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Chihiro type3 stopped working/turned off - 2 status lights (green/red) are not on.

It depends. If the gpu fan isn't spinning, yes, it likely overheated. Sometimes the GPU is toast and even reflowing doesn't fix it.

If the gpu fan is working fine, it might have failed previously and is developping a fault just now. Usually, A brownish decoloration of the pcb under the gpu indicates that sometime in it's life things got hot.

However, it's strange that the 2 led's don't light up and that the system isn't even attempting to start. I had some fried gpu's, but the led's still did something.

So this more likely points into the direction of a defective smc chip on the main board or a malfunctioning in the baseboard supply section.

It could be a short on one of the supply rails as well.

90% of chihiro failures are caused by cooked gpu's, but there still is the other 10%
 
Well guys, i spoke to Ken last night and it’s not good. The core board is toast.

Does anyone have one available for sale or point me to someone who has one for sale?

Thanks,
Alex
 
can I remove the cf reader inside and plug in my gdrom drive without any hickups? or can If I buy an Outrun2SP disk to put in my other cab will they link with one on cab running a gdrom drive and the other cab running a cf reader? Any issues with doing this?
 
Let's see what other folks say - but I don't believe there is any difference between the GDROM and the CF loading of the game.... it's just the "media" - once it's running in RAM - it's the same.

And you can go ahead and plug your GDROM in - I also don't think that is an issue. The only jumpers that I am aware of to change are switching from Netboot to local (GDROM/CF).

Matt
 
It shouldn't make a difference when it's booted from gdrom or compact flash.
The only thing you will see is that the compact flash will boot much faster than the gdrom.
Obviously, you will need the same outrun program version on both units.

Switching from gdrom to compact flash is not very expensive. You need a cheap compact flash to ide adapter and a cheap 512MB compact flash card. (Bigger works as well). Further, you need an ide cable and a cable to power the cf 2 ide adapter. (I use the connectors from a broken pc power supply for one end of that power cable. The connectors from the gdrom power cable can serve for the other end.

Basically, you need to upgrade the dimm firmware once. Next, you can replace the gdrom with the compact flash card ide adapter.

Gdroms start to become unreliable due to aging lasers.

I might be able to get you a replacement motherboard. Just pm me. I use ram upgraded xbox motherboards to replace chihiro ones.
 
reccomendations. if you decide to buy yaton6262's (which i have been very happy with my purchace from yaton6262) chihiro send it to ken right away and have it bullet proofed. I have bought 5 chihiros now and the key thing i have learned is have them bullet proofed even if they are working. I would reccommend also having your other working one bullet proofed. I have bought multiple units from yaton6262 that were just on the last legs and Ken has been able to get them back to new working state.
 
If you have a bit of electronics knowledge, you can bullet proof them yourself. It's not exactly rocket science.

If a fan becomes noisy or has to much friction, replace it. There is a case fan and a small gpu fan.
Remove the 1 farad goldcap and clean up the spilling if it has leaked.
Check the capacitors surrounding the cpu. If they are bulged, replace them.

Check the goldcap on the base board and remove it if it starts leaking.
Replace the CR2032 on the base board.

Some people replace the thermal paste of the cpu heatsink and gpu heatsink, but those things are usually well stuck to the chips.
I doubt it makes a lot of difference in temperature when they originally are stuck onto it that good.

That's all there is to bullet proof your system.

If the gpu fan fails, you will only notice when it's to late. bullet proofing doesn't help that issue.
 
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I always thought that the fanless heatsink that was used on 1.1 - 1.6(b) motherboards was giving higher temperatures what could explain why sega choose the fan option, but my tests show the contrary. The fanless heatsinks are bigger and seem to give nearly identical gpu temperature readings. So maybe, using such a heatsink (as has been already discussed before) might make the gpu a bit more reliable.
But, after years of operation, the heatsink is pretty much cemented to the gpu and often difficult to separate.

And, obviously, there is also the case fan that could go bad causing internal high temperatures.
 
ok guys my saga continues...after Ken deemed my Chihiro dead, I purchased another one from Yaton on Ebay. I received it, installed it and powered it on. It's working!! I now want to link my 2 cabinets like I had in the begining. I swapped in the pic from my original Chihiro and set them up to link together. I am now receiving a error code - Region code is not coherent. What do I need to do now to get them linked together?

Thanks,
Alex
 
You need to change the regio code of one of your chihiro's. If you are in netboot mode, you need to go into test mode and select the info screen. That screen should show you the region. There is a procedure to change it. You have to press the service button several (like 20) times. Next, you have to hit it several times again and you will be able to change the region code. Maybe if you google for chihiro region change, you'll find a more detailed description. It's important that you have a netboot security pic and that your dimm board jumper is set to netboot. Make also sure both chihiro's use a same region game.
It will probably only show you the region after you hit the service button several times.
 
I am using the gdrom and pic that was in the original Chihiro that died. So I know they worked together in the past. When I select the info screen it is showing that the new Chihiro is Japan region.

I cant seem how to change the region. I searched and found that you are to press service 15 times and then another 30 to make the change. After I press service 15 times a new 4 digit line appears but nothing is selectable or able to be changed after that.
 
it won't work with the original gdrom and pic.
You need a netboot pic and the chihiro dimm board set to netboot (it's only one jumper you need to switch from position)

What's the setup of the other chihiro? Can't you use the pic of that one? (assuming it's using netbooting)
If it's also still using a gdrom that's not an option.

If Ken sent you back the defective unit, you could use the base board of that unit. The region is stored in an eeprom on that board.
The base board is the upper board in the lower case. It's the board with the CR2032 battery. The board that became bad on your other unit was likely the main board?

Another option to change the region is by using the "dimm firmware update" gdrom. (If you have one) The test mode of that gdrom has options to change the region as well.

The security pic used for netboot is a cheap device. The code to program one can be found on this forum.
 
Yes, I had the original Chihiro sent back to me and yes it was the main board that went bad. I will swap the original base board and see how that goes. That a great idea and thank you.
 
I would reccomend to send your chihiros to ken before you run them long term. Have the caps replaced and have the video chip heatink fan upgraded.
 
Hey obcd.... your idea worked! I swapped the board and it is now showing USA region. I set both machines up to be linked and we are working perfectly.

Rocket... That is in the plan.

Thanks to anyone that contributed in this thread. Everyones help is greatly appreciated!!
 
It confirms your have a spare working base board.

If you have finished playing, you could test the upper box dimm and network board like that as well.

Not much can go wrong on the filter board, but the dipswitches can go bad and some people already had components knocked off. (the blue filter devices)
So, if you are brave enough, you could test that spare board as well. It wouldn''t however suprise me Ken did that already.
 
obcd said:
If the gpu fan fails, you will only notice when it's to late. bullet proofing doesn't help that issue.
Click to expand...
Not really. Xbox classics also came with bigger fanless GPU heatsinks later on in their development. Replacing the heatsink by one of those can prevent the GPU from overheating. It also takes one more point of failure out of the system.
 
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