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CPS3 Bad Ram? Need help.

kinooshi823

kinooshi823

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I have an older version of Darksoft complete with 5 ram sticks. I put them on, and I get this screen below. I removed all the ram and I do get a picture of the cps3 telling me that ram is needed on the pcb. Now, could it be bad ram? what I did is add a stick of ram once and then turn on and got the same there is not enough ram on the pcb. When I added the final one, I get the picture seen below. I did mix up some ram with the original and the darksoft but still got a screen similar to the one below. Any help here? I cleaned contacts, dedusted the board and such. I am stumped.
 

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The SIMMs aren't RAM on CPS3 - they're flash storage. Capcom designed the CPS3 such that the game data is copied from the game CDROM to the flash SIMMs. After the SIMMs are successfully flashed, the CDROM is only checked briefly at boot and then the game runs entirely out of flash from that point forward.

In your situation, the Darksoft BIOS checks to see if it has all the flash SIMMs it needs to run a game. If the SIMMs are detected, the BIOS boots whatever is currently flashed to the SIMMs. I expect your SIMMs haven't been flashed with a game, so the system crashes with the garbage on your screen.

Your next step is to flash a game from the CDROM to the SIMMs. Depending on which Darksoft BIOS you're using, you should be able to press Start at power on to get into a menu that will let you flash a game image to the SIMMs.
 
ShootTheCore said:
The SIMMs aren't RAM on CPS3 - they're flash storage. Capcom designed the CPS3 such that the game data is copied from the game CDROM to the flash SIMMs. After the SIMMs are successfully flashed, the CDROM is only checked briefly at boot and then the game runs entirely out of flash from that point forward.

In your situation, the Darksoft BIOS checks to see if it has all the flash SIMMs it needs to run a game. If the SIMMs are detected, the BIOS boots whatever is currently flashed to the SIMMs. I expect your SIMMs haven't been flashed with a game, so the system crashes with the garbage on your screen.

Your next step is to flash a game from the CDROM to the SIMMs. Depending on which Darksoft BIOS you're using, you should be able to press Start at power on to get into a menu that will let you flash a game image to the SIMMs.
Click to expand...
Ok so here's the thing, with all the simms on the board I get the garbage screen. Does that mean I have to insert one at a time and go into the Darksoft menu each time for each stick of flash?
 
ShootTheCore said:
The SIMMs aren't RAM on CPS3 - they're flash storage. Capcom designed the CPS3 such that the game data is copied from the game CDROM to the flash SIMMs. After the SIMMs are successfully flashed, the CDROM is only checked briefly at boot and then the game runs entirely out of flash from that point forward.

In your situation, the Darksoft BIOS checks to see if it has all the flash SIMMs it needs to run a game. If the SIMMs are detected, the BIOS boots whatever is currently flashed to the SIMMs. I expect your SIMMs haven't been flashed with a game, so the system crashes with the garbage on your screen.

Your next step is to flash a game from the CDROM to the SIMMs. Depending on which Darksoft BIOS you're using, you should be able to press Start at power on to get into a menu that will let you flash a game image to the SIMMs.
Click to expand...
So, I tried 2 different controllers and when the error screen shows, I press start on 1P and nothing happens. I am unsure if it's frozen upon boot.
 
Try mashing start as soon as it turns on. I've found that sometimes it doesn't seem to register the button press for whatever reason.

Also, you said you had five SIMMs... the Darksoft BIOS requires 6. I'm not certain that's related to your problem, but something worth pointing out.
 
kazuo said:
Try mashing start as soon as it turns on. I've found that sometimes it doesn't seem to register the button press for whatever reason.

Also, you said you had five SIMMs... the Darksoft BIOS requires 6. I'm not certain that's related to your problem, but something worth pointing out.
Click to expand...
Yes, I do have 5 simms. So I cannot match that with a capcom simm then? I must have 6 Darksofts simms? If so, I am going to have a problem here. I would need to find someone that has a stick for sale
 
Doesn't matter if it's Darksoft repro or a real Capcom SIMM, as long as you have six SIMMs, you're good. Should be x2 64MB (4 chips on 1 side) in Slot 1 & 2 and x4 128MB (4 chips on both sides) in Slots 3-6. Check to confirm that roughly matches up with what you have currently. If not, you may need additional SIMMs.
 
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this is all the sticks I have
 

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kazuo said:
Try mashing start as soon as it turns on. I've found that sometimes it doesn't seem to register the button press for whatever reason.

Also, you said you had five SIMMs... the Darksoft BIOS requires 6. I'm not certain that's related to your problem, but something worth pointing out.
Click to expand...
Also the mashing you said did work. I didn't have my RP2040 hooked up though since I was taking the simm pic. But I will try again
 
Ok so holding down start on boot gets me to the cd-drive menu. It asks me to rewrite which I pick yes (only on stick on the board) and I get an invalid cd-rom error after. I assumed the image I put in is not the right one? I tried 3 different images so far.
 
Which cartridge do you have? You're probably using the wrong image. If you can, please open the cartridge and show pictures of the board.

For the SIMMs, use the configuration I described in this post. If you wrote from the wrong image and/or had the wrong SIMM configuration, you will need to rewrite the SIMMs again.
 
kazuo said:
Which cartridge do you have? You're probably using the wrong image. If you can, please open the cartridge and show pictures of the board.

For the SIMMs, use the configuration I described in this post. If you wrote from the wrong image and/or had the wrong SIMM configuration, you will need to rewrite the SIMMs again.
Click to expand...
 

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kazuo said:
Which cartridge do you have? You're probably using the wrong image. If you can, please open the cartridge and show pictures of the board.

For the SIMMs, use the configuration I described in this post. If you wrote from the wrong image and/or had the wrong SIMM configuration, you will need to rewrite the SIMMs again.
Click to expand...
I bought the darksoft kit used so I was never ever to rewrite anything. I had just put the simms in and I've been stuck with the issues I have been describing here
 
I can't tell from the angles you took the photos at, but if you only have 1 64, that's definitely part of the issue.

The cart you have is a "Standard" SH2, so you need to use the Standard disc image, not the "Custom" image.
 
kazuo said:
I can't tell from the angles you took the photos at, but if you only have 1 64, that's definitely part of the issue.

The cart you have is a "Standard" SH2, so you need to use the Standard disc image, not the "Custom" image.
Click to expand...
so for the official images, I see 5.7 and 4.7, which one do I choose?
 
kazuo said:
I can't tell from the angles you took the photos at, but if you only have 1 64, that's definitely part of the issue.

The cart you have is a "Standard" SH2, so you need to use the Standard disc image, not the "Custom" image.
Click to expand...
just to clarify...

OFFICIAL IMAGE WITH ALL 6 games (2 versions of 3rd Strike included). This version includes the text Darksoft or has a small text modification to differenciate.

This is the "Standard" version you are referring to?
 
STC is on the money.

Something else just occurred to me - you can use the wrong image and load data, it just won't boot. So if you're getting an "invalid CD-ROM" error, it means your drive emulator probably isn't setup correctly, or you didn't write the image properly. One of the two.

How are you writing the image to the SD card? There's a guide here.
 
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