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Problem Green only Screen

Dreamstate

Dreamstate

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So, I took a X-Men COTA board that I know worked but had a bad battery. I shorted EXE5, replaced the F-PAL with a G-PAL and fixed the boards jumpers. I then installed the CPS2 Multiboard. I formated the MicroSD with FAT32 and put some of the games on it from AVALaunch. Everything seems to boot and the game selector works and it flashed, but I only get a Green Screen. I have reseated everything, changed the G-PAL back to the original F-PAL(Lifting the right pin) but no change. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Put back in the GPAL!

After you remove the battery you may also need to clear the key (believe it or not, this can take a while if not 100% dead) short CC1, then reshort EXE5...
Test and report back. :D

Seems like the selector and card are working/formatted just fine.
How is the interconnect between the two boards?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ok, I can put back the F-Pal and worry about the jumper later (if I understand it right, the jumper fixes a sound issue but does not stop it from working). Just to be clear, when I short these, I just do it manually to clear the power out of them, not permanently, right? I'll try manually shorting CC1 and EXE5 and using the F-Pal, then I will get back shortly.

As for the interconnect, seems OK. I don't like the fixed board instead of the older ribbon style since the boards are not perfect and it is a tight fit, but I tested a bunch of continuity and it seems to be a good connection.
 
Did you download the roms from the roll-up packs here? The roms on team avalaunch's site aren't in multi format.
 
I am retrying some different roms to make sure it is just the ones from here. I'll get back in a minute.
 
No change. So, just curious. I don't think I have another micro sd card right now, but if it seems to read fine, can it still be the card or does it give you an error?
 
Yes. Card errors can cause alll sorts of issues. Make sure it's properly formatted and you are using a PC to load.
 
Yep, SD card issued could cause a green screen if you've ruled everything else out.

Make sure to follow these instructions exactly:
Format a microSD card as FAT32 using Windows, not Mac or Linux. Then extract a pack to it using 7-zip, maintaining the folder structure. If your card is the I: drive for example, the layout must be exactly I:\games\rom folders\
Also try another card just to rule that out.
 
I bought a Class 4 SANDISK and the problem went away. It could have been the card, but I also really, really made sure everything was seated right. I seem to have a sound issue like the F-Pal is not connected to the multiboard, but I have not had a chance to see if my connector is not touching the cable right yet. I ran out of time and will work on it later and open a new thread if it continues. Thanks for everyone's responses. Seeing it boot the first time was AWESOME! I am super excited.
 
Glad you got it! Give Mahou a play for me :)

Does it green screen if you pop the old SD card back in?
 
Dreamstate said:
I bought a Class 4 SANDISK and the problem went away. It could have been the card, but I also really, really made sure everything was seated right. I seem to have a sound issue like the F-Pal is not connected to the multiboard, but I have not had a chance to see if my connector is not touching the cable right yet. I ran out of time and will work on it later and open a new thread if it continues. Thanks for everyone's responses. Seeing it boot the first time was AWESOME! I am super excited.
Click to expand...
As others have said, put the G PAL back in, if you have a G PAL, you may as well use it :)
 
Having the same problem. I had a very un-fun time installing the multi board, the "guide" card for the probe pins was off-center and I bent (and broke) a pin off while installing the Darksoft board. Took it apart, figured it out, soldered a new pin on and put it all back together. Did a continuity test from the probe pin to the bottom of the board (back side of the socket) on the broken pin and all is well.

I'm using a nice Sandisk card, it boots up and lets me select games, but it doesn't display anything other than a green screen. It also doesn't (appear?) to reset after writing the game but I'm not 100% sure what the behavior is supposed to be there.

Any ideas? I just took it back apart and am going to re-do the SD card but I'm afraid something is out of wack.

Thanks,
Dan
 
Ok well, I took some advice from the googles and reformatted by 16gb (smallest I could find, lol) SD card to 4gb and re-copied the files. Green screen came back as I turned it on, but since that was the ROM written from the previous incarnation of the card I sort of expected that. Re-wrote a game, and it popped right up. I feel a little better now after messing things up earlier, but it really shouldn't take 25+ years of modding hardware to be able to do this? Had an inexperienced user broken one of those pins and not had electronics skills it would have been game over right there.

Great product, innovative design, maybe a little bit fragile? Anyhow, I suppose the lesson from my posts is that if you see a green screen it's probably something wrong with your ROMs.
 
PascalP said:
Which roms are you using? The latest roll up pack?
If so that has the encrypted roms which also need the keywriting wires installed.
Click to expand...
Yeah, you're right on. I was using the correct ROMs but I think it didn't like my SD card setup for (whatever) reason. Here's some pictures for fun.

cps2-multi1.jpg


This is the board after I pulled the ROMs. It was a suicided/Phoenixed Progear conversion before I started, trying to do my part to preserve the original hardware.

cps2-multi2-broken-pin.jpg


Here you can see the board support after I straightened it out, and the broken pin. I was pretty surprised how easily it broke off. Calling me sad would have been an understatement.

cps2-multi3-repaired-pin.jpg


Thankfully I'm smarter than I look (But then again I'd have to be) and I was able to repair it pretty easily.

cps2-multi4-assembled.jpg


Here it is after re-assembly, and checking continuity on everything 14 times... If you just plug everything together as far as it will go it doesn't fit very well. I had to float some pins on the smaller board a little less than fully seated, otherwise it was pulling the main Darksoft board down a couple milimeters and putting (what I felt like) would have been damaging long term due to the torque/twist on the board. I plugged everything in without a great sense of confidence as to how it was going to work, and surprise... Green screen.

cps2-multi5-case.jpg


I decided to go ahead an put the sticker on the case since I was already dealing with a reproduction Progear sticker/board.

cps2-multi6-sdcard-inview.jpg


I just laid the SDCard on top of the slot for this pic to show what I was using. Seems to be fine, but I had to format it to 4096mb and leave the other 12,288mb unallocated. After that it worked fine.

My only remaining gripe, I got a super short LCD cable when I paid SaveYourGames.IT for the extra long cable. Oh well, I'll hack something together or get it from eBay.
 
@Rix looking at your setup there are 2 things you could do to make it work flawlessly;

1. Install the latest roll up pack (2018-04-26) on the SD card which includes encrypted roms with the key files + install the 4 key writing wires, this than writes the keys + resets your kit.
New CPS2 Multigame Firmware with Key Writing!!!!!!

2. Install the old roll up pack (2017-11-18) which runs decrypted roms + install 1 optional reset wire which will reset the kit as soon as the game is flashed

Roll up packs can be found here;
CPS2 Roll-Up Packs: All roms for the CPS2 kit
 
Ah yes, I have not done the reset line or the key writing lines yet. I know one person who had the pads lift off the PCB, and saw someone posting about it on here as well. Makes me a little nervous.
 
Pads lifting off the Darksoft PCB? It's a high quality PCB with a gold immersion finish, great for connectivity and endurance, not so great for rework. That said, you'd need to apply way too much heat in order for pads to lift. Just set your iron to a low temperature, just high enough to melt your solder and quickly tin the pads, then tin your wire ends, then press the wire to the pad and apply quick and gentle heat. It will solder the connection in less than a second.
 
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