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CPS1 Graphical Issue

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freddiefiasco

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I came across a CPS1 board that is having some weird video issues. I am trying to isolate the problem by testing the Game board with the issue on another working A board (CPS-DASH) and it looks to be that the problem only happens on the A board (89626-4).

That's as far as I got so far.

I tested using SF2:HF:
SF2HF Issue.jpg

The system originally came with SF2:WW with this issue:
Distortion.jpg
 
Last edited:
Does the test menu show up OK?

Most probably the CPS-A01 ASIC on the A board is faulty. However, before throwing the A board in the spare parts bin, there are couple of other things you may check;

1) Check the back side of the A board. Specifically the area where the RAM chips are located (If it is a dash, these chips are the slim chips with single line of legs). The legs poking out of their solder points left too long at the factory and most often they may be touching each other. Examine carefully.

2) Check the A board to B board connectors. Check if there are missing/broken or bent pins.

3) If all checks fail, reflow the solder of the legs of the CPS-A01 chip carefully. There may be cracked solder points. After reflowing, check with magnifier that there are no solder bridges. Use lots of no-clean flux while reflowing to avoid solder bridges.

4) If THAT does not fix it, you can replace the CPS-A01 ASIC with a working one from a CPS2 A board. The main reason to kill a CPS2 A board is that in general CPS2 A-B boards can be easily swapped as if a game cartridge where swapping CPS1 A-B boards is not that easy. I mean, to me, CPS1 system is a complete PCB (A-B-C). I don't like to keep them seperated, it just doesn't sound right :) But I do have a small collection of CPS2 systems that having only a few A boards does not bother me much. Again, this is me...

Good luck...
 
@yavuzg,
I will test this tonight to see if TEST appears. For some reason now, my SF2:WW board does not show anything on the screen now. But when I plug in SF2:CE into this faulty A board, the same graphical issues happen so I know it is the A board and not the B-C board. The A board is the long board, I verified the SF2:CE is working on a Dash. The SF2:WW board does not show anything anymore on the long board.

I think it is just as difficult to find a CPS2 A board by itself as it is with a CPS1 A board. But hopefully I can get further in troubleshooting.

I will test this further with your advice.

Thanks!
 
CPS2 A boards shouldn't really be that hard to obtain. I have one for each of my CPS2 games.

I blame the bad habit people up the northern hemisphere have of separating the sets and then getting rid of the A boards. I bet people who make consolized boards then did pile/stock up on A boards when they were dirty cheap and now they're super scarce because of that.
 
The problem is every time someone consolizes a CPS2 A board or harvests it for the custom it's 1 less out there, they're still not overly uncommon but the more that are destroyed (and yes I do feel that consolizing is destroying when you can use a JAMMA supergun instead) the less there are.
 
xodaraP said:
The problem is every time someone consolizes a CPS2 A board or harvests it for the custom it's 1 less out there, they're still not overly uncommon but the more that are destroyed (and yes I do feel that consolizing is destroying when you can use a JAMMA supergun instead) the less there are.
Click to expand...
I think many of the ones that are harvested for parts had already commited suicide due to leaking battery, so that does not help.
 
aha2940 said:
xodaraP said:
The problem is every time someone consolizes a CPS2 A board or harvests it for the custom it's 1 less out there, they're still not overly uncommon but the more that are destroyed (and yes I do feel that consolizing is destroying when you can use a JAMMA supergun instead) the less there are.
Click to expand...
I think many of the ones that are harvested for parts had already commited suicide due to leaking battery, so that does not help.
Click to expand...
A boards don't break to leaking battery. It's the B boards that do.
 
<rant>
Consolizing, part harvesting, accidental damaging... when it comes to increasing the rarity of something then everything is one and the same.
Whoever is into this hobby knew since before even starting that we are all doomed and everything is gonna get more and more rare and expensive with time. For those who don't yet own some specific game they always wanted, it's a race against time to fill up their collections until it's too late.
In this light, lots of respect is due to those who decide to sacrify their boards (working or broken) so that custom chips can be decapped and analysed for the good of everybody: software emulation, design of replacement parts, reverse engineering of information useful to fix or bring back to life boards which died due to one reason or another.
</rant>
 
l_oliveira said:
aha2940 said:
xodaraP said:
The problem is every time someone consolizes a CPS2 A board or harvests it for the custom it's 1 less out there, they're still not overly uncommon but the more that are destroyed (and yes I do feel that consolizing is destroying when you can use a JAMMA supergun instead) the less there are.
Click to expand...
I think many of the ones that are harvested for parts had already commited suicide due to leaking battery, so that does not help.
Click to expand...
A boards don't break to leaking battery. It's the B boards that do.
Click to expand...
You're right, I always get confused about which board is A and which is B.
 
I would advice to put a heat sink on A01 ASIC on ALL of your "still" working CPS1 A boards. I did it. I don't know if it would help on the long run but a 50 cent heat sink won't hurt your pocket anyway. My theory in the heat-sink subject is that the CPS2 A boards have a fan for air circulation and CPS1s don't. I've never seen a faulty CPS2 A board A01 ASIC ;)
 
lol

It doesn't even get warm enough to be damaged by heat.

I suspect the chips are rotting pretty much like the Fujitsu TTLs. Something is eroding the metal layer inside.

There are some phenomena that explain such faults, like electromigration, for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromigration

On chips that don't even get that hot to begin with, the issue is not really that easy to solve.
 
l_oliveira said:
lol

It doesn't even get warm enough to be damaged by heat.

I suspect the chips are rotting pretty much like the Fujitsu TTLs. Something is eroding the metal layer inside.

There are some phenomena that explain such faults, like electromigration, for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromigration

On chips that don't even get that hot to begin with, the issue is not really that easy to solve.
Click to expand...
The A board does have many components, there are only 4 chips that have a socket so I may start there and either replace these or test them for failure. Is there a publicly available schematic for the CPS1 board floating around or one that someone would be able to share? I think just to learn what components do what on the A board, I will probably test the components and single out the culprit further down the line as I mark each component as working.
Thanks for the info!
 
Schematics for CPS1 A and B boards are indeed publicly available.

http://www.jammarcade.net/

At the pulldown menu from the top choose: DOWNLOADS > SCHEMATICS > ARCADE

At the very first screen there are download links for CPS1 schematics for A and B boards...
 
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