What's new

mrfathead

Beginner
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
Messages
12
Reaction score
5
Location
Australia
My cps2 game dungeons and dragons tower of doom has a weird graphics glitch, some of the sprites are blocky.
What would be causing this? The game is still original not phenoixed.

http://imgur.com/ug4Q6qp

I have check the voltage at the jamma connector and it is perfect 5v.
I have reseated the game many times with no change.
All my other games still work normally.
 
I've seen that a few times on other PCBs. looks like loose legs on one of the custom chips.
don't try to fix it yourself if you know nothing about surface mounted PCB repairs you'll only make it worse, or unfixable.
it'll need some professional help to re-mount the chip.
first, try swapping the A board to narrow it down to top or bottom.
 
My cps2 game dungeons and dragons tower of doom has a weird graphics glitch, some of the sprites are blocky.
What would be causing this? The game is still original not phenoixed.

http://imgur.com/ug4Q6qp

I have check the voltage at the jamma connector and it is perfect 5v.
I have reseated the game many times with no change.
All my other games still work normally.
Before anything, make sure your A-Board is tested with a working B-Board.

If that happens with only that B board, it could be that you have loose pins or broken traces between the CGA chip (Character Generator Address/DL-1927) and the A board.
It control the address lines for the graphics reads within the graphics roms. Check traces around the CGA chip.
If you had problems with the CGD (Character Generator Data/DL-2027) chip you would likely have blank vertical lines on the video.

Hope this help you out at troubleshooting.
 
could also be a leaking battery causing problems with the custom chip near it. I've seen one B board where the battery leaked and rusted the custom chip just above it.... which happens to be DL-1927....
 
That's a shame I only just bought it and it was meant to be tested and working. I have several other game boards and they all work with this a board I was playing darkstalkers and streetfighter for a good hour or so just to be sure. I only own the one main board so I can't test the game in another one. I'll borrow my friends one when I can and try it too just to be sure.

I opened the cover and I took some photos, the traces to the DL-1927 do have some possible damage which sounds like the source of my problem. What is your opinion of the photos? Do you guys think that might be the problem?

http://imgur.com/n271om8
http://imgur.com/P7Xuwsm
http://imgur.com/1G2kjsf

http://imgur.com/d7bOgtr
http://imgur.com/meTFnrU
http://imgur.com/Y6dG69x
 
The traces need mending. By the look of the picture you posted at the start of the thread one of them are cut atm.

Does that board have a battery or is it suicided with decrypted roms?
 
It's still battery powered, it has been replaced at some point in its life.
 
Mending the traces has the potential for disturbing the battery power on the board, which could kill the security data.

So if you try to repair it make sure you take it to someone who knows what he/she is doing.
 
Hey thanks for the advice guys, I was able to quickly find the problem because of your help.

My logic was the board was unplayable anyway so I decided to just risk it and repair the traces even though you said not to. I was able to bridge them with some solder then I sealed that area with some pcb sealer. It's been running fine for the last 30 minutes.

So yeah thanks again guys this would have taken me alot more time/effort to do without your advice.
 
When I said that, I didn't meant to specifically say you wouldn't be able to fix it yourself.

Grats on solving your problem. And glad to be able to help out.
 
I'm curious as to what your repair looks like.
 
I didn't think to take a picture of it. All I did was scrape off the solder mask at the corroded areas and then tin the traces with some solder. The pictures make it all look large in real life the damage was so tiny.
 
Back
Top