nothelle
Beginner
Hi. First post and rather unashamedly I am asking for help
I have an increasing stack of bad 246 and 256 game computers here, in my efforts to recommission a Taito Battle Gear 3 twin arcade. I have one good 246 and 2 bad ones, which luckily gives me a test mule, and through having that one running correctly, and being able to swap it from player 1 to player 2, I am 100% certain there are no other problems external to the computers within the cabinet, including in the external I/O boards or in the harness. Likewise I am able to swap HDD/dongle combos into the computer that is working properly, so I know that all three HDDs in my possession are also good. All are BG3 tuned Rev.C v 2.03J
The problem is the usual one ... on both computers there is an issue with the RS485 serial data port which results in "handle error", aka: force feedback wheel. There is no shortage of others on the net over the years who have faced the same issue, and nobody has ever offered a solution. The 2 bad computers boot and run just fine, including setting up networking etc, and then fail at the steering wheel calibration. Once, and only once, one of the bad boxes started up at random and went right through the wheel calibration. It has never done it again
Being a fairly logical person, and since there are no pcb schematics available, I have replaced the 2 smd IC's on one of the computers which handle the serial comms to the FFB servo board (I have the bench facilities to do that work properly). Without success however
OK, I thought, let's buy 2 brand new 256's out of China (and they really are brand new), so now have those in front of me as well. This decision was made after consulting wiki material which states categorically that BG3 will play on a 256 if the 256 is jumpered to run in 246 compatibility mode. But, it does not. The 2 new 256 are NOT "super" variety
On a 256 the game will boot up, calibrate the force feedback and then loads as far as the logo at bottom right corner of the screen, but does not load the full course graphics. At that point it hangs with a black screen. It also hangs if I go into service mode, as soon as the service mode button is pushed. It's almost as if the game is not receiving any data from the HDD, yet if by way of experiment I move the HDD jumper to slave for example, then there is an immediate HDD failure at boot. So to a certain extent at least the computer and HDD are talking and happy with one another
The wiki material that I relied on to say the game would work on 256 appears to be prepared and published by someone who knows what they are talking about, at this link: https://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Namco_System_246/256
Ideally there is a 256 expert in here, maybe even the person who created the compatibility chart in the wiki, who can help me work out what is going on?
It goes without sayng that I would be eternally grateful, and would offer my first-born child in return (although at age 66 that could now be an empty promise)
I have an increasing stack of bad 246 and 256 game computers here, in my efforts to recommission a Taito Battle Gear 3 twin arcade. I have one good 246 and 2 bad ones, which luckily gives me a test mule, and through having that one running correctly, and being able to swap it from player 1 to player 2, I am 100% certain there are no other problems external to the computers within the cabinet, including in the external I/O boards or in the harness. Likewise I am able to swap HDD/dongle combos into the computer that is working properly, so I know that all three HDDs in my possession are also good. All are BG3 tuned Rev.C v 2.03J
The problem is the usual one ... on both computers there is an issue with the RS485 serial data port which results in "handle error", aka: force feedback wheel. There is no shortage of others on the net over the years who have faced the same issue, and nobody has ever offered a solution. The 2 bad computers boot and run just fine, including setting up networking etc, and then fail at the steering wheel calibration. Once, and only once, one of the bad boxes started up at random and went right through the wheel calibration. It has never done it again
Being a fairly logical person, and since there are no pcb schematics available, I have replaced the 2 smd IC's on one of the computers which handle the serial comms to the FFB servo board (I have the bench facilities to do that work properly). Without success however
OK, I thought, let's buy 2 brand new 256's out of China (and they really are brand new), so now have those in front of me as well. This decision was made after consulting wiki material which states categorically that BG3 will play on a 256 if the 256 is jumpered to run in 246 compatibility mode. But, it does not. The 2 new 256 are NOT "super" variety
On a 256 the game will boot up, calibrate the force feedback and then loads as far as the logo at bottom right corner of the screen, but does not load the full course graphics. At that point it hangs with a black screen. It also hangs if I go into service mode, as soon as the service mode button is pushed. It's almost as if the game is not receiving any data from the HDD, yet if by way of experiment I move the HDD jumper to slave for example, then there is an immediate HDD failure at boot. So to a certain extent at least the computer and HDD are talking and happy with one another
The wiki material that I relied on to say the game would work on 256 appears to be prepared and published by someone who knows what they are talking about, at this link: https://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Namco_System_246/256
Ideally there is a 256 expert in here, maybe even the person who created the compatibility chart in the wiki, who can help me work out what is going on?
It goes without sayng that I would be eternally grateful, and would offer my first-born child in return (although at age 66 that could now be an empty promise)
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