Glitched/Problematic Homecart

TrueTrials · Oct 24, 2006

Hi people,

Looking for some opinions on this please, basically I purchased a pretty mint condition copy of Andro Dunos on AES and upon inserting the game in the machine the picture is very glitched on pretty much all screens.

I have 28 other homecarts and they all boot/load fine ('99 was sketchy in the past but its fine now) but this one doesn't seem to work.

I've now tried opening the cart and cleaning the contacts with a rubber and brushing the chips etc with with a watered bursh to clean them but with no change in result. There doesn't seem to be any visable damage/wear/corosion with the boards, they all look neat.

On a side note I've not opened the actual console before as its pretty mint and didn't know if taking off the pads ontop of some of the screws to open it was wise/easy to put back..

Heres some screens of the glitches in various points:

Any help would be appreciated,

Cheers Olly

soulthug · Oct 24, 2006

Umm, it's old i think.

My FF1 randomly fucks up constantly :s

And it usually takes putting it in 3 or 4 times to work.

Can you get it to work at all? Or is it just entirely fooked?

TrueTrials · Oct 24, 2006

soulthug said:
Umm, it's old i think.

My FF1 randomly fucks up constantly :s

And it usually takes putting it in 3 or 4 times to work.

Can you get it to work at all? Or is it just entirely fooked?

Yea its an old title for sure but hopefully thats not the end

I've had trouble with my copy of '99 in the past sometimes takes a few times to boot but this one has absolutely no change however many times I try it would seem so far..

JammaGuy · Oct 24, 2006

Fried? Thats exactly what My Garou looks like, but I fried it on accident. Hope thats not the case. Try and open the cart, and clean it up really good with 409/rubbing alchohal... what ever it takes, unless you are really doubtfull above opening a cart... its kind of dangerouse at times if you don't know what you are doing, but if its up to you that you just want to play the cart, not worried about the looks of it, more power to ya. Good luck!

-idosk8

Razoola · Oct 24, 2006

If you have a unibios try the game crc check option.

Raz

TrueTrials · Oct 25, 2006

idosk8 said:
Fried? Thats exactly what My Garou looks like, but I fried it on accident. Hope thats not the case. Try and open the cart, and clean it up really good with 409/rubbing alchohal... what ever it takes, unless you are really doubtfull above opening a cart... its kind of dangerouse at times if you don't know what you are doing, but if its up to you that you just want to play the cart, not worried about the looks of it, more power to ya. Good luck!

-idosk8

I've opened the cart up already:

I've now tried opening the cart and cleaning the contacts with a rubber and brushing the chips etc with with a watered bursh to clean them but with no change in result. There doesn't seem to be any visable damage/wear/corosion with the boards, they all look neat.

I've got no 409/rubbing alchohal to hand though..

Razoola said:
If you have a unibios try the game crc check option.

Raz

I'm looking at getting this very soon actually, whens 2.4 out or is 2.3 going to be current for a good ammount of time?

Any other opinions welcome in the meanwhile..

Cheers Olly

Fakk2 · Oct 27, 2006

I heavily suggest you do what I do to problematic games. Open the cart and DO NOT TOUCH the metal pins with your hands (I personally use surgical gloves when handling the inside boards of AES/MVS carts), just use a Soft PINK eraser and gently scrub the contacts fully clean of all dirt and filth, and with a clean cloth brush off the eraser leftovers, then put the cart back together and finally use q-tips and Rubbing Alcohol (Above 90%!) to clean the contacts once more. If that doesnt fix the job get a brand new toothbrush and clean the contacts on your AES slot as well till its clean with electronics cleaner from Radio Shack or use 90+% Rubbing Alcohol to get that done. If it still does not work try inserting the cart just barely in the system and try that, sometimes my SDB conversion has issues unless put in just slighty instead of forcing it all the way in the system, and try to lift one or the other corner of the cart as sometimes that can make a fussy game work. If all of that fails to fix it, its most likely a bad cart. Perhaps a rom is bad or one of the C roms has a cold solder point or something.

TrueTrials · Oct 27, 2006

Well I thought I'd try the next thing on the list yesterday and open the AES up to clean the slot, I found a new toothbruch but didn't have any electrical cleaner so used "Screen Cleaner" instead :annoyed:

So I check the HardMVS page and go by their instructions as to clean the slot, go ahead and clean it and leave it for a few mins.

Insert the cart... result much much worse

its now very very scrambled so I thought maybe the slot isn't dry enough and used a hair dryer to dry it some more, try again nothing, then panic and think maybe it was the screen cleaner that was the problem so clean the brush I used and just use plain water to maybe remove whatever the screen cleaner has just done, this time leaving it to dry for a few hours, no change.

Now I'm scared to try another cart in the system incase it damages the game.. Is there any way from what I've mentioned that the system could damage a cart if I put it in?

I've left the system over night now and will try the problematic cart again in a little while.

So yea I'm pretty sure I just killed the system AND have a game that doesn't load right

Fakk2 · Oct 27, 2006

You used SCREEN CLEANER?? For a TV?? and then used WATER!!??

no comment....

TrueTrials · Oct 27, 2006

Fakk2 said:
You used SCREEN CLEANER?? For a TV?? and then used WATER!!??

no comment....

Erm.. pretty much yea.. :oh_no:

Fakk2 · Oct 27, 2006

TrueTrials said:
Erm.. pretty much yea..

well, Im very sorry to hear that, grab a bottle of RUBBING ALCOHOL 92% or more and grab that clean toothbrush and try hard as hell to clean it to try to get it clean before the water ruins the contacts, if its not too late allready.

Rule of thumb Never ever ever use Water on ANY electronics unless you wanna kill it. And Never use anything but 92% Rubbing Alcohol or pure Electronics Cleaner from an Electronics store thats meant for electronics unless you want dead electronics. My friend I wish you very good luck on that one. What ya just did was as bad as putting sugar in the gas tank to see if it will make it to the next gas station instead of putting a little gas in it.

TrueTrials · Oct 27, 2006

Fakk2 said:
well, Im very sorry to hear that, grab a bottle of RUBBING ALCOHOL 92% or more and grab that clean toothbrush and try hard as hell to clean it to try to get it clean before the water ruins the contacts, if its not too late allready.

Rule of thumb Never ever ever use Water on ANY electronics unless you wanna kill it. And Never use anything but 92% Rubbing Alcohol or pure Electronics Cleaner from an Electronics store thats meant for electronics unless you want dead electronics. My friend I wish you very good luck on that one. What ya just did was as bad as putting sugar in the gas tank to see if it will make it to the next gas station instead of putting a little gas in it.

Yay me!

I thought I'd risk Riding Hero and BAM loads first time perfect no problems at all w00t! :buttrock:

Never have I been so happy to be able to play Riding Hero :lolz:

Maybe I'll buy some Rubbing Alcohol today for future purposes and try what you said on the Andro Dunos cart.

Man thats a relief though..

Fakk2 · Oct 27, 2006

TrueTrials said:
Yay me!

I thought I'd risk Riding Hero and BAM loads first time perfect no problems at all w00t!

Never have I been so happy to be able to play Riding Hero

Maybe I'll buy some Rubbing Alcohol today for future purposes and try what you said on the Andro Dunos cart.

Man thats a relief though..

It can corrode and rust within the next few weeks now that water has touched the contacts, it may play right now, but in a few weeks? And every cart you play in it in the meantime until you clean it with rubbing alcohol may even screw the contacts on those games as well. I wouldnt recommend playing ANY carts in it till it gets cleaned properly. And make sure your rubbing alcohol is above 90% or it contains too much water in it which is very bad. Im glad it still works right now foi ya.

channelmaniac · Oct 27, 2006

Dude, you are overreacting.

For years I've cleaned PC boards by throwing them in the dishwasher with HOT WATER running. This was SOP at a company I worked for that did grey market Apple II and Macintosh repairs back in the mid 90s. We warrantied our boards for 90 days to 6 months and never had one come back for rusted out expansion slots or ANY other problem due to washing.

The most important things to remember when dealing with water is:

1. Residue - if you have hard water you will have mineral deposits but this typically leaves white marks and hurts nothing. Even on the surface mount Mac boards.

2. Shorting out - Let the board dry totally before powering up. Simple.

Now, yes, you should go get some contact cleaner or alcohol and clean the slot out. You don't want any mineral deposits left in there. Those are the bane of the normal operation of the slot connector. You should be worried more about that than rusting out the slot. :loco:

Now that we've gone over that - you do need to disassemble the cart and check things out internally. Look around the pins that are soldered for cracked joints. You'll see rings around the pin in the solder. Also clean the card edge contacts really well. The pink pencil eraser works good for this. Do NOT use a white pen eraser as those are a lot more abrasive and will do more harm than good. If you use something too abrasive then you run more risks down the road.

RJ

Fakk2 · Oct 27, 2006

channelmaniac said:
Dude, you are overreacting.

For years I've cleaned PC boards by throwing them in the dishwasher with HOT WATER running. This was SOP at a company I worked for that did grey market Apple II and Macintosh repairs back in the mid 90s. We warrantied our boards for 90 days to 6 months and never had one come back for rusted out expansion slots or ANY other problem due to washing.

The most important things to remember when dealing with water is:

1. Residue - if you have hard water you will have mineral deposits but this typically leaves white marks and hurts nothing. Even on the surface mount Mac boards.

2. Shorting out - Let the board dry totally before powering up. Simple.

Now, yes, you should go get some contact cleaner or alcohol and clean the slot out. You don't want any mineral deposits left in there. Those are the bane of the normal operation of the slot connector. You should be worried more about that than rusting out the slot.

Now that we've gone over that - you do need to disassemble the cart and check things out internally. Look around the pins that are soldered for cracked joints. You'll see rings around the pin in the solder. Also clean the card edge contacts really well. The pink pencil eraser works good for this. Do NOT use a white pen eraser as those are a lot more abrasive and will do more harm than good. If you use something too abrasive then you run more risks down the road.

RJ

Well im like OCD about my stuff and would have a heart attack if I did what he did. Anybody else throw Neo-Geos in the dishwasher to clean them. lol

channelmaniac · Oct 27, 2006

If you throw a filthy Neo Geo board in to clean it make sure you remove the battery from the board!

RJ

JMKurtz · Oct 27, 2006

If you don't mind mailing the cart boards to the US, I can take a look at them for you and let you know if the problem is with the boards or the game roms.

Since you already have it apart, you wouldn't need to send everything, just the two PCBs.

Drop me an email at jmkurtz@columbus.rr.com if you want.

Jeff

Glitched/Problematic Homecart

TrueTrials

Olly C,

soulthug

Wannabe Thug,, born 1991

TrueTrials

Olly C,

JammaGuy

Previously I-d-o-s-k-8

Razoola

Divine Hand of the UniBIOS,

TrueTrials

Olly C,

Fakk2

Crossed Swords 2 Bootleg Artist.,

TrueTrials

Olly C,

Fakk2

Crossed Swords 2 Bootleg Artist.,

TrueTrials

Olly C,

Fakk2

Crossed Swords 2 Bootleg Artist.,

TrueTrials

Olly C,

Fakk2

Crossed Swords 2 Bootleg Artist.,

channelmaniac

Mr Neo Fix-it

Fakk2

Crossed Swords 2 Bootleg Artist.,

channelmaniac

Mr Neo Fix-it

JMKurtz

Tech Support Moderator,