General CPS2 questions (suicide and whatnot)

Mad Mage · Dec 14, 2004

I just got a 25' blue Capcom Qsound cabinet with Street Fighter Alpha 3 for $500. It's in great shame. I'm pretty happy. Before I go buying a bunch of CPS2 boards though, I should know a bit about them dying all the time. I read in a FAQ they start with five years of life in their battery, which drains unless the board is in use, but I was wondering if the battery will still drain if it's in the cabinet with the power turned off, or if the power has to be on for the power to not drain. Also, the FAQ said Capcom will replace the battery and chip for about $70. Is this still true? Is that still the price?

If it is a real hassle dealing with these CPS2 boards dying, I think I'll just get some different boards for my cabinet. Maybe a Sega STV for some of the horizontal-monitor shmups, or Taito's G-Darius. Still, it's be nice to get some of the CPS2 beatemups, I just think it's a lousy investment if they're gonna die.

Oh, and I'm getting a bit off topic, but if someone wants to recommend a thrifty place to buy CPS2 boards, that'd be cool. This is my second cabinet, first being my 'Geo, which will forever remain dedicated.

Amano Jacu · Dec 14, 2004

Check www.cps2shock.com if you haven't already.

Yes, if the cab is not powered on the battery will be losing energy. Anyway, you can replace the battery yourself before it empties. Finally, even if the board dies, you can send the roms to Razzola and he will fix them for you so that they work without needing a battery anymore. This is much better and cheaper than the Capcom fix, which possibly is not available anymore, specially if you are not an arcade dealer, the boards are imported, etc.

About buying CPS2, you can try cosmicco:

http://home.netvigator.com/~cosmicco/

[OCEAN] · Dec 14, 2004

Mad Mage said:
I just got a 25' blue Capcom Qsound cabinet with Street Fighter Alpha 3 for $500. It's in great shame. I'm pretty happy. Before I go buying a bunch of CPS2 boards though, I should know a bit about them dying all the time. I read in a FAQ they start with five years of life in their battery, which drains unless the board is in use, but I was wondering if the battery will still drain if it's in the cabinet with the power turned off, or if the power has to be on for the power to not drain. Also, the FAQ said Capcom will replace the battery and chip for about $70. Is this still true? Is that still the price?

If it is a real hassle dealing with these CPS2 boards dying, I think I'll just get some different boards for my cabinet. Maybe a Sega STV for some of the horizontal-monitor shmups, or Taito's G-Darius. Still, it's be nice to get some of the CPS2 beatemups, I just think it's a lousy investment if they're gonna die.

Oh, and I'm getting a bit off topic, but if someone wants to recommend a thrifty place to buy CPS2 boards, that'd be cool. This is my second cabinet, first being my 'Geo, which will forever remain dedicated.

The battery will drain although you have them powered frequently, it will just last longer, but will end up dying.

If you don't want this to happen, you can easily replace the battery so that the board be played fot 4 or 5 years more. It's a very easy task with very little risk of killing the board. As Amano Jacu pointed out, there's very useful information about how to do this in cps2shock. There are also plenty of tutorials with more pictures on changing the battery out there, you can try the forum search or google.

I'd recommend you to change the battery of your SFA3, since you probably don't know when it was changed for the last time.

CPS2 is not as easy to maintain as MVS, but it's really not too complicated anyway.

[OCEAN]

Mad Mage · Dec 14, 2004

Wow, that's a very useful site for a new CPS2 user such as me. Thanks a lot to both of you for the info and links! Your right, I probably should replace the battery now, though I do not nessiarily trust myself to not screw up and kill the board.

MKL · Dec 14, 2004

If you do THIS life will be very easy with CPS2

General CPS2 questions (suicide and whatnot)

Mad Mage

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[OCEAN]

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Mad Mage

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