What's new
By:

Best way to revive Crypt Killer w/ bad hard drive? - SOLVED

awbacon1

awbacon1

Champion
Joined
Apr 20, 2019
Messages
2,854
Reaction score
1,495
Location
Chicago
Thinking about picking up a Crypt Killer pcb working but with a dead hard drive.

it’s a 2.5 inch SCSI drive on board that I’d like to convert to CF...or SD. I’ve seen it done with CF but I can’t seem to find any decent in stock options for scsi to solid state currently.


I should probably walk away from the entire idea and just play the damn thing on PS1 but I’ve got a soft spot for 90’s Konami 3D games. Plus I have a set of compatible guns from my Evil Night and Total Vice boards

anyone seen anything promising lately device wise to accomplish this task?

edit : I checked the boot sequence against MAME and all the tests on the board I am looking at pass just like MAME except when it checks the HDD it obv passes MAME and fails the real board, so it’s safe to assume it’s just that drive needing a replacement
 
Last edited:
does the scsi2sd not meet your needs?
 
ekorz said:
I’m not current on which version or seller is best but I recall one worked well for cps3. Anyway eBay has a lot of options e.g. https://www.ebay.com/itm/202542398642
Click to expand...
Thanks

it’s a 2.5” scsi drive on Crypt Killer. I don’t believe the connector / pin pitch is any different than 3.5 but I haven’t confirmed. My depth of knowledge on scsi starts and ends at my Apple Pippin CD-ROM drive.

if I can confirm that I’ll see about picking the pcb up. Thanks
 
it's hard to say due to not having many good photos of the pcb online at all, but it appears it uses the smaller form factor SCSI drive.

SCSI2SD has a 2.5 inch model thats unfortunately out of stock everywhere.

https://store.inertialcomputing.com/product-p/scsi2sd-v5.5-2.5-inch.htm

(no 4 pin connector, smaller overall connector

vs the standard 3.5 inch

https://store.inertialcomputing.com/product-p/scsi2sd-v5.2-2x-freeship.htm?1=1&CartID=0

ci-130708212008-960 (1).jpg


Only image I can find of the pcb with a solid state adapter but I really can't see much in the photo. Just going off OLD info online that it uses the 2.5 sizing.

Anyone deal with that form factor yet? I just want to "measure twice, cut once" before I end up with a PCB that needs an adapter that is seemingly slightly different and out of stock
 
9742E542-E121-4B3E-AA4D-101A5E663B8F.jpeg

Yes unfortunately it appears the 2.5” Standard uses a different pitch configuration and of course that’s the one no longer in stock anywhere lol. Found one site in Australia but they won’t ship to us. Would need the SCSI2SD PowerBook Edition model

maybe I’ll just put this whole idea on hold and wait for a working one to come up for sale
 
Last edited:
awbacon1 said:
9742E542-E121-4B3E-AA4D-101A5E663B8F.jpeg

Yes unfortunately it appears the 2.5” Standard uses a different pitch configuration and of course that’s the one no longer in stock anywhere lol. Found one site in Australia but they won’t ship to us. Would need the SCSI2SD PowerBook Edition model

maybe I’ll just put this whole idea on hold and wait for a working one to come up for sale
Click to expand...
From memory i think you will find the crypt killer pcb has both the narrow pitch pin out for the 2.5" drive and the standard 50 pin 0.1" for a 3.5" drive you just need to desolder the holes and fit the larger header pins as they are not populated from factory and i remember having mine working with a standard 3.5" scsi drive that came out of an old apple mac.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nem
truxpin said:
From memory i think you will find the crypt killer pcb has both the narrow pitch pin out for the 2.5" drive and the standard 50 pin 0.1" for a 3.5" drive you just need to desolder the holes and fit the larger header pins as they are not populated from factory and i remember having mine working with a standard 3.5" scsi drive that came out of an old apple mac.
Click to expand...
good to know. There are barely any photos of the pcb online so I would have never known that.

Im still on the fence on grabbing the PCB. Seller got it broken and was told the drive is bad. It passes the rom checks but who knows what else is wrong with it. Really NOT looking for another multi day troubleshooting project lol

Then again I can't find one working for sale so...

If I went that route I think I'd go 50 pin to SCSI2SD. I have zero hardware in my office to read a SCSI drive on my machines
 
I bought it. Dice have been rolled. No snake eyes please 😂

plan is to either a) find a 2.5 scsi2SD in stock b) have a friend in Australia buy it for me (they won’t ship to the US) and pay out the ass in shipping c) if you can switch the header move to a 3.5 inch 50 pin array or d) beg off someone to flash a 2.5” SCSI drive with the CHD.

seems like devices to plug scsi into a modern system are more expensive than the drives themselves so I want to avoid buying a device for a one use project

I’ll keep the thread updated with progress or failure! Lol
 
Last edited:
Board arrived. It’s 40 + 8 scsi 2.5” with a 50 pin ribbon cable. Pin 41/42 are not on the HDD and the ribbon cable has those two pins blocked off with plastic inserts.

so I either need to find the scsi2SD PowerBook edition with a 40 + 8 connector or a 50 pin job and remove pin 41/42. Or at least that’s what I’m assuming
 
C96DF55B-3F60-4EC1-9A14-E4B375B72AE9.jpeg
A98D5C14-843C-4552-99BF-8CEB693A40AE.jpeg
00C14565-0A66-4FAE-8C7E-3098EDF4F2CF.jpeg


So yeah tested the board. Everything passes until it checks the hard drive. Classic clicking of the drive heads being stuck / not moving.

since there is so little on SCSI written for arcade usage (other than using the SCSI2SD for the cd rom drive on the Simpsons Bowling units) for replacing hard drives for arcade games I guess I have some options.



E8949C2A-041E-4AA3-AD8E-F2C25D9E72FF.png


hope this comes back in stock. 40 + 8 configuration (what the board is setup as)

578C384B-E5A6-4CF8-8B4E-4804B440BD54.png

Try this board (correct pitch) and just cut the two pins (41/42) off. I mean that’s pretty destructive on a $100 thing but...41 is ground and 42 is the MSG pin. I’ve yet to even see a single reference to what it’s function is. Clearly popping one ground off won’t be an issue as every odd pin is ground

OR find someone who can read/write SCSI drives and just pay to get one flashed from the CHD.

any thoughts from the brain trust? Either way I’m spending close to $100 so I’d rather not pick wrong and double that to $200 🤣

but if someone CAN make a new 2.5” SCSI drive from the CHD lmk. Happy to pay for your time if it’s easier than waiting for items to come back in store OR modify existing parts in ways I’m just basically making up lol
 
i'm sure you own a real pc (not laptop)
just get a scsi card off ebay for $5 and write the image to a used drive for now - make sure it all works before spending too much.
 
stj said:
i'm sure you own a real pc (not laptop)
just get a scsi card off ebay for $5 and write the image to a used drive for now - make sure it all works before spending too much.
Click to expand...
I do have a standard PC. Unfortunately it’s a single PCI mini-itx so I don’t have much in the way of expandibility. I regret that decision lol

the only device I have with SCSI is a PowerBook G3 and that certainly isn’t going to support CHDMAN
 
Last edited:
it could - download the source and compile it :)
afaik it just needs gcc - no external deps.
 
stj said:
it could - download the source and compile it :)
afaik it just needs gcc - no external deps.
Click to expand...
Someone over at KLOV may have a space HDD to flash for testing. I’d really like to confirm the full functionality before I adapt it to SD for the long haul. So hopefully that works out
 
pre-x? you mean system-7??
i didnt know the ppc stuff ran that!
 
stj said:
pre-x? you mean system-7??
i didnt know the ppc stuff ran that!
Click to expand...
PowerPC can do System 7 through 9.2.2 and obviously X up to wherever they stopped. I think 10.4?

edit : well for the G4 you have to change the entry in Unix to specify a lower end processor. Doesn’t affect X but allows 9 and below to be installed
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top