MV-1F malfunctioned

Went to play some Metal Slug 5 on my trusty MV-1F board this weekend. I plugged the board into my Supergun, powered it up and proceeded to play my game. At the character select screen, the game froze up. So I turned off the power, let it sit for a few minutes and powered back up. Only this time, I was greeted with a screen of yellow graphical gibberish (similar to the green screen you get for the first few seconds upon powering up your MVS board).

I'm at a loss as to what could be wrong here. I tried the usual remedies such as trying a different game, reseating the cart connector portion to the board, inspecting the board for any burned chips, resistors, etc. No improvement (or signs of damage are evident).

I then unseated the BIOS chip (stock bios, no unibios) and powered up the board without the BIOS in the socket and I get the same yellow graphical gibberish! Is my BIOS chip dead? Or is there something else that's damaged?

What happens if you power up the unit with the bios in but no game?

What you should normally get if you power on the unit with no bios is a sort of multicolored chequered flashing screen. You should also hear a constant ticking sound (maybe 3 times a second).

With the Bios in and no game you should get to the crosshatch screen. A screen shot of what you are seeing may help.

Regards, Raz

Razoola said:

What happens if you power up the unit with the bios in but no game?

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Good question. I'll give it a try when I have a chance, but I think I tried this with no improvement. I believe I also tried to access the soft dip screen (Dip 1) upon starting and the I got the same problem screen.

Razoola said:

What you should normally get if you power on the unit with no bios is a sort of multicolored chequered flashing screen. You should also hear a constant ticking sound (maybe 3 times a second).

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This same issue happened last year when I accidentally reseated the Bios in the socket the wrong way. I recall the ticking sound in particular. But now it just has a yellow screen of garbage and no ticking.

It does sound like there is a Bios issue but to be honest its very strange for it to have died the way it did which could maybe indicate other problems (maybe the cpu died).

If you put the bios in the wrong way in the past maybe that damaged it in some way and its finally died now. Maybe a new bios would fix the problem but I couldent garantee it at this point


Raz

Razoola said:

It does sound like there is a Bios issue but to be honest its very strange for it to have died the way it did which could maybe indicate other problems (maybe the cpu died).

Raz

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It is very odd, considering that it had booted up my Metal Slug 5 cart before freezing at the character select screen. I know it's not my Supergun either because immediately afterward I plugged in my SF2 and Snow Bros boards and they worked just fine.

You could try taking the bios out and bending all the pins out slightly so that when you put it back into the socket the pins are pushing the outside contacts on the bios socket more. Maybe its a simple dodgy connection of one of the pins.

Raz

Razoola said:

You could try taking the bios out and bending all the pins out slightly so that when you put it back into the socket the pins are pushing the outside contacts on the bios socket more. Maybe its a simple dodgy connection of one of the pins.

Raz

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A loose pin connection would make sense, as the end result is the same whether the bios is inserted or not.
I'll give it a go and see what I come up with.

BTW, do you still sell Unibios chips, just in case?

Freelancer said:

A loose pin connection would make sense, as the end result is the same whether the bios is inserted or not.
I'll give it a go and see what I come up with.

BTW, do you still sell Unibios chips, just in case?

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Yes I do, you can get one directly from www.universebios.com (on the ordering page).

Raz

Razoola said:

Yes I do, you can get one directly from www.universebios.com (on the ordering page).

Raz

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Sweet!
Let me see if I can get this thing running using the methods you suggested.
If not, I'll buy a unibios and see if that helps.

I've seen something similar -- the system had a system memory ram chip go bad, but this isn't very common. I would start by checking the traces around the system ram area to see if anything is damaged. If you have a multimeter, it would help out a lot.

Jeff

JMKurtz said:

I've seen something similar -- the system had a system memory ram chip go bad, but this isn't very common. I would start by checking the traces around the system ram area to see if anything is damaged. If you have a multimeter, it would help out a lot.

Jeff

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I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary on the board...chips, resistors, traces, etc.
Don't currently own a good multimeter, but I suppose I could borrow or buy one if need be.