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Mario Kart GP2 Triforce Type 3 no boot

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ironsniper1

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Hey everyone, a customer of mine has a Mario Kart GP2 that was running fine for a while but started having some video issues/freezing issues though the game would still play etc, he did research and found the issue might be the gamecube board in the system itself, so he bought a gamecube board and put it in and it didn't boot, what he didn't know was that, the board has to be a Japanese gamecube board and it has to have the correct IPL chip, so he had me convert it to Japanese and swap the IPL chip so it would boot correctly

Well I did that and now its a no boot, after that I found out that the issue might be the bottom board needing a recap, so I ordered a cap kit from console 5 and got it all done and still no boot, there is a red and green led that is on inside the Triforce itself but all I get is a boot chime but I think it happens even if the Triforce is not connected at all

If anyone has any ideas at all on anything I should check or try please let me know and I will do it, one thought I did have was to take a hair dryer and with the top of the Triforce off warm up some of the other capacitors to see if any others are failing causing it to not boot, but let me know what y'all think
 
nem said:
Maybe my reading comprehension is lacking, but did you reprogram the serial rom chip with Triforce data?
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no never did that, i also dont know what chip that is

EDIT do you mean the IPL chip or something else?
 
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Oh, right. You did mention that and my reading sucks.

Without a second unit, it's probably going to be hard to diagnose where the fault lies.

You can pick up a cheaper Type 1 since you already have the correct media board.
 
nem said:
Without a second unit, it's probably going to be hard to diagnose where the fault lies.
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I agree with nem, best way to troubleshoot is to have a 2nd unit borrowed and start changing PCBs until you get it working and narrow it to one of the PCBs in the stack.
 
nem said:
Oh, right. You did mention that and my reading sucks.

Without a second unit, it's probably going to be hard to diagnose where the fault lies.

You can pick up a cheaper Type 1 since you already have the correct media board.
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no problem, so the owner did get a type 1 but its missing the i think its called the dimm module that sits on top so its basically useless and he already spent i a good amount of money for it and right now doesnt want to spend more for the missing piece
Darksoft said:
I agree with nem, best way to troubleshoot is to have a 2nd unit borrowed and start changing PCBs until you get it working and narrow it to one of the PCBs in the stack.
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unfortunately i dont and the owner doesnt know anyone else who has one locally that we can barrow and swap parts with
 
ironsniper1 said:
its called the dimm module
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It's the same one that Naomi or Chihiro type 1 uses.
ironsniper1 said:
unfortunately i dont and the owner doesnt know anyone else who has one locally that we can barrow and swap parts with
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As you are in USA, you can try to connect to Ken from Irepairsega.com, he offers professional repair services and has very good reputation.
 
Darksoft said:
It's the same one that Naomi or Chihiro type 1 uses.

As you are in USA, you can try to connect to Ken from Irepairsega.com, he offers professional repair services and has very good reputation.
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i will keep that in mind, i do know of him and he criticized me on another forum for trying to fix this myself (as well as making his ego seem huge by saying he is the only person in the USA, oh im sorry the WORLD who can work on these) and for using through hole caps instead if smd caps (which doesnt matter) and the cost to have it shipped out to him and to have him fix it and ship it back is very high, the owner already talked to him about it and didnt want to for that reason which is why he asked me to try and fix it
 
Type 1 Triforce has same game cube and base board, so you just take the type 1, remove the square metal work, and top section and you'll be left with a bottom section which is identical to type 3.

Simply put the media board (with nand cart) and network board and test.

Ken is a good guy, but I guess he must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed - I can't see him claiming he is the only that fixes triforce units though. :D
 
AndyGeezer said:
Type 1 Triforce has same game cube and base board, so you just take the type 1, remove the square metal work, and top section and you'll be left with a bottom section which is identical to type 3.

Simply put the media board (with nand cart) and network board and test.

Ken is a good guy, but I guess he must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed - I can't see him claiming he is the only that fixes triforce units though. :D
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i did not know that about the type 1! i will have to let the owner know so he can try, i have proof of him saying that i wont post here as i am trying to fix this
 
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got the type 1 converted to a type 3, will test it tomorrow since i have to meet someone by the arcade tomorrow to grab their crt to try and fix it, also if this does fix it, im going to swap the gamecube boards and see if that gets it working or if its something else
 

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okay update, game will still not boot, tried removing the game cart and got nothing, removed the board with the serial port and it would try to boot, i would get a green screen, i removed all of the top boards hoping to get a message about them being missing but i get nothing, sometimes some green screen flashes but thats it
 
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