Seibu SPI with no video

[Brandon]

I got an SPI board and cartridge that was shipped to me as working, but upon arrival, I am not able to get any video or audio out of it.

Does anyone know if the SPI board will display video even with the cartridge removed, such as an error message? I get nothing even without the cartridge plugged in, but I want to make sure that I can leave it out for troubleshooting purposes.

 

[awbacon1]

I got an SPI board and cartridge that was shipped to me as working, but upon arrival, I am not able to get any video or audio out of it.

Does anyone know if the SPI board will display video even with the cartridge removed, such as an error message? I get nothing even without the cartridge plugged in, but I want to make sure that I can leave it out for troubleshooting purposes.

Have you checked to make sure it's even getting power? Checked the voltages and felt around to see if its warming up at all?

 

[twistedsymphony]

I am not able to get any video or audio out of it.

it sounds like it's not booting at all.
"no video" is very different than "not booting"

these SPI mobos are notorious for dying like this, I've got 3 non-booting SPI mobos, it's my understanding that typically you'll have legs break lose on the CPUs causing the condition requiring a reflow to get working again.

this is absolutely something that could have happened during shipping.

 

[Brandon]

Have you checked to make sure it's even getting power? Checked the voltages and felt around to see if its warming up at all?

I checked voltages across the jamma edge and green and sync are at zero (red and blue are live). There is a heat sink off to the side near the stereo out connector that gets warm if I leave the board on for a couple minutes.

it sounds like it's not booting at all.
"no video" is very different than "not booting"it's my understanding that typically you'll have legs break lose on the CPUs causing the condition requiring a reflow to get working again.

I guess I'm not sure how to determine the difference between no output and not booting in this situation. I'm still with a reasonable time frame to get a refund for the board, but I'm tempted to keep it just because of the Raiden Fighters 2 cart included. I'm just going to call this one dead or beyond my capabilities.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[awbacon1]

I checked voltages across the jamma edge and green and sync are at zero (red and blue are live). There is a heat sink off to the side near the stereo out connector that gets warm if I leave the board on for a couple minutes.



I guess I'm not sure how to determine the difference between no output and not booting in this situation. I'm still with a reasonable time frame to get a refund for the board, but I'm tempted to keep it just because of the Raiden Fighters 2 cart included. I'm just going to call this one dead or beyond my capabilities.

Thanks for the replies!

not booting means it's not executing code / not getting past whatever POST operation occurs on power on.

Not outputting / playing blind / playing mute means code is executing in the background but you arent getting image or sound.

You could check continuity on the CPU, see if any legs are broken / cold jointed. It's a bit fiddley but possible.

 

[twistedsymphony]

I guess I'm not sure how to determine the difference between no output and not booting in this situation

It's incredibly rare that a PCB boots but has no audio and no video... that would require essentially 2 sub-systems to fail in the same way simultaneously.

Generally if there is "no video" then the game will "play blind" meaning that you can coin it up and hear sounds and confirm that it's actually running, just without video present.

generally though if you get no video and there is no audio response either, then you can assume that the game simply is not booting.

The difference is that it completely changes how you troubleshoot the board.