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Hi everyone!

I bought my cps2 multi back in 2019. It worked fine before trying to install the Key writing. I tried putting in the 4 test games after installing the new wires but I get a black screen and the LCD panel is just black bars.

I do have a B-7 board and using a Sandisk 16GB SD card that was recommended that worked before trying to get the key to work. The SD card should only have the games folder and then the games inside of it which I do have.

I believed everything is soldered correctly? From what I understand I should not need to update the firmware since I bought this after 2017 new? It has been a while since this stopped working for me and finally had time to go take a look at it again. Wondering if there was anything else I should try before I try to ship this off to someone to help fix this. Thank you!
 

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are you using the new roll up pack with the encrypted roms or the same rom pack with the decrypted roms from before you added the key writing wires?
 
I'm pretty sure I am using the new encrypted roms from the Roll-up Base pack. I also tried using the 4 roms in the original post and I still get a black screen.
 
I started installing my kit via the out of date video until I realized this post existed (ugh, the videos should be removed or updated </rant>)

I was soldering they jumpers and I’m about halfway through - can I just leave them as is and skip or do I need to completed them or desolate the one’s I’ve done?

I’m using a revision 4 board. Thanks
 
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I started installing my kit via the out of date video until I realized this post existed (ugh, the videos should be removed or updated </rant>)

I was soldering they jumpers and I’m about halfway through - can I just leave them as is and skip or do I need to completed them or desolate the one’s I’ve done?

I’m using a revision 4 board. Thanks
You can stop, the multi doesn’t interact with the pins that the jumpers toggle.
 
I am working on fixing a cps2 multi kit which refuses to reliably boot games. works on and off - have tried many things, with the much appreciated assistance of this forum and especially @xodaraP. Now I have my hands on a stm32 discovery tool and the how-to PDF, can someone link me to the latest firmware. The multi kit I have was purchased in 2019. Thankyou in advance.

its here : https://www.arcade-projects.com/for...ps2-multigame-firmware-with-key-writing.4342/
 
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I am working on fixing a cps2 multi kit which refuses to reliably boot games. works on and off - have tried many things, with the much appreciated assistance of this forum and especially @xodaraP. Now I have my hands on a stm32 discovery tool and the how-to PDF, can someone link me to the latest firmware. The multi kit I have was purchased in 2019. Thankyou in advance.
I had an issue with games booting off and on, and the issue was the secondary Multi board was not staying down in the sockets. There was enough bend in the B board that it was pooping up. Added some support and since then things have been good.
 
I give up on trying to troubleshoot my personal CPS2 kit - time to ask the forum.

This one is my personal A/B board (model 7, 1944 Jap) which I have hardly used since installing the multi-kit. I decided to pull it out and play it for probably the first time since I got it maybe a year ago (from the batch previous to this most recent batch which became available around march/april 2020). I did not play it when I bought it, well for more than a minute. I basically got one game to boot (tried a few times) and put it back in a box and didn't think twice about how I had to load the game a few times before it would work.


It most of the time will not boot games. It either gets stuck very early on,, usually on the ram check screen, or the CPS2 boots to a blank screen (not coloured, just black/blank). I have been testing with misc encrypted roms (have attached wires) and most of the time it gets stuck on the ram check screen, right where it would next check the QSOUND ram. The other 5 RAM checks above are all OK, then the game basically freezes on that ram check screen.
If I load the same game again via the LCD selector, it will normally do the same thing. Sometimes, it will actually boot the game and work fine for hours. Turning off then on the CPS2 doesnt help, still games dont load. Same thing with other games I have tested, however I seem to have more luck with some games like AvP which will boot a higher percentage of the time, but still suffers from the same maybe-will-load maybe-wont-load problem.


Someone sent me their new CPS2 multi kit recently and their A/B to install and this gave me an opportunity to test my A and B boards again with a new kit. It worked fine on my CPS2 A/B with that new kit. Have tried different known-working PAL-G chips too.

I've pulled the kit off the B board, checked all pins (none broken), cleaned all pins on the multi kit and all DIP slots on the B board. After cleaning I very carefully put it all back together (as always) and confirmed all pins look well seated. I am testing without the B board shell on, so I can confirm the connections between the A and the B board are all good too. Have reseated the whole thing a few times, doesnt make any difference. The pins are all looking good.

I have changed SD cards, tested with decrypted romset instead of the usual "KEY'd" sets. (avalaunch set as opposed to smokemonster set).

Then, I was able to get my hands on a discovery programmer. Programmed the bootloader then the other firmware via the SD card, no problems there.
Same problem but now worse - it mostly wont load a game properly, the LCD screen does not complete the "*"s thus it never finishes loading the game onto the darksoft kit's memory. I have to choose the same rom lots of times for it to finish a game, then I get the same problem with the ROM loading screen freezing (just before QSound roms).


Previously, I have had to fix a different cps2 multi kit (thanks a lot to @Darksoft and @xodaraP) for helping me to diagnose the exact same fault as level shifters. @xodaraP had my kit at the time so he desoldered, then sent it back to me, I resoldered new shifters and that kit works perfectly now.

Do I try the same thing on this CPS2 multi kit (replace level shifters, if so which do I start with) ? I am happy to test anything anyone can recommend. I have 3 spare (new) level shifters from the last one.

Thanks for any help ! I have been away from playing for a while as I had family commitments. Now I have some time to play again :) Thankyou @xodaraP for the guidance thus far with this fault. I have installed approx 7 CPS2 multi kits, just for background, including the one which needed repair.
 
@Darksoft do you think my problem is the level shifters again or should I try something else to get this board working ? It does not load games, previously games would load but not boot most of the time, that as before re-doing the firmware via stm32 then usb firmware. The kit's PCB's are all definitely fastened down in the B board properly. A different multi kit works just fine on the same B board.
 
ok @Darksoft I am happy to re-do the flash again (STM32 or the SD one or both?), but if that gives me the same outcome, which level shifters do I start swapping out - in which order I mean ? Thanks
 
hard to say...

I would check that all have activity in both input and output. Any level shifter that doesnt have activity on any of the sides is a perfect candidate to be changed.
 
Cool ok I have a logic tester, so assume I can use that to check for activity. Ill check the datasheet for the shifters and see if I can make some progress on this.




EDIT: I have come back to this board after some time off arcade boards (doing other 8/16 bit console mods). I have not touched it since mid Sept, but I booted up the CPS2 multi kit today and it loads games again. Perhaps a nice dose of gravity made it semi-happy again. I guess this means the firmware(s) did not help the problem, its back to its original problem - see below.

Sound does not work. If there is any sound, it is played at the wrong time or it just plays a loud screeching beep or other digital noise. Vampire Savious has some intro background music but it sounds like some of the audio is missing. Games which list the ROM's as the game boots up (CPS2 street fighters etc) do not load at all, they freeze when its about to say QSOUND OK. It doesnt even say QSOUND, it crashes on the ROM check before QSOUND. SF2 Hyper Fighting Turbo will load but the audio is completely missing or incorrectly played. EG Ken fights wrestler. I hear T-Hawk's name being spoken during game-play, as if I was choose T-Hawk from the character select screen. Very wonky.


So @Darksoft I have logic tested my Qsound and Sound level shifters ( Romset to verify your CPS2 Kit ). They all have activity on both sides, where there is a trace going to/from them. The Qsound shifters are mainly pulling low, while the sound shifters are mostly pulling high. Could you guide me what to try next ? All the level shifters listed on that URL "romset to verify"? I have run out of time tonight to try more. thanks as always for the help.

The test roms from "Testing folders for Troublehooting.zip" both give me an "OK". This is the logic probe I am using laser logic probe
 
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So @Darksoft I have logic tested my Qsound and Sound level shifters ( Romset to verify your CPS2 Kit ). They all have activity on both sides, where there is a trace going to/from them. The Qsound shifters are mainly pulling low, while the sound shifters are mostly pulling high. Could you guide me what to try next ? All the level shifters listed on that URL "romset to verify"? I have run out of time tonight to try more. thanks as always for the help.
Are you sure that you dont have a PAL problem?
 
I thought the same and I changed it over last night (the PAL-G I changed to one I burnt by myself with your advice from another post on here) but exactly the same problem.
Previously, after I burnt those PAL chips, I tested them on my other working multikit and different games booted fine. I also tested it on a regular series-7 B board and it worked. I don't believe its a PAL problem.
 
SF2 Hyper Fighting Turbo will load but the audio is completely missing or incorrectly played. EG Ken fights wrestler. I hear T-Hawk's name being spoken during game-play, as if I was choose T-Hawk from the character select screen. Very wonky.

Those are sound samples not Q Sound, Q Sound is music.

Test the level shifters in the mask ROM area, specifically anything related to ROM 11 and 12 which are the sound samples
 
I checked over all the level shifters with AvP playing on the multi (somehow got it to boot, but no sound at all). Wont boot again even if I re-load the game from the SD card multiple times.
They are all going high or low on both sides, where there are traces going to the pins of the shifters - seems normal. U76 had 2 pins on the input side (A4 and A8) which were not solid high but beeping high/off/high/off very fast, my logic probe was beeping like crazy. The tone which A4 and A8 made were different pitch but they both were pinging on/off the whole time. (edit: the output side of A4 and A8 were stable, not pinging)

I was able to eventually also get SF2 Hyper Turbo to boot again and it did the same thing with playing no audio at all (music or sfx), but randomly playing some sounds effects. 1944 somehow also booted once and had audio and music. As soon as I re-flashed a different game then back to 1944 it would not boot, green screen.

If you are sure replacing U76 is worth a shot I will do it. Thanks for the assistance here.
 
If you're only seeing high and floating (and DS may correct me here) then I don't think it's working correctly.

Replace it and see if there is any change
 
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