"Now Playing - " but it's not playing...--SOLVED (post 19)

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Finally got myself a G pal and put the kit together today. Triple-checked the jumpers, ran the wire because I have a Rev 4 B board.

I plug it in and the cab has a gray screen. From there I select a game on the LCD screen and hit enter. It flashes the game and tells me that I'm playing, but that's all. No video, no audio, just blank gray screen and nothing.

 

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Ha.. Ha... If you restart the cab the game works...

Rockman: The Power Battles worked fine, but other games don't work too well at all...

- Sound on every game I've tried doesn't kick in until about 3 minutes of the cab being on.
- Some games have the same vertical striping issue I had with my bent-pin A board, but I've double-checked all the connector pins and no bent pins on these boards.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

Make sure the B-board connectors didn't get messed up because of the bent A-board pins.

Sound sounds like a voltage issue maybe. Either way you probably need to disassemble the kit. Check all of your jumpers again with a meter. Make sure the PAL is set up correctly for the revision B-board you have and make sure EVERYTHING is pushed down as far as it will go including both sides of the interconnect pcb.

If you want your game to boot immediately after the game loads then you need to install the autoreset wire.

 

[rewrite]

Make sure the B-board connectors didn't get messed up because of the bent A-board pins.

Sound sounds like a voltage issue maybe. Either way you probably need to disassemble the kit. Check all of your jumpers again with a meter. Make sure the PAL is set up correctly for the revision B-board you have and make sure EVERYTHING is pushed down as far as it will go including both sides of the interconnect pcb.

If you want your game to boot immediately after the game loads then you need to install the autoreset wire.

No bent A board pins here, I'm using my known good, no bent pins A board.

Voltage is 11.80 and 5.06 on the edge connector. Maybe the A board needs to be recapped?

Will check the jumpers again and push everything back down again.

Pin 9 on the G PAL to pin C13 on the CN3 for rev 4, yes?

 

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Took it apart and put it back together twice, double, triple, and quadruple checked the jumpers, now I only get a gray screen every time...

Edit: Followed the instructions for F PAL and put my old F PAL back in, same deal. Just a gray screen no matter what I do.

Also tossed on my Tower of Doom board to verify the A board is 100% fine. So if nothing else, the A board can be ruled out.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

I was just saying I have seen bent pins on a A-board mess up the connector of a b-board. Was just saying because if you tested that bent pin a-board with this pcb it could be a problem.

If possible I would try another b-board with the kit. Failure to boot is usually a problem with the program rom pcb, interconnect not on all the way or backwards, or bad files on the SD card. Try reformatting your card and copying all of the games back to it all at once.

 

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I was just saying I have seen bent pins on a A-board mess up the connector of a b-board. Was just saying because if you tested that bent pin a-board with this pcb it could be a problem.

If possible I would try another b-board with the kit. Failure to boot is usually a problem with the program rom pcb, interconnect not on all the way or backwards, or bad files on the SD card. Try reformatting your card and copying all of the games back to it all at once.

I understand what you're saying now. I'd only used the bent pin A-board with SSF2 (now sold) and the D&D I have as I was trying to figure out which one to use for the multi.

Well, I can try the SD card bit (though it /had/ been working with how they were put on there all at once last time, so idk) and the interconnect board again. I don't have another B board that's not still working on battery... Would be a shame to kill it for this.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

You can always send it to me if you can't figure it out. I would only charge if it turns out to be an installation error. If there was a problem with the kit we would cover it. That being said I've only had to defective kits out of the 50 or so sent to me and they were easy to fix myself. So chances are there is a small problem with installation causing your error.

I would do the SD card bit first.

 

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You can always send it to me if you can't figure it out. I would only charge if it turns out to be an installation error. If there was a problem with the kit we would cover it. That being said I've only had to defective kits out of the 50 or so sent to me and they were easy to fix myself. So chances are there is a small problem with installation causing your error.

I would do the SD card bit first.

No luck. Formatted and copied things over 3 different times and I even took everything apart and followed your video one more time just in case, but it's still dead.

I'm debating whether to sacrifice my working game, assuming it's the B board, it's not like it's sold the past few weeks. Like your install video said, no one wants anything on battery as much as they go on about how bad it is to kill working games.

I guess worst case scenario it doesn't work on the D&D B board either and I send the kit and my current B board off to you and then phoenix D&D.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

Or you could just send the kit to me now. But like I said, if its an installation issue I charge my $50 installation fee. If it's an actual kit issue there is no charge.

 

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Or you could just send the kit to me now. But like I said, if its an installation issue I charge my $50 installation fee. If it's an actual kit issue there is no charge.

But if my B board is toast, then what?

$50 seems more than reasonable, but if my B board is shot, then it's probably not that sensible sending it out.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

The moral dilemma is all yours, my friend. lol

 

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The moral dilemma is all yours, my friend. lol

So on a Rev 3 board it's lift pin 7/9 (if F or G) and connect to either pin J17 on the multi, or CN13 on C3? And that's all for wiring?

^ Did the above on the 100% known-good D&D B board. Put in F PAL, lifted pin 7, connected it to J17. Same thing, I can write games and it tells me I'm all set, reboot and black screen.

Any chance both my F and G pals are dead? Maybe I at one point put pin 9 on F pal or 7 on G pal or something? I suppose at this point they're the only other variable I can think of.

Quadruple edit: Just realized the instructions do /not/ tell you to lift a pin on either PAL on Rev 3+4. Perhaps this has been my issue.

Tried putting the F pal in without lifting the pin, still nothing.

 

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Tried the G pal you sent me too. No dice. If you don't have any ideas it's going to find its way out to you. I'm done arguing with it. For what it's worth, at no point has anything been in a case, I wanted to rule out cart connection issues.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

The PAL would not prevent the kit from booting. It would only cause gfx or sound issues. You can send it my way if you like.

 

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The PAL would not prevent the kit from booting. It would only cause gfx or sound issues. You can send it my way if you like.

Seems like I'll have to then. I know this B board is good (the first one I was using I can not say for sure as it's sat on a shelf for over a year), I know my A board is good, and my SD card had worked earlier with the same kit. I'll put the kit and my B board in a shell and box it up. PM me your address and I'll get it shipped out. Would you prefer to get the A board with it as well?

I really hope it's not a big deal. I've been known to miss things before, but this seems really really easy...

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

Don't send the shell. It will be cheaper and those shells get damaged in shipping. Install the kit on the b-board pcb and wrapit up real good. That will be fine.

I'll send a PM.

 

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Don't send the shell. It will be cheaper and those shells get damaged in shipping. Install the kit on the b-board pcb and wrapit up real good. That will be fine.

I'll send a PM.

Packaged and sent. PM'ed with tracking.

Please let me know what was wrong with it so I can feel foolish about missing something, lol.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

I received this B-board with the kit installed and was getting a mostly black screen on boot. I could see little gfx fragments occasionally. Removed and tested the main kit pcb on my test B-board and it fired right up so this discounted the kit as the problem. So I began to examine the B-board and the installation procedure for issues.

Jumpers checked out. Pin 9 of the PAL was in the socket and a wire was running from pin 9 of the PAL to the B-board connector. Ugly but not incorrect. Removed pin 9 from the socket with no change. I then noticed another pin on the PAL completely bent in and not in the socket. So I bent the pin back and installed the pal and reinstalled the multi kit. Game booted right up with no problems.

I decided to install a cleaner pal jumper that connects to J17 on the multi pcb instead. I also installed the auto-reset wire and loaded several games for testing. All good to go now.

Main issue was simply a bent pin on the PAL chip.

 

[Darksoft]

I received this B-board with the kit installed and was getting a mostly black screen on boot. I could see little gfx fragments occasionally. Removed and tested the main kit pcb on my test B-board and it fired right up so this discounted the kit as the problem. So I began to examine the B-board and the installation procedure for issues.

Jumpers checked out. Pin 9 of the PAL was in the socket and a wire was running from pin 9 of the PAL to the B-board connector. Ugly but not incorrect. Removed pin 9 from the socket with no change. I then noticed another pin on the PAL completely bent in and not in the socket. So I bent the pin back and installed the pal and reinstalled the multi kit. Game booted right up with no problems.

I decided to install a cleaner pal jumper that connects to J17 on the multi pcb instead. I also installed the auto-reset wire and loaded several games for testing. All good to go now.

Main issue was simply a bent pin on the PAL chip.

You're the man!