer but not a TSOP44 adapter. I'm also not good at SMD soldering (I can do it if the pitch isn't too fine) I'll have a look but I may just find someone who can do it properly :)

Either way it definitely sounds like before I buy extra SIMMS or do anything else I should get the cart modded
 
If you get the Darksoft bios & you don't have 2 * 64Mb & 4 * 128Mb it sits there complaining you haven't got enough memory and won't go any further - at least it displays something....

Plus if your carts good you've killed a perfectly good cart.

I'd start by cleaning the cart edge connector & slot, then take the memory out clean that, connect up a CD-rom (set ID = 1, Parity on, Terminator enabled) and try again.

I had one CPS3 that gave random coloured blocks and that was a faulty stick of ram, both my dead carts gave a blank screen (one had a dead battery the other still read 3.3V).
 
I've cleaned the cart connector and slot, removed the SIMM sticks and cleaned those and the slots they were in and made sure they were in the correct slots so that's done

Is there really no other way to confirm suicide?
 
Honestly after what you have already done if it doesn't boot at all it is suicided.

And yes the SuperBIOS won't boot without the whole set of simms but you can go into the SuperBIOS menu and test all the memory that you do have. In your case I think your cart is suicided for sure so if you want it modded for SuperBIOS you will definitely need additional simms.
 
sf3:ng is 1*64, 2*128, 1*32 if I remember correctly so to run the multi you'll need 1*64 & 2*128. Swapping the 32 for a 128.
 
Yep, I have the correct SIMMS for NG, but I wanted to test them before I purchase more in case I have a dead 1 and I need to purchase additional SIMMS, looks like the first port of call is going to be to flash the cart with the new BIOS and then go from there :)
 
Ok so I have an update to this

I have now had my CPS3 security cart modded by The Guru and confirmed that the board is ok, I just get the menu complaining of not enough memory to run the Darksoft BIOS

I have also managed to get a full set of SIMMS for Third Strike, a Third Strike cart (suicided), Third Strike CD and an original working CD drive with cables - a friend had someone else wanting to purchase the board only so I grabbed everything else :)

This means I will have some spare SIMMS, a spare suicided cart and an original Third Strike CD, once I get up and running I'll probably put these up in the for sale section and see if there's any interest :)
 
Asayuki said:
Never had a CPS3, so I'm curious: are they really that sensitive? Is it intended in Capcom's design, like in triggering a tamper detection mechanism, or is it just a mix of poor design and bad luck?
Click to expand...
Sticking a screwdriver inside the slot edge and passing it on the pins is enough to kill a protected cart. No wonder the system failed so early. A nightmare to service as each time a cart suicide it had to be taken in to CAPCOM for repair service.

So, imagine someone putting a CPS3 cart on the pocket... Stactic electricity from the clothes or a lose coin in the pocket would be enough to cause the cart to suicide.
 
WOW. This means that the components involved with the protection are accessible from outside the cartridge.
If it's intentional then it's facepalm for the exaggerated lucrative intention of the design.
If it's not intentional then it's facepalm for the silly design.
In any case I'm lucky for not having any CPS3 game on my wanted list.

picard-facepalm.jpg
 
I just got my SIMMS and CD drive today, put it all together and....

Not enough memory error. Booo. It's now fully populated since I swapped out my existing SIMMs for all the new ones I got which was a full third strike set.

I'm going to burn the Darksoft CD tomorrow night and see if I can at least get into the menu and see if there's some kind of test I can run to check which SIMM is giving me grief. At least I have a few spare so if one is bad I can swap it out and confirm it's the SIMM not the slot.
 
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