Faulty Dragon World EX Cart

[Neo-Alec]

I just bought this Dragon World EX cart. I cleaned it with Deoxit D5 before testing. It seemed to play fine until I cleared the second stage in Beginner mode. That's when it crashed with an error message. I then rebooted, and it no longer displayed a region at the boot screen (it was Taiwan before; now that space is blank). When I started the game, it seemed to suddenly begin from the end of stage 1, where it's counting up the points. It then proceeded to stage 2, and it was suddenly playing the Japanese voices for the game. I lost and quit the game. I then started again, and it once again resumed mid game. I decided to reboot and reset the PGM's backup memory. After that it wouldn't start the game at all, crashing with the attached error screen upon selecting Beginner or Expert every time. Characters are also now missing from the title screen.

I own two PGM motherboards, so I tested with both, and it's doing the same thing on both. I opened the cart -- everything looks original, and I pushed down on all the socketed chips to make sure they're secure.

I then played Dragon World 3 and Dragon World 3 Special on the same motherboard (those two games both work fine as usual). Then I switched back to the new Dragon World EX cart, and now it won't boot at all. It now goes straight to this screen.

Anyone with any ideas which part has gone bad? I've already contacted the seller.

 

[Neo-Alec]

All right, so this cart is F---ed I think, right? I'm going to ask for a refund.

 

[Hammy]

Looks like security code errors, likely a bad RAM etc of the on cart- protection area.

This one is not cracked on rom yet so there's no way to bypass it.

 

[Neo-Alec]

Thanks for the info!

I removed the three socketed eproms and verified them against the dump available online. They all checked good.

 

[Neo-Alec]

Just a warning about Aliexpress. If you use a disreputable service like that, obviously there's a risk you'll get burned eventually.

This is the first PGM seller I've dealt with who just outright refused to make things right with a refund or replacement, and instead invited me to use Aliexpress's dispute process instead.

In my dispute, I was asked to provide video evidence of the problem. I made a continuous video of the game clearly crashing in the same place on two different PGM motherboards -- one in the cab and one on the supergun. I don't know what better evidence I could provide than that.

First their mobile app and web UI both failed me, with the upload not seeming to work, and giving no confirmation or opportunity to reupload. I waited a few days and they closed my dispute without even watching the video. I then appealed and uploaded to Youtube. Their live help acknowledged, but again my dispute was rejected.

I'm getting close to a complete region-agnostic PGM set, so with that many carts, maybe it's no wonder I've had issues with this cart and the Martial Masters one.

 

[XtraSmiley]

So, not that this will help, but it couldn't hurt!

1. Deoxit helps, but doesn't always clean. Try using alcohol to clean the contacts, then re-apply Deoxit.
2. When you pull the chips out, hit then with Deoxit as well before putting back.
3. Try to clean your PGM motherboard contacts as well. Even though the other games work, sometimes this can help.

Not sure if this will result in anything for you, but it won't hurt and you might get lucky.