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chewthefat

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I've got a Namco System 246b that when I connect it I hear the first two initial beep tones and then a wah,wah,wah sound that never stops. I've tried to read up and absorb as much information as possible from other post and other forums, but never quite found the answer to the problem.

Somewhere on the interwebs I read over a troubleshooting post that @l_oliveira commented on about the wah,wah,wah sound(” The "wah wah wah" sound os made by the PS2 BIOS when it can't load a bootfile from a dongle”). I deduced that the reason the dongle wouldn’t load was something on the Sony board (mines a GH-006) had gone bad and couldn't communicate with the Namco Board. So I got on Ebay ordered a ps2 GH-006 replacement board and thought eh $20 swap out the part was better than me trying to solder chips. Turns out there's a couple miner (might be major?) differences between the two boards. One specifically is in images below.
  • Image 2.jpg
    system246.jpg
The replacement GH-006 board doesn’t have the connection highlighted by the red rectangle in the images. Also the PS2 service manual doesn’t even list the part.
First off is the Namco board even compatible with the replacement PS2 GH-006 board?
What information does that specific connection relay between the two boards?
Finally what steps can I take to isolate the problem because originally I would get the three beeps, but I wouldn’t get and image on the screen?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 

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I got that same symptom yesterday, and it was because I had Sengoku in the dvd drive, but in combination with a Vampire Night dongle. Nothing more complicated than that.

Can you confirm your dongle matches the dvd/cd/hdd that is currently in use? Do you have a known-working 2x6 somewhere to make sure those are fine? Could just be an issue with your dvd/cd/hdd, your dongle, or a mismatch between the two.
 
I'll double check later, but I'm pretty positive both my sc3 and gundam dongles and disc are paired up together.
 
95% of the time it's just a dirty dongle making bad connection.
 
The cable which connects the PS2 board to the controller port. Get an old PS2 with 10 screws (GH-006) and steal the controller port flat cable from it.
 
I've had this problem and mine was dongle related too. The notches inside the dongle holding the PCB had broken so the PCB slid inside the dongle when inserted. Spot of hot glue and everything's OK.
 
Alright so it turns out that the gundam dongle I was using indeed had the PCB slid to far and had a bad connection.

So now the issue is I get 5 1/2 to 6 full beeps about 30-45 secs passes and then after the DVD drive(Model: GSA-H55N, also tried Model:HLGCC-4120B) spins a few times and bam wah,wah,wah,wah again.

Thanks for the help btw.
 
Actually I tried my sc3 burnt DVD and original disk. No wah,wah sound, but after the initial beeps no video or sound.
 
Just thinking of the easy stuff... did you check the voltages? are your dips set for your monitor's resolution/voltage?

2x6 does take a while to actually boot on-screen, probably no more than a minute but it feels like a while.
 
I've checked the voltage from my WINIT 15A Arcade Switching Power Supply-->to the JAMMA board--> 4 Pin Molex connector all pretty stable. I'll check a specific location on the main board if I need to.

The dips are matched up with my Namco System 246c so I don't think that's the issue.

I guess back to the original post is there a way to isolate if its PS2 board(GH-006) or the Namco board?
 
Alright so it turns out that the gundam dongle I was using indeed had the PCB slid to far and had a bad connection.

So now the issue is I get 5 1/2 to 6 full beeps about 30-45 secs passes and then after the DVD drive(Model: GSA-H55N, also tried Model:HLGCC-4120B) spins a few times and bam wah,wah,wah,wah again.

Thanks for the help btw.
Some games return to the PS2 BIOS when a boot up error happens even if the dongle booted up properly at first. You will hear the wah wah wah sound if that is the case. If you're lucky and the JVS firmware got uploaded to the MCU in the NAMCO board you will have video feedback, where you will get a beautiful "engrish" line about the dongle not being found or being a wrong one.
 
So if I directly plug the GH-006 directly from the AV connection to the RCA connector on a TV(it should show a blue screen correct?) will that isolate the issue being on the Namco board?
 
So if I directly plug the GH-006 directly from the AV connection to the RCA connector on a TV(it should show a blue screen correct?) will that isolate the issue being on the Namco board?
The PS2 board on System246 outputs only VESA SoG(on both 15Khz or 31Khz modes), no CVBS, no S-Video, no YCbPr. If you manage to connect that to a VGA monitor you will get video from bypassing the Namco board. BUT... The JVS MCU can check if there are sync pulses arriving on the namco board. Means games can be programmed to decide to not run if the AV cable is not attached between the PS2 board and the namco board.
 
Alright so I ordered a new board for my namco system 246c installed it everything booted fine, but when playing sc3 the character images never load on the character selection screen and the game won't progress to the stages.


Also I noticed while using two different DVD drives on the boot sequence. Both loaded with the initial white dots but one had green and the other had yellow dots. They both booted into the game but only to the point where the game hangs up.

Any help would be great!! :thumbup:
 
Hmm. I've only had similar issues with a corrupted dongle. Same game actually. Would get to character select but not load into the stages.

Not sure if it is your case as well.
 
Alright I was able to get my gundam game to boot and load. Pretty sure my sc3 dongle is corrupted ;( <X . Any way to fix the issue? Or should I just get in line for the multi dongle?
 
We can try to dump it and replace the nand.
 
Bump :D

Alright so I got kinda fed up with this system and gave up messing with it. I've had two 246c crap out with no life and this system 246b has a little life.

When I fire up the system I get past the initial 3 beeps to about 5 or 6 then about 30 secs will pass and the 'wah wah wah' sound starts up in the system.

Anyone have and idea of what might be malfunctioning in the boot up sequence?

Also saw a post recently from @chacal231077 fixing one of these systems so I've ordered a couple of the ribbons he mentioned to see if this helps.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. :thumbsup:
 
3 beeps then alarm == no valid dongle found
Normal boot will be like 6 or 7 songs depending on when you can first hear the audio on your setup.

clean all the dongle pins really well

...Or it’s corrupt
 
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