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Vampire Savior CPS2 Solid Red Screen

Itz_Ochoa

Itz_Ochoa

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Oxnard, California
A few weeks ago I made the error of purchasing a Vampire Savior B board and a CPS2 A board from Ebay that was advertised as untested. As someone incredibly new to this hobby, this was a poor decision in hindsight. Upon connecting it to my supergun and TV, I get a solid red screen. The attached image shows blue on the right side and it is likely a weird tint from my Sony Trinitron. I tested it on two other TV's and can confirm it is a solid red color. I have tested the Vampire Savior B board on the A board it came with and on my working A board and both gave me a red screen. So that leads me to believe something wrong with the Vampire Savior B board.

I'm pretty stumped on what I should be checking on this board. I received a red screen prior to removing the battery and did my best to install an infinikey since I believed it was a suicide battery issue. The screen persisted after the installation of the infinikey so my current guess is that it might be an EPROM issue? I really don't know.

I've attached images and any help is appreciated! Thanks!
 

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great game, well worth the effort to get it working.

Battery has been removed = no decryption key.
has all original roms stickers = not Phoenix.
No infinikey/openkey/pickey = not writhing the needed keys correctly.

So almost certainly will need an openkey/infinikey to get it going.

Depending where you are in the world something like this should to it
https://www.candycabclub.com/product/openkey-cps2
 
garou81 said:
If you have any other cps2 games you can swap all the roms to that board. This part of the board is probably gonna require alot of attention
vampireboard.jpg
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Oooh nasty.

If this was CSI I would say “zoom, enhance, zoom, enhance”
 
It's likely the corrosion on the bottom left corner of the PCB is a problem here as others have pointed out. Could also be the infinikey wasn't setup correctly, but I'd lean more toward the corrosion being an issue; the 2nd & 3rd SMICs from the bottom left look pretty badly corroded. Might need to be replaced.

I'd clean the area and start buzzing out the traces to confirm everything's going where it should. Worry about the Infinikey after that. You may also want to post pictures of the Infinikey install to see if others can verify whether or not it appears to have been done correctly.
 
Apologies for the late thread replies! I have attached additional pictures of the corroded area as well as my attempt at an infinikey install. It is my first time soldering so it's likely not very well done. I believe it's supposed to go on the back of CN9. My hand was a bit shaky so it might not be the best quality.

I appreciate everyone who commented and I'll definitely keep all that in mind. Thanks!
 

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Guessing this is a green (JP) board based on how the jumpers are set? Assuming those joints on CN9 are fine, shouldn't be any problems. Just buzz them out if you can and maybe reflow the one on the far right.

I'm gonna guess the issue is with the LS245's at the bottom, esp. B & C. Clean the entire area of corrosion, buzz the traces. Worst case you have to run some jumpers and replace the chips.
 
Itz_Ochoa said:
I have not shorted out EXC5, I do not know how to do that
Click to expand...
Take a flat head screw driver while the game is off and touch the bottom leads of the EXC5 tantalum cap right next to where the battery used to be. Hold the screw driver to it for 5 secs or more. Then try to boot the game.
 
Where are you located? The LS245s need to be removed to clean up that corrosion properly and one has rusted pins and will need to be replaced

If you are not comfortable soldering SMD components I would recommend taking it to someone who can do the work

The good news is the red screen means it is at least running and has video from the A board. Untested on eBay for CPS2 can often mean catastrophic battery corrosion, this is definitely fixable

Edit: zooming in you may actually be able to get away with scrubbing with a toothbrush and IPA to clean that up. It will likely need multiple passes
 
Update! It's been a few days and I cleaned up the corroded section to the best of my ability. I also discovered that my first time soldering wasn't a 100% success. I had not properly soldered a connection on the inifinikey and circled it for easier viewing. I will still likely have one of my friends replace the LS245's for me because I am very new to soldering or working with any kind of electronics. I don't even own my old soldering iron and will have to borrow it from my friend again to see if this missing connection was my big blunder. I will update this thread whenever I get around to borrowing it.

Thank you to everyone for the help!I feel like I am learning a ton. I've been thinking about fixing this board nonstop and doing all kinds of research into CPS2 hardware. I've been very obsessed with the topic as of lately.
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Does it work after you resoldered that connection on the Infinikey?
 
Yeah, I'd re-check it at this point. The cleanup seems to have gone pretty well, and weak joints on the Infinikey could've also contributed to it not working.

I should've zoomed in on that original pic of the Infinikey, pretty obvious in retrospect that that particular joint was suspect. X/
 
After frankly too much time installing the infinikey (certainly not the best job), I got the game to boot! However I can't get past the character select screen. If I move across the select screen, the game will restart displaying the region name and then into the attract mode. I ran a test in the service menu and a problem with program rom #3 was detected.

I do not have an eprom reader or anything related to that, I am curious if it is a problem with those LS245's or with the eprom itself.

 

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If you ever make it down to bakersfield i can reprogram that rom in a jiffy
 
I'm definitely planning to come by! I host my tournaments on Friday's near the end of the month. If you're ever having an event and I'm free I'll gladly stop by!
 
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