NAMCO 246 - Soul Calibur 3 Arcade - Tried everything... can it be fixed?

[Tangufire]

Continued testing.

The original drive that was in it was a Lite-On It: iHDP118.

Replacement drive I bought (which i thought was on the suggested list) is a Toshiba SD-M1712. Looking now i think it was supposed to be a 1612... Not a 1712. Hmm..

I did find another drive on eBay that seems to be on the compatability list..

I may buy another dongle/dvd game... Need to Get this thing figured out. Sc3 is my favorite game

 

[Tangufire]

New IDE cable and 2 more different suggested disk drives later, still no luck.

Anything left to check?

Chacal, you mentioned a process of removing the dongle, battery and dvd drive and then turning it on for 2 minutes. Then putting everything back together.

Is this to reset the system internally somehow?

 

[chacal231077]

Chacal, you mentioned a process of removing the dongle, battery and dvd drive and then turning it on for 2 minutes. Then putting everything back together.
Is this to reset the system internally somehow?

In a way, yes!

You to another game example a Tekken 4 to test the All system?

 

[Tangufire]

I ordered a Gundam Dongle/DVD combo online for pretty cheap. It'll take a couple weeks to get here but I figure it's worth a try to see if it's the system or the Game.

I have heard these Namco 246's can be very picky about the power supplies too. I may tinker with that a bit more in the meantime.

 

[chacal231077]

ATX Power Supply directly powered for the drive to test

 

[Tangufire]

Already tried that. Drive powers fine from atx as long as ribbon is unplugged. But wont turn on otherwise. Tried 3 different drives and 2 different ribbons. One you suggested was new.

I read through the forums where someone used a jumper wire at the jamma or power supply and powered the namco at the harness, alongside the other connectors. But idk what he meant or how that looks. 5V? 12v? Both? Grounds?

Someone else mentioned that these systems are very power touchy. Like if its not right at a certain voltage it wont kick on.. Which is kinda what its doing. Im considering spending a couple hours to do the following:

Start at 5v. Turn on, check, bump voltage up a hair... Off/ON.. Bump voltage... Off/ON... Bump voltage.. Lol idk what else to try.

 

[chewthefat]

The exact same thing happened to me this weekend same game as well sc3. I had some buddies over and the game froze. At first I thought the dvd drive crapped out, but I can also unplug the IDE cable and it works just fine. I've tried a different game and dongle(Gundam game) as well as, also removed the but to no avail. Any luck on your end Tangufire?

 

[Tangufire]

Nothing yet.

I've been at this thing for weeks. Waiting on my Gundam and Dongle to come in the mail. Probably going to be a couple weeks, so I'm just tinkering with it until then.

The only thing I haven't tried yet, is a completely new Power Supply. I feel like it has something to do with the stability of the power going into the Namco 246. I've powered the drive separately to make sure the drive works, but not the namco itself... Another forum had someone adding a separate power line... trying to locate where I found that before...

If you read through my previous posts, you can see I've tried just about everything else. lol

 

[lukemorse1]

Take the 2 screws out of the dongle and remove the cover (It opens like a ps 2 memory card so you can google it)

No matter how clean the pins look on the dongle. Use a pencil eraser on it to clean the pins , wipe them down with some alcohol on a qtip, then use some contact cleaner on a qtip to go over the pins. Wipe off the excess cleaner with the other side of the qtip, insert, and try again.

Also keep in mind that low rez monitors will be best to test the system on.

I own several 246 systems and they are tempermental as ever. Most common problem Ive run into is dvd drives that are out of alignment and number 1 is usually dirty memory cards.

Try to clean it and see how it works

 

[Tangufire]

I will definitely try cleaning the Dongle again.

Ive had it apart before and cleaned the pins with alcohol and q-tips. I will try the eraser thing later today.

Would you know, if possible, what my voltage readings should be at each location of the system? Someone said 5.10v but didnt specify if that was coming from PSU, Connector at I/O board, connector at 246, etc.

Appreciate all the feedback btw.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

I buy "non-working" dongles all the time. They usually work after taking them apart and cleaning the contacts with a dab of brasso. They are usually filthy. Alcohol is cool but not great .

 

[chewthefat]

I took my system 246c apart last night after checking the voltage and the heatsink was extremely hot. Maybe we are running into heat issues? Any recommendations on a fan or heatsink replacement?

 

[Tangufire]

Heres the SC3 dongle. Cleaned again with an eraser.

 

[Tangufire]

Went one step ahead, re-cleaned and polished the pins and now it has a mirror reflection. lol

You can see my camera's reflection in this picture.

Unfortunately, it's new beauty hasn't changed the outcome. Still dead. Still gotta wait a couple weeks fort the Gundam Game and dongle I ordered to arrive to know for sure if it's just the game or the system.

I have other projects in the works to keep me busy till then... otherwise I don't know what else to try on this poor girl... Unless I swap power supplies completely from another Cabinet of mine... tempting..

 

[lukemorse1]

well, unfortunate to see that nothing worked here.

Here is one point about the system and one other thing you can try with the cables.

The 246 has most of the entire system in a small square shaped sandwich motherboard. The 2 halves are held together by a row of 4 pins that are soldered to the top and bottom keeping it firmly together. The only way to get it apart is to desolder and remove the 4 pins which is quite difficult due to the pins being very thick and needing a lot of heat to remove the solder . The battery for the motherboard sandwich is located inside and can only be changed by removing the pins.

I had (1) 246 system that had this entire assembly dead before and the internal battery was corroded so I had to take it apart to check it. It seems like yours isnt that way so just keep this as added information.

The other thing to check is that the connector that look like the playstation av black connectors and are connected to 2 points of the system, should have a shiny outer grounding shield as well. If they are dull you will also get no video or working system.

Remove the cables and polish up the outside silver metal casing like you did with the memory card and then reinsert and try again to see if things change .

 

[Tangufire]

Alright, the AV cables have all been thoroughly cleaned and polished.

In taking the system apart, I did notice something that may or may not be a concern on one of the board joining ribbons (press on style) Picture attached. There seems to be a little chip in one of the pins...and although i couldnt tell visually because its so small, looking at the picture i think it's a broken connection.

However, hard to say.

Put everything back together and no change.

I connected the AV cables to my stereo using a ps2 AV cable and didnt get any tones or beeps on startup. Tried multiple times a couple different ways to be sure.

My Gundam Dongle and game will arrive in a couple days as well. Maybe Tuesday. That will rule out the SC3 dongle for sure.

Lastly, I started re-looking at my I/O board and came across more concerns. Some of the pins are becoming charred. This board has now been polished and since the finger on the left is so damaged, i soldered on a new line to this pin around the jamma harness. Was hoping that was the fix.. But it wasnt.

I swear, if i get this thing working, it should be clean and ready for another lifetime of operations.

 

[lukemorse1]

Those charred pins look bad.
Almost like someone plugged the Jamma harness on upside down.

That may be 90% of your problem there.
I would recommend getting a new one for sure

 

[xodaraP]

The ground pins are charred which is definitely a concern since that means enough voltage is getting to the ground pins on the connector to cause that. Not good.

I'd very much be questioning that power supply and your cab wiring if you're sure you're plugging it in the right way.

 

[Tangufire]

Hey Guys, bringing up an old post, but i've been tinkering with my SC3 Namco 246 again, hoping to give it another shot.

I have since replaced the Namco Jamma B I/O Board. Found a "working" one on Ebay. I have also replaced the Power supply as I was told the standard cheap "Screw" style are not good for this setup. I switched it out with a known working box style from my Lethal Enforcers cabinet.

After replacing the I/O board and the power supply, I am literally at the same point I was before. Everything has power and voltage, but the system won't boot. No tones, no dvd drive activity, nothing... well except for the fan spinning on the back of the Namco 246. The I/O board shows solid Green LED by Warning text, but nothing else.

Again, I can only get the DVD drive to work (With power on) by Unplugging the IDE Cable from the back of the drive. The drive will show activity, light up, spin the disk for a couple seconds, then stop. Plugging the IDE back in during any of this activity stops the drive.

Since last time I had also purchased a known working Gundam Seed game with Dongle. These do not work either.

Anyone have any other ideas we haven't tried? I'm now thinking maybe that bad PIN on one of the internal ribbons may be the issue. I had posted this previously.

I really miss my Soul Calibur 3...if I didn't like it so much I would have trashed or traded it...

Thanks guys.

 

[streetfighterken]

It could just be dead. I've had it happen to a Naomi before.