Issues With Naomi CF

[FPJ]

I'm having trouble getting any of the CF cards I have working with the Naomi CF reader, non-net. My monitor will pop up detecting an RGB signal for a second and then goes to No Sync and the game never loads. I have three games and two of them do that, the third one will reach the Naomi boot screen, go through the checking memory to 100%, then the loading up to 100% and then loops back to the checking memory and it does this sequence continuously.

I've tried two different DIMMs, both are 4.02. I've tried two different Naomi motherboards. The BIOS is an H. Voltage is at 5.1V. I've tried two different SCSI cables, both original. I've tried powering the CF reader from the PSU the Naomi is using and from a separate adapter. I've checked the jumpers based on a post I saw.

I feel like at this point, it seems like it's probably the CF cards themselves being crap? Thought I'd see if anyone had any suggestions on something else I may have missed.

Thanks.

 

[twon]

Did the dimm set up you have ever work or did you just try it for the first time?

 

[FPJ]

They worked as normal DIMMs before. They haven't worked for this since I got them done for the CF. But also these three cards are the only ones I've tried. The motherboards work fine with carts. I had the DIMMs converted by Mitsurugi, so I trust that they're good. The cards are from someone else.

 

[twon]

Ya if Mitsu did them he's the man, he would have tested them before they left his place. He also sells cards. If he doesn't have any let me know as I have a few available that are confirmed working.

 

[FPJ]

Thanks. I'll get in touch with him first.

 

[levelupgainz]

It's pretty common for Cf cards on non net dimm to be hit or miss. I have have the same setup and got my Cf reader from mitsu. I got one card from him and then I got a couple cards I created myself. Some cards boot first try some take a couple of tries. Cisco cards have been the best cf cards to use, but even then some cards work first try and some take multiple attempts. Apparently switching to net dimm will basically work every time though. If you got cf cards from Mitsu he would of tested them before hand.

 

[FPJ]

Yeah, I've got one coming from him, so that will help me verify that it's the cards. We want the systems to be able to simply turn on and work. So it's easier to not be using a net DIMM.

 

[FPJ]

So here's an update on how this went. Get the new card and it still didn't work. Kept just getting a blank screen. What finally got it to boot was swapping the bios chip. But then I got an error saying the I/O wasn't connected when it was. And then I couldn't get the game to boot again. Changed to a different Naomi motherboard and now it boots, runs the game and doesn't complain about the I/O. I'm suspecting that the bios socket on the other motherboard is iffy. Not sure about the I/O complaint. That first motherboard works fine with carts and a gd-rom.
The main takeaway is that making sure you have the multi bios installed seems to make loading cf cards more reliable.
However, even though I can get that one new card to boot fairly reliably, the ones I had originally still don't work. So there was an issue there as well. Bigger problem is that while the new card does run, it freezes after I play for about 15 minutes or so. I don't know if this has something to do with the whole CF setup or if it is the game itself (Cleopatra Fortune Plus) and a different game might not have the problem.

 

[magicman]

My monitor will pop up detecting an RGB signal for a second and then goes to No Sync and the game never loads. I have three games and two of them do that,

I had this issue with a questionable CF reader,... original Sega model CF reader, but looks like it was repaired at one point with new caps. Also had this happen with bad/dying CF cards.

the third one will reach the Naomi boot screen, go through the checking memory to 100%, then the loading up to 100% and then loops back to the checking memory and it does this sequence continuously.

This one, I had happen to me when I tried to use an ATX power supply on a Naomi that was using a CF adapter. I was using a custom cable I made, but I found that the ATX power supply wouldn't get it out of this continuous loop. The original Naomi power supply was checked for voltage and was at 5.21v whereas the ATX power supply was 5.05v