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Friz's Issues--SOLVED (post 45)

FrizzleFried

FrizzleFried

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I figured it was probably best to start my own thread rather than clutter up the troubleshooting thread. Here is the first post from that thread:

olid black screen here. Still early in to troubleshooting. I did
manage to get a flash write to happen but nothing after that... no
reboot... no change in screen... just black (actually very very dark
gray but as close to black as you're going to get). EXC5... I guess
what i need to do to short this component is to simply short all 3 legs?


EDIT: OK... so I just tried loading up a couple other games. Each game
flashed properly with the "HAVE FUN" message at the end. None showed
any change to my screen... no reset... nothing. Almost as if I don't
have anything plugged in to the harness (which I tried to see if there
was a difference and there was... with the PCB installed I "am" getting a
border edge from pitch black to very dark gray... without the harness
plugged in at all it's all black with an occasion sync issue.). I did
run my screwdriver over the middle and left and middle and right pins on
the back side of the PCB of EXC5...


I also went through and re-re-pressed down on all connections, etc.


FWIW I am using an A+B combo I bought from TNT as "dead by clean" and it
is dead but clean with the battery removed. I don't even have another
CPS2 board to test this one on... A or B. It would be much easier if I
had 1 more A and 1 more B board but I don't. :sad:


Come to think of it I may have a untested A board with broken plastic
out in the shed... I'll have to check and swap in that A board to see
what happens.


Of course any suggestion would be grateful.


EDIT: I just realized (I'm operating from the back of the cabinet
right now) that during the flash process my screen does go "all darK'
then when completes the dark gray/black comes back with the straight
border.


I'm running out of things to do.


Then Mitsu replied with:

Sounds to me like you might have the interconnect pcb on backwards. Make sure the text on the interconnect faces the same direction as the other pcbs.

Then Friz replied with:

Negative. The text faces the same way as the rest of the PCB's... it's at the left side edge of the interconnect.

I wish it were that simple. It does sound like SOMETHING is resetting
with the fact it goes all black for the program period then goes to the
dark gray screen.

Then Mitsu replied with:

Looks like the kit pcb is operating properly so you may have pins not inserting all the way or you have an A or B board problem. Make sure that the interconnect is pressed down as far as possible.
 
UPDATE: I found the old beat up A-Board I knew I had in the shed. It too is of "unknown" condition. Upon plugging the B board in and firing up the cabinet I was rewarded with a PINK screen. First I tried to install another game. That made the screen DARK BLUE...almost black. I pulled the B board and shorted EXC5. That made it pink on screen again when I powered up. Loading yet another game in to the unit did the same thing... DARK BLUE. I turn off and on and the DARK BLUE becomes a slightly lighter shade of blue... but still no video... no audio... no game.

Any insight from these latest developments?
 
UPDATED: OK, I added an extension harness so I can bring the PCB set up front rather than around back (and being the 3rd game in the row I was getting tired of walking around back and forth). Anyway. The EXACT behavior right now is:

(1) Pink screen when I reset EXC5.
(2) When I program, the screen goes COMPLETELY blank.
(3) After programming, the screen turns a VERY DARK blue... almost black, but you can make out an "edge" of the viewable area on the left and top.
(4) I turn off the game, then back on and that same viewable area is now a still dark, but MUCH brighter blue.
(5) Here is where it gets real strange. Originally I waited like oh, a minute or so then turned back on. I twas back to the dark dark blue screen. So as I was writing this, I decided to give ti one more test for consistency, and I go out and turn it on to a dark dark blue screen. I program another game, see 1-4 again... this time I turned off the game and then turned it on almost immediately (maybe 3 seconds off). It came back to the brighter dark blue screen. I turn off... I wait maybe 30 seconds, maybe 40... turn back on... back to the dark dark blue screen?!

So... that is where I am with the 2nd A-Board. The fact that the issues haven't been consistent tells me what? Not much. Both A boards could be bad... or one is bad and the other isn't, but the B board is messed up too... wee.
 
Please pPost a pic of your installation. Interconnect is a common mistake, i made it once too.
 
FrizzleFried said:
So... that is where I am with the 2nd A-Board. The fact that the issues haven't been consistent tells me what? Not much. Both A boards could be bad... or one is bad and the other isn't, but the B board is messed up too... wee.
Click to expand...
POst pic. IF your setup turns to be right, then probably is that B Board what is giving you a hard time...might be broken.
 
Here you go...
 

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Is the interconnect pushed all the way down? Looks like it's up a little but hard to tell from the angle.
 
I've tried everything. I can say for sure between the two A-Boards:

(1) When I short the little component thing I get a pink screen on one A Board... and a very very lightly tinted gray screen on the other.
(2) When I load a game in to the system, at this point I essentially get what I would get if nothing was attached to the A Boards... A Board one comes up dark Gray just as I described earlier without a cart attached and A-Board B goes dark dark blue as mentioned before.
(3) I am no longer getting the lighter blue screen on the 2nd A board. Just pink or dark blue. Board A has maintained the same gray screen throughout.

At this point I think I have a defective B board... which sucks considering I paid for it.

Jon
 

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Before we call the b-boards bad tell us what type of microsd card you are using, how big is it, and what files did you use for the games?
 
Mitsurugi-w said:
Before we call the b-boards bad tell us what type of microsd card you are using, how big is it, and what files did you use for the games?
Click to expand...
I used the one you link to at Amazon on the KLOV thread... 4mbs speed I think it was.... Like $6.00 on Amazon. Early in the post you recommended it so I ordered it and stashed it somewhere I couldn't remember until I searched for it. I used the Avalanche set ... installed it in to the games folder on said card. I did format it FAT32 to make sure as well.
 
You can test the board with Razoola's CPS2 suicide test.

Unfortunately I know it doesn't prove the board is 100% working because I have a board with a weird fault (I suspect it has a blown address line on the CPU bus somewhere) and while it works with the suicide tester (it's a very small program) it doesn't work with any real games.
 
l_oliveira said:
You can test the board with Razoola's CPS2 suicide test.

Unfortunately I know it doesn't prove the board is 100% working because I have a board with a weird fault (I suspect it has a blown address line on the CPU bus somewhere) and while it works with the suicide tester (it's a very small program) it doesn't work with any real games.
Click to expand...
Never heard of it... where do I go to learn about it?
 
FrizzleFried said:
l_oliveira said:
You can test the board with Razoola's CPS2 suicide test.

Unfortunately I know it doesn't prove the board is 100% working because I have a board with a weird fault (I suspect it has a blown address line on the CPU bus somewhere) and while it works with the suicide tester (it's a very small program) it doesn't work with any real games.
Click to expand...
Never heard of it... where do I go to learn about it?
Click to expand...
http://cps2shock.emu-france.info/download.html
 
OK... I have access (to buy) a COTA and Xmen vs SF as a place I have some credit. Both are Phoenixed. While I know COTA is likely a revision 3 PCB... any idea what revision the Xmen vs SF is? Which is a better purchase?

Thanks.
 
Mitsurugi-w said:
There's really no telling which revision any game uses unless you crack it open.
Click to expand...
Pretty much that, because the CPS2 board was designed from scratch to be "recyclable". The encryption was there mostly to prevent bootlegging of the hardware and make sure only CAPCOM could swap games around.

Because the security offered by the encryption was deemed satisfactory, they did not use Kabuki and CPS-B security functions.
 
I'm having the same issue as Frizzle. Solid black screen. One of the pins that enters the Graphic ROMS broke off, bent in shipping, so I had to do my own repair on that pin. I'm still troubleshooting myself.

Too make matters worse, I only have a Mac. I did clean the SD card of extraneous files that the Mac writes. The card is a 4GB SanDisk model.

Don't want to hijack this thread with my issue, but just wanted to share my experience.
 
No hijack... misery loves company.

;)

I have another B Board on it's way. Luckily I had $100 credit from a prize I won so the overpriced B board only cost me $30.00 of my current money shipped... but still... it sucks. Before I try to install the multikit I am going to use the known working B board to test the two A-boards I have. Lets hope one (or both) are working.
 
I have 2 other functioning B boards, so I know this A board is good. Hope both of us can make some progress :)
 
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