What's new
By:

US to ASIA B board conversion question

Then I'm not really getting anywhere with the board jumpers... I set them as exactly they were on the old board. I cut traces on anything that I assumed wasn't supposed to be shorted even when it didn't have solder bead.
 
I cut all of those blasted links and solder bridge all jumpers every time I do a board.
Too easy to miss.
 
So I went back and took a look at my Xmen:COTA USA and Xmen vs. SF USA boards and found that they both have JP1, 4, 5, 9, 10, & 12 jumped with a small trace on the board. I jumped those same jumpers on the MvC USA board, checked the rest for matching configuration, still nothing working.

I went back and through maybe I should reseat the rom chips, found ROM 2 (sound) had pin 1 bent back and not inserted into the socket, doh! Fixed that, powered it up, still nothing.

Is there an UPDATED location I can view what board jumper settings should be for every game on the CPS2?

Also, this decrypted ROM suggestion someone mentioned, I have the capability to UV erase and write ROMs, ... is using decrypted ROMs just burning the MAME ROMs? Where/How do I get the decrypted version?
 
Last edited:
So I was able to find some roms from cps2shock on a French site, but I'm confused by the whole Xor's, Phoenix & de-suicide thing

I don't know which ones I should try? ... or better, what the process is for using them..? Do they need the InfiniKey since they dont use encryption? The site says Phoenix are in mame, but then provides downloads for Xor's and separate link for de-suicide roms? I tried programming just 03D and 04D but it didnt make a difference
 
03D and 04D are part of the program roms (most games use more than these save for a few). You’d need to use desuicide (Avalaunch) decrypted program roms & reprogram all program roms with a decrypted program rom set. Forget about using that XOR/Razoola junk.

Honestly…at this point (given the time and effort you’ve expended on this), you probably would have been better off just buying a correct A board.

While I never want to discourage legitimate repair work, I don’t think this juice (replacing ~800 pins worth of connectors on a A board & now experiencing B board issues) is worth the squeeze.
 
I would suggest trying Razoola’s suicide tester and setting the Infinikey to unencrypted.

If it still doesn’t work then I would remove the Infinikey entirely to rule it out as a factor.

You need the suicide tester to show you on screen that the b board is working, then you can try getting a game setup.
 
GoldenGlover said:
03D and 04D are part of the program roms (most games use more than these save for a few). You’d need to use desuicide (Avalaunch) decrypted program roms & reprogram all program roms with a decrypted program rom set. Forget about using that XOR/Razoola junk.

Honestly…at this point (given the time and effort you’ve expended on this), you probably would have been better off just buying a correct A board.

While I never want to discourage legitimate repair work, I don’t think this juice (replacing ~800 pins worth of connectors on a A board & now experiencing B board issues) is worth the squeeze.
Click to expand...
I already did all the replacing of the pins. I agree, I've spent a lot more time and effort on this than I planned, now I feel like I'm just stubbornly going about it for the sake of seeing it work.

I have downloaded the full set of de-suicide Avalauch roms, I'll have to see if I have enough spare roms to write to so I can save the originals
kuze said:
I would suggest trying Razoola’s suicide tester and setting the Infinikey to unencrypted.

If it still doesn’t work then I would remove the Infinikey entirely to rule it out as a factor.

You need the suicide tester to show you on screen that the b board is working, then you can try getting a game setup.
Click to expand...
I also just downloaded Razoola's suicide tester, going to write it to a rom now and try. Is setting the InfiniKey to unencrypted just leaving all of the jumper pads open? I don't see unencrypted documented in the list, ... I have an InfiniKey V2
 
magicman said:
I also just downloaded Razoola's suicide tester, going to write it to a rom now and try. Is setting the InfiniKey to unencrypted just leaving all of the jumper pads open? I don't see unencrypted documented in the list, ... I have an InfiniKey V2
Click to expand...
I'm not sure - I don't see it listed either in the latest InfiniKey instructions PDF I could find.
 
Ok so update, suicide tester rom isn't booting up either. I left the InfiniKey with all jumpers open except the rev-5 jumper, I get the same results, dark blue on first power on, greyish-aqua screen on subsequent tries. The A board gives these results regardless if the B board is attached or not, so its almost as if the A board does not see the B at all even though I can read power running through the B board.

My 2 other A boards give different results which is odd,... one gives black screen on first power on, then red screen after... and another one just goes straight to a greyish-blue color. All 3 of my A boards play my other 2 USA games fine.
 
I don't know if the Infinikey actually supports unencrypted code - you may need to remove it before trying to run unencrypted code.

Those symptoms you described are what happens when you have a bad key loaded. You may need to remove the Infinikey, short the EXC5 for a few seconds, then try powering it up again.
 
Seems likely that program code can't run then because of one or more issues with the A to B board connectors.

If you de-case both the A and B board you should be able to check continuity from the B board to A board for each of the pins.
 
kuze said:
Seems likely that program code can't run then because of one or more issues with the A to B board connectors.

If you de-case both the A and B board you should be able to check continuity from the B board to A board for each of the pins.
Click to expand...

I was afraid of having to do that again... I did it back when I completed the swap and checked but maybe I missed a few pins, or worse, I have a damaged pad around a pin. *sigh* let's see how this goes, might be a while before you hear from me again lol
 
So I haven't been able to find anything that isn't connected between the A & B board... hate to believe it but there must be a damaged trace around the pad for the pins of the backplane from my swap.

On normal boot, which ICs are critical for the board to 'wake up' to be read by the A board? Almost afraid to ask but are there schematics for B boards? ... or A boards since that would still give a pinout of the backplane. If I can find which pins are dead traces, I can just jumper wire it from the pin to the IC.


edit:
I found this: https://petitl.fr/cps2/
 
Last edited:
Decided to throw in the towel.

I mowed over those schematics over and over, tested connections... nothing. To be fair, I never knew if in fact the Asia board with SF Zero ever actually worked since I didn't have an Asia A board to test it. There must be a bad component on the board somewhere and at this point, I'm not sure I want to continue doing anymore digging to try and figure it out. I already learned a ton about this system that I didn't know before, I'll take that away as a win. Thanks for the help everyone
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top