Start of a chihiro type 3 repair/modding project

Hey all,

New to the arcade hardware scene.

a few months ago I picked up a joblot of faulty chihiro motherboards.

I reballed quite a few original xbox gpu's from faulty retail boards and swapped those over with my BGA rework station.

I was only able to get one working unfortunatly (I will revisit the other ones some other time)



I upgraded the gpu fan aswell for a newer bigger one I refuse to use those old seized fans.

I have had this one laying around for a few months with the goal of putting a working type 3 chihiro together mainly for playing the midnight maximum tune games.

so I went on ebay again and paid too much for a faulty type 3 chihiro





This happend to have a single row powersupply connector motherboard with an exploded capacitor and seized fan.
it will most likely be stripped for parts and swapped over to a retail board to get it working again.



the problem with this is that I dont have the correct wiring harness to swap my double row powersupply motherboard in here.

so I did this:




Looks pretty good.

I have connectors and terminals on the way to create an adapter for a regular ATX powersupply, then I can test what works and what doesnt.

to load games im not sure if I want to netload the games with a raspberry pi or install and SSD.

there is more then enough space to install an SSD so im leaning towards installing that one.


if you have suggestions or crucial information I have to know please let me know

RedOverlord said:

I have had this one laying around for a few months with the goal of putting a working type 3 chihiro together mainly for playing the midnight maximum tune games.
to load games im not sure if I want to netload the games with a raspberry pi or install and SSD.
there is more then enough space to install an SSD so im leaning towards installing that one.
if you have suggestions or crucial information I have to know please let me know

Click to expand...

If you haven't played with all the games, you should netboot them first to see what you like or not. Good choice on Maximum tunes but there's also Outrun2 in there.
Once you've narrowed your choice, you could go the cf route on that IDE port.
There's a 2 Gb limit on the CF card so not sure how the SSD works since they are usually bigger.

ps: How to you intend to play the games? do you have a cab?

I dont have a cab no, I wanted to build this thing to work as a 'regular' console.

I was told theres a way to emulate the input and map controllers to it.

I have played the outrun port on the retail xboxes. Thats cool and all but I want to explore the titles that werent available on retail systems.

I first have to get power to this thing and see if I can get some life out of it

ImportantBet said:

Well, he could set up partitions you know

Click to expand...

I have already tried that option with a +2Gb CF card and it does not work.

RedOverlord said:

I was told theres a way to emulate the input and map controllers to it.

Click to expand...

there is: https://github.com/OpenJVS/OpenJVS

Yes exactly thats what I found I will look into that

Alright, heres an update on the project.

Fan is seized so I left that disconnected I would have to order a replacement. I already know where so thats nice.

Error 02 I think thats because I dont have a cr2032 installed at the moment but im not sure.

I would have to check that.

I also received my pic16's yesterday and I compiled firmware for both netboot and ssd loading.





Its connected to the TV with d-terminal component

RedOverlord said:

Fan is seized so I left that disconnected I would have to order a replacement. I

Click to expand...

which fan is that? the vertical CPU fan or the horizontal GPU fan?! if it's the horizontal, turn the chihiro off! that's how your brick them.

and may I suggest Noctua NF-A4x10 as a replacement.

RedOverlord said:

Its connected to the TV with d-terminal component

Click to expand...

Can we get pictures of that please??! and did you change your filterboard jumpers?!

Calm down sir, scroll up.

I know exactly what im doing, the case fan is seized it will be replaced. I only turned it on briefly to check if it powers up correctly.

The gpu fan is brand new and the gpu has been replaced.

which jumpers?

New fan + capacitors ordered

The jumpers on the filterboard outside, next to the power plugs and test/service buttons.

See this thread

I put the new fan in, and now this.

Interesting. Maybe the sega mainboard that plugs directly into the xbox motherboard needs recapping

Recapped those two, didnt help the issue but that was expected.


Is there a cap order list available for the video board?

If not I will research what caps it needs.

So I got a recap list together for the 'video board' which should hopefully clear my errors and my pink image.

Just not 100% sure if the caps are the correct voltage rating but I will find out soon, once I do I will post the list here.

Meanwhile I got my ide to sata adapter in and the connectors to internalise an ssd.

I have a 120gb and a 250gb available, I bet the 120gb is plenty.

I got a piece of software called 'cftools' which should allow me to setup partitions and format it correctly so I can drop roms onto it.

This is just completely alien to me and it being a commandline only piece of software doesnt help at all.

(I suck at software)

Can someone guide me to a write up of how I can use this to set up my drive?

Thank you

RedOverlord said:

Can someone guide me to a write up of how I can use this to set up my drive?

Click to expand...

check this out : https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/chihiro-naomi-triforce-cf-tools.2667/post-401724
I have *no idea* if this will work for your sata drive as the tool is made for 2GB CF cards max.

and you will not be able to "drop roms in it" and run which ever you like; it's one disk for one game! (thus why CFcards are better suited for it)

I have 3 more to make. guess I could do a video on it

Thanks for the information thats great.

From a quick glance you need a windows xp machine? I dont have that, and I was planning on using my hdd docking station that uses usb.

I wanted to dual boot atleast the two wangan maximum tune games but I guess that isnt a thing.

A video would be cool, let me know when you have that available.

Thanks

RedOverlord said:

From a quick glance you need a windows xp machine? I dont have that, and I was planning on using my hdd docking station that uses usb.

Click to expand...

my main box doesn't have IDE ports for the CFtoIDE adapters... so I use an old XP box that has IDE ports. The tool does supports Xp to Windows 10.

From the cftool thread, I don't believe docking station with USB will work:

Sadly, ataid (at least in Windows 7/8/10) will not be able to get a CF's ID if you're using any of the following device setups:

• USB Compact Flash reader/writer
• IDE Compact Flash Reader/Writer hooked through an IDE-to-USB adapter

Although the tool will sense a device is there (listphys.exe will show this as connected; even as fixed if you use an IDE-to-USB adapter), you will always get an error stating that the device "model name" could not be determined.

That being said, these tools WILL work if you have at least one of the following available in your current market PC at minimum:

• 1 x PCIe x 4 Slot (StarTech.com 1 Port PCI Express IDE Controller Adapter Card)
• 1 x PCI 2.2 Slot (StarTech.com 2 Port PCI IDE Controller Adapter Card)

Click to expand...

I'll mess around with it see how far I can get, thank you

So I added new cells, and I change the video dip-switches so now my output is like its supposed to be.

I also recapped the xbox motherboard completely.

Now onto solving error 02 Main board malfunctioning.

Is there really that little known about this error?

The only leads I have is recapping (which I will do soon)

And that the cyprus IC's might be faulty because I also cannot get to the test screen or in service mode.