CPS-2 board with exploded battery, minimal spread

[MeNewVegas]

Just wondering how easy of a job it will be to fix this SSF2T board. Luckily the only affect spots are in the picture. 2 contacts on the board itself have corrosion on it. The contacts on the DL-1927 are covered in corrosion.

Im assuming I’ll be able to patch the contacts on the board fine but what about the corrosion closest to the chip contacts? If I can clean them up enough what are my options?

Thanks!

 

[ItsBobDudes]

https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/extreme-cps2-battery-damage-repair-round-3.16823/

 

[ShootTheCore]

Ugh, sorry to see that battery damage. Here's my suggested order of operations:

1) Clean everything down first with vinegar and light scrubbing from a new, soft toothbrush. The vinegar will neutralize the battery electrolytic.
2) Do a second pass with 91% isopropyl alcohol, light scrubbing from the toothbrush, and a paper towel.
3) Use a fiberglass pen to carefully scrub free any remaining tarnish on the chip legs and traces.
4) If you're comfortable with SMD soldering, remove the custom chip and clean up the pads and the area underneath the chip. Reinstall the custom if it still looks serviceable.
If you're not comfortable with SMD soldering, continue on.
5) Use a multimeter set to continuity mode to check for broken traces between each chip pad and its destination. Repair any broken traces.
6) Install an InfiniKey and hope it boots up and works!

Gentle shout out to @MegaMan of this as another example why you shouldn't keep the batteries in these things - it's a disaster waiting to happen. I hope it's salvageable.

 

[MeNewVegas]

Ugh, sorry to see that battery damage. Here's my suggested order of operations:

1) Clean everything down first with vinegar and light scrubbing from a new, soft toothbrush. The vinegar will neutralize the battery electrolytic.
2) Do a second pass with 91% isopropyl alcohol, light scrubbing from the toothbrush, and a paper towel.
3) Use a fiberglass pen to carefully scrub free any remaining tarnish on the chip legs and traces.
4) If you're comfortable with SMD soldering, remove the custom chip and clean up the pads and the area underneath the chip. Reinstall the custom if it still looks serviceable.
If you're not comfortable with SMD soldering, continue on.
5) Use a multimeter set to continuity mode to check for broken traces between each chip pad and its destination. Repair any broken traces.
6) Install an InfiniKey and hope it boots up and works!

Gentle shout out to @MegaMan of this as another example why you shouldn't keep the batteries in these things - it's a disaster waiting to happen. I hope it's salvageable.

Thanks for the response! Luckily the two traces on the board cleaned up nice. As for the chip, can I just pop it out? Or do I have to do something special? I use my brother to solder. Can I pop it out and place back in after cleaning or do I need to solder it in?

It just looks like the contacts on the chip is the only issue.

 

[ItsBobDudes]

It is soldered in place. You will need a heat gun or a rework station to get it up.

What happens on screen when you power up the board? Green screen? or nothing at all ?

 

[MeNewVegas]

It is soldered in place. You will need a heat gun or a rework station to get it up.

What happens on screen when you power up the board? Green screen? or nothing at all ?

Blue screen. I have an infinikey coming sometime this week hopefully to test and see how bad the gfx are.

 

[MeNewVegas]

Sorry for double post but if I can’t get it fixed how easy would it be to move this into a SFA2 or a Puzzle fighter board?

 

[GeeDee]

Sorry for double post but if I can’t get it fixed how easy would it be to move this into a SFA2 or a Puzzle fighter board?

Do you mean as in taking out the roms and putting them into a SFA2/PF B board? It might be doable, but I'm not sure that would be the only step in the process. May need to also swap the PAL and change some jumper settings on your donor. If your other B boards are infinikey'd, you would also have to change the "settings" on that iirc, but I would also recommend you look over this thread for the A-to-Z on what to do: The Definitive Guide to CPS2 Conversions

I'm sure I won't be the only person to want to tell you this, but if you're considering going down the old conversion route and calling it quits (which is fine, this kind of work can be brutal), I can't help but recommend maybe just placing the board up for sale and see if any keen repair person might be up for shouldering the risk instead, and just use those funds to take a small chip out of getting a CPS2 multi kit for one of those other B boards you've got.

 

[MeNewVegas]

Do you mean as in taking out the roms and putting them into a SFA2/PF B board? It might be doable, but I'm not sure that would be the only step in the process. May need to also swap the PAL and change some jumper settings on your donor. If your other B boards are infinikey'd, you would also have to change the "settings" on that iirc, but I would also recommend you look over this thread for the A-to-Z on what to do: The Definitive Guide to CPS2 Conversions

I'm sure I won't be the only person to want to tell you this, but if you're considering going down the old conversion route and calling it quits (which is fine, this kind of work can be brutal), I can't help but recommend maybe just placing the board up for sale and see if any keen repair person might be up for shouldering the risk instead, and just use those funds to take a small chip out of getting a CPS2 multi kit for one of those other B boards you've got.

Yeah that’s also a good option. I def should multi one of my boards. I’m a collecting sucker which is why I’m still buying them over multiing one.

 

[MeNewVegas]

UPDATE!

I attached an infinikey but I am still booting to a blue screen. Does this mean the infinikey isn’t working?

 

[GeeDee]

UPDATE!

I attached an infinikey but I am still booting to a blue screen. Does this mean the infinikey isn’t working?

...just to be sure, did you already do steps 1-5 from @ShootTheCore 's previous post? Your board is pretty darn beat up from the looks of those photos- you probably have a lot more work on your hands then skipping right to the infinikey and hoping for the best.

On good sets, often these solid color screens are the result of a poor connection between the a and b boards, or possibly broken/bent pins on the sockets. You can check those pins and ensure you have a good connection before rebooting; mechanical pencil trick worked well for realigning my pins...though again, not to sound harsh, but in your case, judging by those photos, this is a step 7 or 8 where the already mentioned steps 1-5 seem extremely necessary before expecting any promising results.

 

[MeNewVegas]

...just to be sure, did you already do steps 1-5 from @ShootTheCore 's previous post? Your board is pretty darn beat up from the looks of those photos- you probably have a lot more work on your hands then skipping right to the infinikey and hoping for the best.

On good sets, often these solid color screens are the result of a poor connection between the a and b boards, or possibly broken/bent pins on the sockets. You can check those pins and ensure you have a good connection before rebooting; mechanical pencil trick worked well for realigning my pins...though again, not to sound harsh, but in your case, judging by those photos, this is a step 7 or 8 where the already mentioned steps 1-5 seem extremely necessary before expecting any promising results.

I have done everything but lift the chip itself. I even got a microfibre pen to wipe corrosion away. I assumed I’d see graphical glitches if the infinikey was installed over the suicide blue screen.

Would I still get a blue screen if the chip is installed correctly?

As for it being seated properly, it was. I tested two A-Boards with other Bs on them working fine.

In the end I’m assuming I should get a pro to look at it to lift that chip?

 

[GeeDee]

Would I still get a blue screen if the chip is installed correctly?

Short answser: maybe.

Long and crappy anwser: battery damage in any capacity is just really sucky to deal with, so unless you're willing to narrow down everything you possibly can with a fine-toothed comb, it's going to be hard to tell if it's your newer parts that aren't working when you can't confirm the old ones are fine as they are.

Good to hear you cleaned things up nice- even though you haven't lifted the chip, did you check continuity everywhere you could post-cleaning? I know it's a really lengthy job, but it's pretty necessary in this scenario in order to weed out those initial issues before you start throwing darts at the board on diagnosing new part issues.

Otherwise, I'll point you towards this section in the infinikey thread , as well as to the razoola program mentioned there if that's going to be your step 9/10. The program is all the way at the very bottom of the 2nd link page- most of the pages information is on the old cps2 battery solutions, so it can for the most part be ignored.

Sorry for the typos and lengthy response times- I'm limited to mobile atm and it can be a bit of a pain to navigate adding the links and such that way.

 

[MeNewVegas]

Short answser: maybe.

Long and crappy anwser: battery damage in any capacity is just really sucky to deal with, so unless you're willing to narrow down everything you possibly can with a fine-toothed comb, it's going to be hard to tell if it's your newer parts that aren't working when you can't confirm the old ones are fine as they are.

Good to hear you cleaned things up nice- even though you haven't lifted the chip, did you check continuity everywhere you could post-cleaning? I know it's a really lengthy job, but it's pretty necessary in this scenario in order to weed out those initial issues before you start throwing darts at the board on diagnosing new part issues.

Otherwise, I'll point you towards this section in the infinikey thread , as well as to the razoola program mentioned there if that's going to be your step 9/10. The program is all the way at the very bottom of the 2nd link page- most of the pages information is on the old cps2 battery solutions, so it can for the most part be ignored.

Sorry for the typos and lengthy response times- I'm limited to mobile atm and it can be a bit of a pain to navigate adding the links and such that way.

Thanks for your help! I have not used a multi to track all the traces. I could do that.

Im probably going to just Darksoft one of my other boards and sell off the rest after this lol. My lack of skills and knowledge are pushing me to Darksoft. I wouldn’t be shocked if I couldn’t even install it lol.

 

[GeeDee]

My lack of skills and knowledge are pushing me to Darksoft. I wouldn’t be shocked if I couldn’t even install it lol.

And frankly, don't feel bad about this. This kind of work can be super rewarding and fun to put the experience under your belt...but it's also time consuming, laborious, and potentially very expensive depending on what you're working on and with what tools.

Also, on the bright side, the DS kit is 3000% idiot proof. Source: I'm an idiot and have done a few now with little to no issues. it's a pretty penny, but it's definitely the most bang-for-your-buck next to the neogeo multi.

 

[MeNewVegas]

And frankly, don't feel bad about this. This kind of work can be super rewarding and fun to put the experience under your belt...but it's also time consuming, laborious, and potentially very expensive depending on what you're working on and with what tools.

Also, on the bright side, the DS kit is 3000% idiot proof. Source: I'm an idiot and have done a few now with little to no issues. it's a pretty penny, but it's definitely the most bang-for-your-buck next to the neogeo multi.

Yeah makes sense. I felt tons of joy when I mastered the wiring of my cabs I/O and where it all went.

I currently have 5 NA CPS-2 boards not counting the SF. Keeping one to Darksoft and selling the others would pay for the kit for sure, pretty sure AVP would pay off over half of it.

 

[Nic034]

It is soldered in place. You will need a heat gun or a rework station to get it up.

What happens on screen when you power up the board? Green screen? or nothing at all ?

Better to use a chipquik Alloy (chipquik SMD kit) in order to avoid damaged trace to popup when heat will be applied. Chip will be easily removed with this to perform a great pcb cleaning then put it backup in place. Heating a damaged motherboard is not a good option for sure to removed any smd chip (damage memory, chip etc..)

also when chip is removed, your need to perform a first clean clean gently with microscope trace check (to avoid remove any trace) the neutralise asap the battery alcaline on board (ph 7+) with vinegar/citrus juice. Then finish with a last isopropanol alcohol clean.
https://cleaning.lovetoknow.com/Clean_Alkaline_Battery_Corrosion

you can also performing this without removing the chip.