NAOMI Cart wont load

[twistedsymphony]

I have an original GigaWing 2 Cart that seems to no longer want to load.

when I put it in the NAOMI logo comes up fine then it goes to the black "Now Loading Game..." screen and just hangs there indefinitely.

If I push the test button before this screen comes up I can enter test mode, doing a ROM check in test mode comes up with everything good (same with RAM test) I can even enter into Game test mode fine. I've pulled and dumped ic22 and romident says it's a good match for GW2 in MAME.

I've tried reseating, cleaning the pins, all the pins on the cart are straight, my voltages are good, the cartridge itself is in excellent physical condition with no scratches or other physical damage, no signs of bad caps, etc. Other games work fine on this system. I'm using Multibios, I've tried both US and JP regions, though this game worked fine on the exact same setup just a few weeks ago.

I'm open to suggestions as to where to go from here.

 

[Blackfish]

I have the same issue with my Gigawing 2 cart. Any info on this would be good.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

Send an email to Ken at ireparsega.com

He would know if anyone would.

 

[LuKa]

I had a similar issue with a Crazy Taxi, believe it or not it was the I/O board that kept causing it to hang. Check your I/O board or swap it with a different one if you have one, see if that helps.

 

[twistedsymphony]

I had a similar issue with a Crazy Taxi, believe it or not it was the I/O board that kept causing it to hang. Check your I/O board or swap it with a different one if you have one, see if that helps.

This is a Type 1 Sega IO inside my Net City, I've played this game on this cab several times before. I'll try swapping it out but I'm not too confident that it will help.

 

[twistedsymphony]

Send an email to Ken at ireparsega.com

He would know if anyone would.

Ken had this to say:

Yes its very common on these ROM bds to have bad buffers. Usually the 16373 go first and then the 16245. I usually just blindly replace all of them.

looking at those ICs it's way beyond my ability to replace, they're super fine pin smd... I can handle SOP and SOIC but not this :-/

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

How may are on there and what do they look like?

 

[twistedsymphony]

How may are on there and what do they look like?

it looks like 8 of them... circled in red: and of course they're all right along the plastic connector too. (there are no components on the other side of this PCB)

 

[KoshiroKazuma]

I had the same issue with my GIGA WING2 before. Seems like some buffer chip on the cart was malfunction. I didn't have much time to investigate the ROMboard at that time. I just moved all the ROM chips and soldered to a cheap Derby Owners Club cart to restore this game.

 

[brizzo]

and of course they're all right along the plastic connector too.

Good timing you ask about this; have this on the bench from processing yesterday. (System Y2 cart, KOF 2002 JPN taken apart, KOF 2002 CN on the left was taken apart and re-assembled same way. Working on solving the encryption as Y2 is not emulated)

Fold tin foil in half, apply kapton tape with most of the tape on the foil and a narrow edge to stick down onto the pcb.

 

[lukemorse1]

I have an original GigaWing 2 Cart that seems to no longer want to load.

when I put it in the NAOMI logo comes up fine then it goes to the black "Now Loading Game..." screen and just hangs there indefinitely.

If I push the test button before this screen comes up I can enter test mode, doing a ROM check in test mode comes up with everything good (same with RAM test) I can even enter into Game test mode fine. I've pulled and dumped ic22 and romident says it's a good match for GW2 in MAME.

I've tried reseating, cleaning the pins, all the pins on the cart are straight, my voltages are good, the cartridge itself is in excellent physical condition with no scratches or other physical damage, no signs of bad caps, etc. Other games work fine on this system. I'm using Multibios, I've tried both US and JP regions, though this game worked fine on the exact same setup just a few weeks ago.

I'm open to suggestions as to where to go from here.

Naomi Giga Wing 2 Cart Repair:

I had the same problem with my giga wing 2 board and was able to fix it by lifting up 2 pins on the surface mounted ram chips. First I replaced all buffer chips which did nothing and on top of that it was a pita to replace them as the traces were really really fragile and the pin pitch was really fine. I dont recommend to replace the buffers on these carts unless you are really good at soldering and desoldering. I had to do the same on my Wild Riders pcb which would lock up as well. (small side tip but make sure you keep those voltages at exactly 5v and 3.3 for the naomi or kiss these carts good bye).

Then I lifted pins 28 on both of the IDT 71v256s (they are just lifted off the board) and it fired right up. Try that and see if it works

They are located at IC44 and IC45. Im also running an H bios on this board.

 

[lukemorse1]

I have the same issue with my Gigawing 2 cart. Any info on this would be good.

Try what I posted here and see if you can get it to fire up

 

[MetalliC]

Then I lifted pins 28 on both of the IDT 71v256s (they are just lifted off the board) and it fired right up. Try that and see if it works

does game itself works after this ? pin 28 is VCC, so you are disabled these RAM ICs, which is protection decryption chip RAM.

 

[lukemorse1]

Then I lifted pins 28 on both of the IDT 71v256s (they are just lifted off the board) and it fired right up. Try that and see if it works

does game itself works after this ? pin 28 is VCC, so you are disabled these RAM ICs, which is protection decryption chip RAM.

Yes, the game (at least mine) works with both of those pins lifted. No graphic issues and plays fine.

 

[lukemorse1]

After I repaired my own I made a game play video on it. This board has both pins 28 lifted.

It sounds strange but it actually works. I decided to lift the pins to see if anything happened after replacing the buffers. I thought in worst case if the system ram was bad it would at least boot with some graphic issues but to my surprise it actually booted the game without any issues and I was able to play through it from start to finish.

 

[nem]

Echoing what a few have said here, replacing the buffer chips is a complete PITA. In the end I replaced three out of eight and realized it's not just worth the effort.

@KoshiroKazumas solution is actually very good and one I hadn't thought of. I might try that instead!

 

[MetalliC]

@lukemorse1 interesting. in this game most of data decrypted directly from ROMs, but few data chunks uses oncart RAM (game upload data there and then read them through security chip), no idea why it still works, perhaps these data not important.

@twistedsymphony all symptoms says there is smth wrong with security part, you may try to disable RAM ICs as was suggested, but there is nothing can be done if 317-5064 itself has been died.

 

[nam9]

I have a spare Derby Club Owners PCB lying around somewhere...
It's shell was donated to a good cause

 

[lukemorse1]

Yes, the game works with these 2 pins lifted

Then I lifted pins 28 on both of the IDT 71v256s (they are just lifted off the board) and it fired right up. Try that and see if it works

does game itself works after this ? pin 28 is VCC, so you are disabled these RAM ICs, which is protection decryption chip RAM.

Then I lifted pins 28 on both of the IDT 71v256s (they are just lifted off the board) and it fired right up. Try that and see if it works

does game itself works after this ? pin 28 is VCC, so you are disabled these RAM ICs, which is protection decryption chip RAM.

@lukemorse1 interesting. in this game most of data decrypted directly from ROMs, but few data chunks uses oncart RAM (game upload data there and then read them through security chip), no idea why it still works, perhaps these data not important.

@twistedsymphony all symptoms says there is smth wrong with security part, you may try to disable RAM ICs as was suggested, but there is nothing can be done if 317-5064 itself has been died.

yeah, it really threw me by surprise when I flipped on the board and it turned on and played flawlessly. After seeing so many people with similar issues Im hoping this will fix them as well.

The great thing about this is that it takes literally 30 seconds to do and can be tested in a matter of minutes afterwards.

All other pins are left soldered to the board, only the power input pins 28 lifted. Hopefully this can be tested here with these 2 users

 

[twistedsymphony]

all symptoms says there is smth wrong with security part, you may try to disable RAM ICs as was suggested, but there is nothing can be done if 317-5064 itself has been died.

that seems more likely to me than the buffer ICs.. if the buffers were bad wouldn't it also not pass ROM check?

swapping the ROMs onto another IC seems to be the same amount of work as replacing the buffer IC as they're TSSOP with the same super fine pitch pins and traces.

Then I lifted pins 28 on both of the IDT 71v256s (they are just lifted off the board) and it fired right up. Try that and see if it works

They are located at IC44 and IC45. Im also running an H bios on this board.

on mine these chips use J-type pins that curl under the ic, seems I'd have to pull the whole pin out to "lift" it. Were your like this as well?