So I recently bought a Namco System 369 on Yahoo Auctions. there have been lots of listings of these recently and I picked one that showed the unit complete with dongle and booting to an IO error. I figured that was a safe bet that the unit was working but maybe just tested without an IO board present.
The Issue
Upon receiving it it didn't actually include any dongles. And didn't boot at all. A fan powered up but I got no LEDs or any other signs of life
Initial attempt
I asked around and got a dongless patched version of Tekken Tag 2 Unlimited, wrote that to a New SSD but still no joy.
investigation
Opening up the cage I quickly realized there were other things wrong. While this did have the large cooling fan, the turbine style fan built into the PS3 section of the unit was just straight up missing. I also noticed that several of the connectors on the underside of the PS3 section that connected to the arcade interface and dongle interface sub-boards were disconnected, namely the power connections to these boards as well. Aside from the fan (and the dongle) it did appear to be all there.
second attempt
Plugging in the disconnected connectors and attempting to run like that I did get a little further. various blinking LEDs on the arcade interface board came to life, and I noticed that on the back of the PCB (what would actually be the FRONT of the PS3) there was a flickering yellow light. it wasn't blinking in a pattern it was more just flickering like an activity led or like power was coming in and out. Still not getting any sound or video out of the unit though. and I tried with both the original drive and my unlocked drive. While the "Yellow Light of Death" is something that was running through my mind it normally only effects the older fat PS3s, not the slims that the System 369 is based on, not to mention it's typically a blinking light, not a fading and flickering one like mine, and also tends to happen when the unit overheats, not immediately on power up.
I disassembled the unit further to inspect everything and clean out some of the dust. I remove the PS3 power supply and opened it up and didn't see anything that would indicate any damage or failures. I did find the connector for the missing fan was UNDER the power supply so this thing was definitely disassembled by someone else before to intentionally steal the original fan out of it.
Noticing that the fan connector includes a signal wire I thought maybe the unit will refuse to power on without a fan signal present. So I took a gamble and ordered a used PS3 slim fan on eBay.
third attempt
The fan came in today, I plugged it in and re-assembled the unit. Hooked it up to my Vewlix. I was pleased to see the new fan spin up instantly and I saw the x-media-bar pop up on the monitor as the game booted into tekken tag 2 and I was greeted with the traditional Tekken "good morning" voice.
I played a few rounds and it appears to be working great. the flickering yellow led is still flickering so maybe that's normal behavior? I'm guessing it's a drive activity LED? maybe?
Remaining Issue
One issue that remains is that the game only outputs video over the VGA connection. my monitor finds a signal and reports a resolution when plugged into the HDMI port but the display remains completely black.
I've found it extremely difficult to find info on the Namco System 357 and System 369 so I don't know if there's some other quirk with the HDMI or some setting somewhere. But I figured I'd post up my experience here in hopes that someone else might find this information useful.
The Issue
Upon receiving it it didn't actually include any dongles. And didn't boot at all. A fan powered up but I got no LEDs or any other signs of life
Initial attempt
I asked around and got a dongless patched version of Tekken Tag 2 Unlimited, wrote that to a New SSD but still no joy.
investigation
Opening up the cage I quickly realized there were other things wrong. While this did have the large cooling fan, the turbine style fan built into the PS3 section of the unit was just straight up missing. I also noticed that several of the connectors on the underside of the PS3 section that connected to the arcade interface and dongle interface sub-boards were disconnected, namely the power connections to these boards as well. Aside from the fan (and the dongle) it did appear to be all there.
second attempt
Plugging in the disconnected connectors and attempting to run like that I did get a little further. various blinking LEDs on the arcade interface board came to life, and I noticed that on the back of the PCB (what would actually be the FRONT of the PS3) there was a flickering yellow light. it wasn't blinking in a pattern it was more just flickering like an activity led or like power was coming in and out. Still not getting any sound or video out of the unit though. and I tried with both the original drive and my unlocked drive. While the "Yellow Light of Death" is something that was running through my mind it normally only effects the older fat PS3s, not the slims that the System 369 is based on, not to mention it's typically a blinking light, not a fading and flickering one like mine, and also tends to happen when the unit overheats, not immediately on power up.
I disassembled the unit further to inspect everything and clean out some of the dust. I remove the PS3 power supply and opened it up and didn't see anything that would indicate any damage or failures. I did find the connector for the missing fan was UNDER the power supply so this thing was definitely disassembled by someone else before to intentionally steal the original fan out of it.
Noticing that the fan connector includes a signal wire I thought maybe the unit will refuse to power on without a fan signal present. So I took a gamble and ordered a used PS3 slim fan on eBay.
third attempt
The fan came in today, I plugged it in and re-assembled the unit. Hooked it up to my Vewlix. I was pleased to see the new fan spin up instantly and I saw the x-media-bar pop up on the monitor as the game booted into tekken tag 2 and I was greeted with the traditional Tekken "good morning" voice.
I played a few rounds and it appears to be working great. the flickering yellow led is still flickering so maybe that's normal behavior? I'm guessing it's a drive activity LED? maybe?
Remaining Issue
One issue that remains is that the game only outputs video over the VGA connection. my monitor finds a signal and reports a resolution when plugged into the HDMI port but the display remains completely black.
I've found it extremely difficult to find info on the Namco System 357 and System 369 so I don't know if there's some other quirk with the HDMI or some setting somewhere. But I figured I'd post up my experience here in hopes that someone else might find this information useful.
