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Troubleshooting NetBoot problems on Chihiro

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Loonz605

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Hi. I’m new to the forum and arcade scene but I’ve been doing a lot of research on the site so figured this is where I would first seek help.
I have a maximum tune 2 cabinet with a type 3 Chihiro that I’m having a hard time getting to NetBoot. I’m using a raspberry pi with pi force tools v1.5, and the security pic for maximum tune 2. When I power up the machine it says searching for network at which point I’m able to send a game.(In this case maximum tune 2).It then says loading game followed by initializing media board followed by a screen that says: handle check-ok, card check-ok, pcb id:1-ok and pcb234: checking...it stays like this for a minute then shows error 33 gateway is not found. I have tried netbooting some other versions of maximum tune/other games and firmware updates to which it goes straight to error 31- this game is not supported by main board. I’ve attached a pic of my system info Incase I missed something. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 

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You say you use the security pic for maximum tune 2.
If that's the original pic, it will be set for gdrom and it should contain the decryption key for the game it came with.
So, it might be possible to netboot the encrypted game image of maximum tune 2, but every other game will fail, either because it's encrypted with a different key or because it got decrypted, so basically it will be encrypted with the maximum tune 2 key.

What you need for multiple games is a so called "zero netboot security pic" It has the encryption key set to all zero's, so it doesn't decrypt the game image. In such case, you should be able to load unencrypted game images.

The fact the original game is looking for additional pcb's is probably because it's set as station 1 of 4. Steering force feedback can usually being disabled by setting the cabinet to upright instead of twin. Once the game is loaded, go into test mode with the test button and select the ingame test menu if possible. Being able to enter "the in game test menu" proves that your image is properly loaded and not encrypted.

In game, you might find a setting of "master, slave and single". You normally need single to start the game without networking.

If your game image starts with FATX followed by a number of 0xFF or 0x00 starting at offset 0x12, it's a decrypted image. If that's not the case, it's likely encrypted.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I’m guessing to check the file I just open in notepad? Which I did. It starts with fatx but no numbers just followed by symbols. I’ve messed with it a little more today and the link is set to off in the game menu but still says searching for pcb 2.3 and 4, which it stays on for around a minute and show error 33. I tried booting the original wmmt and that game starts and runs through the intro and says press gas to start but when you do so it restarts after 30 seconds or so and shows error 33 gateway is not found. I purchased a zero key from eBay. But doesn’t seem to make a difference which key is used. Both results the same.
 
The image file is a binary file, so notepad isn't the best option to open it. You basically need a hex editor.
I mostly use a program called winhex. It's purpose is to analyse and dissect drive images, but it does a good job at showing the contents of binary files as well. It's very well possible that notepad skips the zero bytes.

A couple of games like "crazy taxi high roller" and "house of the dead III" only run on a chihiro 1 unpatched. I believe they also throw up a "this game is not supported by main board" error. Another thing that could generate this error is the region setting of your chihiro. A chihiro set to export won't run US games or Japanese games.

Maybe, you better answer this question in private, but where do your game images come from? Are you sure that they are correctly decrypted?

Some zero netboot keys only work for naomi and chihiro 1. Are you sure the one you purchased was advertised to work on a chihiro 3?

Could you post a picture of your jumper settings on the chihiro dimm board. Just to verify they are set correctly. (Or just post how they are set)

Does it behave different if you try to netboot/run a game without a security pic in the socket? It would confirm the security pic isn't working as expected.
 
When you try without a pic installed it shows an error code for media board malfunctioning. And the same after the pi sends the game. I was able to edit some text in the piforce tools file for the Triforce section and removed the time to disconnect. Now the game stays on long enough to show error for pcb 234 and starts the game. Says insert coins. Which it recognizes. Then press gas to start which it doesn’t seem to to let you do, And stays like that for a couple minutes before restarting and showing error 33
 
Jumper settings
 

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The jumpers are set correctly for netbooting.

Can you check the gas, brake and steering wheel in the test menu. I think it's the JVS test that should show you the values read from the analog inputs.

Is your chihiro dimm board having a battery? If there is one, do you measure some voltage coming from it when the machine is not powered on?

The reason I ask is because it's possible that your chihiro restarts due to a hardware issue. If the dimm board has a battery backup and a game loaded, it should directly boot that game without the need to upload it again.

The baseboard in the chihiro (top board in bottom box) also has a CR2032 coin cell battery. Normally the chihiro has a real time clock. If the coin cell would be dead, the clock should reset to 1980 or something every time after a power cycle. If the clock keeps showing the correct time you can assume that the CR2032 on that board is fine.

If you separate the 2 chihiro boxes, check the main board gpu fan. If it fails, the chihiro gpu will overheat and go bad. Also check the capacitors surrounding the cpu. If the end of them bulges out, they need to be replaced. Also have a look at articles describing the removal of the xbox goldcap that is prone to leaking. (The bottom main board is basically an og xbox board on steroids.) You can safely remove that capacitor on chihiro motherboards as well.

You can power the unit without the top box containing the dimm board to visually check if the fan is working. You won't get any video output, but it's perfectly safe.

I assume you use triforcetools.py to upload your game image and you reenabled the TIme_Setlimit at the end of the program code?
 
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I get no reading from the lithium ion battery pack. The 2032 battery was right at 3v. Fan comes on no problem. Gas, brake and steering all seem to be working when I do the test. And yes the time set limit is what I removed the values from. I also noticed what you had mentioned about the zero pic being the correct one. The seller couldnt 100% confirm that it would work but said it “should”. From what I have read it I should be able to change the region setting if it was working correctly and I can’t get it to do so. If you or anyone else can point in the direction of where I could purchase one that was known to work that would be awesome. If not, no worries.I’ll continue the search.
 
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Let's resume

You have 2 "zero netboot pic's" that behave identical.
WMMT and WMMT2 suddenly stop working and the gray chihiro screen shows up with ERROR 33 GATEWAY NOT FOUND

Other games come up with ERROR 31 This game is not supported by main board

So, do WMMT and WMMT2 also time out identical if you don't coin up and press the gas?

Do other games still give you the ERROR 31 or was this just when you used the original (third) WMMT2 security pic?

If you try another game like OUTRUN, what's it's behavour?
 
It is close to the same time probably 2-3 minutes into the game. I'm able to coin up but it still doesnt acknowledge when I press the gas. Outrun I tried last night and a game message comes up about a jvs I/o board issue.
 
the JVS I/o error is an error coming from the game, so basically, even with that error on the screen, you can assume the game is running (just not like you want it to run..)

So, does outrun timeout as well after a couple of minutes? (Showing the chihiro grayish screen with error 33)

There is an outrun 3 beta that even runs on xboxes with 128MB of memory. Maybe you could give that version a try?
If you go into testmode, I seem to remember there is a JVS test. Could you perhaps post a picture of that screen?
It will show some version information if I remember well. I wasn't aware WMMT(2) used a different JVS board.
I assume it wasn't a "steering FFB error" (which would mean your cabinet is not set to upright instead of twin)
 
Yes, it still does seem to time out in a couple of minutes if I leave it on that screen with the error code 33. You had previously mentioned it could be a power related issue. Is there anywhere I can check voltages or any write ups you know of on how to do so. So I could see if thats a possible issue. Thanks
 

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If the system wants to reset triggered by the software, it will also shut down the power supply for a couple of seconds to ensure everything is reset properly. It's difficult to figure out what could possibly cause a reboot.
However, at initial startup, your firmware is showing "checking network on the bottom line" If a hardware problem would trigger a full reset (power cycle), you would expect the system to show that "checking network" again instead of the error 33.

So my money is still on a problem with the netboot pic. How was the cabinet initially supposed to (or not) work? Did it came with a gdrom and original pic / gamedisk? or was it already prepared for netboot with a pi?

A possible theory is that the pi needs to be connected so it can reset the timeout. However, when the games boot, they will alter the chihiro system ip to prepare the game to link to other units so that the raspberry disconnects. Due to that, the security check get's a timeout and it's "game over" (error 33)

I am unsure if the pi will stay connected when you initially give the chihiro the ip it will get from the game as well. Obviously, your pi will need an ip on the same subnet to be able to even connect initially to the chihiro. A member on this Forum Finisterre examined some games to figure out what ip they set the system after they started.

There do exist netboot pic's that don't need the pi to stay connected and reset the watchdog timer, But since you bought your share of those already, it's worth a try to see if the theory could be correct. I notice on my python script that the watchdog timeout reset code even isn't used. Maybe setting it once makes the system expecting you to continue doing it. (Just some brain spinning thoughts without solid proof).

The one common factor that seems to return for people having your problem is that they use piforcetools.
 
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@Loonz605 normally Outrun 2 uses 837-13551 JVS I/O, where 8 analog inputs. perhaps this game doesn't like if IO have less (7 analogs in FCA-1), no matter what it actually uses only 3.
 
When I received my cabinet it was setup with gdrom, gamedisk and original pic. It had issues with the gdrom.

I will look into the ip reassignment some more and see what I can come up with. Hopefully find a way to configure the pi so it can stay connected if the game ip changes after boot up. Thanks
 
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