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xodaraP

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Hi guys,
My CPS3 setup decided to play up a couple of weeks ago and Third Strike was for whatever reason erased or so the system thought.

I'm now trying to reinstall Third Strike and onto my fourth attempt at a load now.

Attempt 1: game fully loaded into SIMMS but froze during attract and then refused to pass region select screen after that

Attempt 2: Error 32 while installing

Attempt 3+4 same

What is error 32? It seems to be happening right towards the end of the load with about 7 minutes left to go, and seems to be something to do with the 64mb SIMMS.

I've tried reversing the positions of the SIMMS, cleaning the slots and the connectors and nothing seems to help, my only other 64mb SIMM does not work (kept it in case I could fix it or otherwise get it fixed)
 
Attempt 5: I switched the 64mb SIMMS around and it's now sitting on 6 minutes 24 seconds remaining, the spaceman is still doing his thing but the disc drive is stopped and it doesn't seem to be proceeding any further.

I don't want to turn it off but I don't know if I have a choice, it's been sitting on 6 minutes remaining for about the past 20 minutes.
 
So going by the faults others have had, this SIMM is faulty. It won't get anywhere in the write test so it's shot. Unfortunately this now means I have 2 faulty 64mb SIMMS, and only 1 that works :(
 
I've bought another set of SIMMS as well as a faulty motherboard (which sounds like it's probably had it), which should arrive in a few days - Mitsu has also suggested cleaning the cart connector again, I also just cleaned the SIMM contacts on the problem SIMM and they were really dirty

I don't have the correct tool to open the cart (for some reason the tool I've used previously now doesn't fit since having the cart modded) so I can't clean the cart connector right now, but the problem follows the SIMM so I don't think it's that. It is strange though that I can erase the SIMM, I can copy data to it from SIMM 1, but the write test almost instantly fails and it won't complete the load
 
Scratch that, got the cart open and cleaned it, it was a lot more dirty than I was expecting and it's really shiny and nice now, I got a different error after I cleaned the SIMM (22) so hopefully the cart clean might get me over the line.

It's really annoying it takes 40 minutes each time :/
 
Ok, I officially give up. I've bought another set of SIMMS, they work fine in the tests but it freezes up on 85% writing. I don't know what's wrong here.

I've cleaned the contacts on the cart, the SIMMS, replaced SIMMS and still no dice. The only thing that could be wrong now is the motherboard itself and I'm not prepared to buy another one to try and get this going again.

I think I'll sell off all the CPS3 gear and put the money towards something else, no point throwing more good money after bad.

Edit: the board actually seems to be killing SIMMS. I was able to run the write test earlier with the new SIMMS and since attempting a rewrite the SIMM in slot 1 now won't let me run the test on it. Just comes up with 5717 as the first 4 digits and stops, this is the same fault as my other bad SIMMS.

For the record: volts are 5.14v and 11.84v while loading. The voltages don't deviate during loading
 
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I had been troubleshooting my cps3 setup with symptoms that sound similar to yours. It'd boot, but it freezes after awhile (furthest I got was 34%), sometimes error 33, with subsequent power cycles, the more likely it craps out with a black screen or garbage at boot.

Long story short, I sent my setup to @Mitsurugi-w to diagnose and determined it was actually my cart I gave him to flash the superbios for previously. So had to get a new one.

So yes, it's possible an immortal cart can never be immortal if its faulty m.
 
Mitsu suggested the cart may be the fault here, I'm just worried that I'm wasting money (I do have another cart but I'd have to pay someone to flash it for me)
 
So I've got an update to this:

I've now got a Third Strike cart modified with the Darksoft BIOS and installed that onto the board, and once again it's frozen up at 85% - no error, spaceman is still moving, but the disc drive has stopped and it's been sitting for an hour on 85%

For some reason I can go into the Disk and Files menu and copy data to the SIMMS directly and this works fine, but not the proper installation process.

Edit: Tried loading JoJo's Bizarre Adventure instead, error 22 again. So the cart is not the problem.
 
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It could be but sounds like a drive issue here. I'd recommend biting the bullet and getting a SCSI2SD.
 
It could be but sounds like a drive issue here. I'd recommend biting the bullet and getting a SCSI2SD.
The only thing making me think it's not the disc drive is that it stops at the same spot every time, sits for a while then the drive stops. It's really strange.

Is it at all possible to copy the data to the final 2 SIMMS using the function in the Disk and Files menu? I'm just not sure which files they are and the offset that needs to be used, but I feel that might be worth trying as that function seems to work fine

Is there some sort of security protection chip on the motherboard that may have failed causing the problem?
 
Swap your Simms around to see if the error number changes. If not you have a drive issue.
 
I've swapped them previously and same issue, I don't want to spend $125 on a SCSI2SD and find out it's something else ideally.

I've already spent a lot on replacement SIMMS and having a second cart modified, if I buy the SCSI2SD and it's the motherboard, I've then gotta spend even more on a new motherboard/wait for an unpopulated board to appear

I'll see if I can find someone to loan me a SCSI2SD or another SCSI CD ROM drive, because it could also be the SCSI cable
 
Pretty sure I have the old scsi drive I replaced with a scsi2sd just sitting in a box somewhere. Shipping might be expensive from US to AUS, but if you want it it's yours. I'd want to test it out before sending so it might be a couple days.
 
I don't want to spend $125 on a SCSI2SD
Gold-plated SCSI2SD? :P
Australian $ - the V5 is $100 the V6 is $125

I think they're made here though

Thanks @ekorz - I've got a friend who has a full kit so he's going to loan me the drive to check it against mine and I can then determine if it's drive, cable, or neither :)
 
No prob. If it's the drive, you can still have this one
 
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