Newbie here! First post--MVS sound problems, pls help!

Hey guys,

I've discussed this problem with a few members here in the chat room & through messages but since my account will now let me post messages I figured i'd open the question to the whole board...

I recently bought a MVS cabinet (1 slot board JAMMA) from a person. I've always wanted an arcade cab and couldn't pass up getting it. It's my first arcade cab i've ever bought AND my first Neo Geo setup. I played the system and asked if the sound worked (it was turned off at the persons house) and he said it did & it can be turned on in the system--I didn't make him turn it on because I didn't think I needed to (DUMB!) so anyway, fast forward to me trying it at home and of course the sound doesn't work...It came with METAL SLUG which plays 100% fine, but the sound is all garbled and distorted! I tested some things so here is what I discovered:

• The neo geo startup sound is fine
• the game sometimes plays with Distorted messed up sound, sometimes no sound
• I cleaned the cart with alcohol & q-tips 2 times, with an eraser 1 time (opening the cart also) -- still doesn't have good sound
• I cleared the backup memory from the hard dip
• when I do a hard dip and run the sound test WITH the cart in the MVS I get no sound
• when I do a hard dip sound test WITHOUT the cart in the MVS I get the tones and it sounds like the speaker works fine

I'm really worried that my MVS is messed up-- so do you guys think it's the Cart that is bad, or is it the MVS? I'm sure the only way to really tell is by testing another cart in the system (which I don't have yet--but ordered some from some board members to test) -- I'm just curious what peoples educated opinions would be since I have no way to check another cart at the moment.

Oh I should also say one other thing about the cart. I took photographs of it and some other board members think it's a bootleg because of a weird wire that is on the board.

Check photos of everything below:









thanks for the input! I'm crossing my fingers there isn't a major problem with my new MVS...i'm really excited to have it!

and we told you in the chatroom that the metal slug cart was a boot lol...remember the similar cart that was posted and it was decided that it was a boot?

I'm curious if others have had sound issues like this. Comparing this cart with the other one posted, they both look similar. I haven't forgot that.

Like I said above, without another cart to test on my machine I can't find out 100% if it's the MVS or the cart, so I was opening my question up to others on the board other then just you and some others in a chat room. Maybe someone else has something they could suggest I could try in the mean time---maybe not?

Fox1 said:

and we told you in the chatroom that the metal slug cart was a boot lol...remember the similar cart that was posted and it was decided that it was a boot?

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looks like a boot

It's a boot so it usually will have issues. Where does the black wire from V2 go?

I'd agree with everyone else that it's probably the cart. Congrats on scoring the cab though, that board looks friggin brand new. (The cab itself...not so much, heh)

Guess you'd better get your wallet out and go hit eBay for some more games. Welcome to a hobby more expensive than a crack addiction. ;3

Xian Xi said:

It's a boot so it usually will have issues. Where does the black wire from V2 go?

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the black wire goes through that hole to the other side of the board somewhere. I thought that looked really weird even though I had no idea it was a boot at the time.

TheBakachan said:

I'd agree with everyone else that it's probably the cart. Congrats on scoring the cab though, that board looks friggin brand new. (The cab itself...not so much, heh)

Guess you'd better get your wallet out and go hit eBay for some more games. Welcome to a hobby more expensive than a crack addiction. ;3

Click to expand...

haha, yeah I can see how this can get quite expensive! I ordered a few games from some board members so i'm crossing my fingers it works well with them!

I think my camera took a really good photo of the board, haha, its kinda dusty inside the cab in real life.

The front of the cab has some cracking on it, any idea where I can buy something to restore this with? Also, the plexi glass where the joy sticks are looks kinda gross---do you know of a place i can get some sort of overlay I could put on it?

thanks for the info!

Ok--- i have an update. I just acquired a FATAL FURY MVS cart from someone which is legit (not a bootleg) and it has the same sound distortion problems with it (even after a cleaning) -- it plays fine, the audio is terrible though. What do I do at this point? I'm kind of lost when it comes to repairing this...ughhhh. Here is a video I made of the problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMBzrkQtUso
(put this video on youtube because people were having problems with the other one)

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

fixed the link to the video (hopefully)--it should work now

You have a problem with the lines going to the sound data ROMs. It's either a bad address or bad data line. My money is on an address line problem.

Make sure the cart clot board is plugged fully into the main board. If it's loose or improperly seated you'll have issues.

Next, Check the slot for bent pins... Check the board for cracked, scratched, or broke traces...

And check the battery and around it for corrosion damage to the board.

channelmaniac said:

You have a problem with the lines going to the sound data ROMs. It's either a bad address or bad data line. My money is on an address line problem.

Make sure the cart clot board is plugged fully into the main board. If it's loose or improperly seated you'll have issues.

Next, Check the slot for bent pins... Check the board for cracked, scratched, or broke traces...

And check the battery and around it for corrosion damage to the board.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply!! I'm sorry but I don't know what a clot board, data line, bad address, or traces are. I'm going to do a google search to get info on this. Do you think i'm going to just have to get a new JAMMA board? How hard are these to replace? Thanks!!

Ouch that audio is painful to hear lol...your best bet is to go to channelmaniac's site, download a repair form and send your mvs to him to repair. (Talk to him through PM about this)

channelmaniac said:

Make sure the cart clot board is plugged fully into the main board. If it's loose or improperly seated you'll have issues.

Click to expand...

That is a pretty common thing on the side loaders I have noticed.

Reseat the slot board which is the smaller PCB on the mobo where the cartridge slides into. There are 3 connectors on the back of the unit. Sometimes those loose contact or get shift when the cab is moved and in some rare cases some corrosion starts to build in the connector.

You first have to remove the 4 screws holding the back piece on then remove the slot board and then check the pins for any weird white powder and if none put it back on firmly. Then replace the black piece and 4 screws and power it on again.

Fox1 said:

Ouch that audio is painful to hear lol...your best bet is to go to channelmaniac's site, download a repair form and send your mvs to him to repair. (Talk to him through PM about this)

Click to expand...

hey Fox1, I just took my jamma board out of my Cabinet to look for any weird problems on it and aside from it being a little dusty I'm not seeing anything really jumping out as being weird. When you say send you MVS to him, you're referring to the JAMMA board right? Thanks a lot for all the help guys, I'll send channelmaniac a PM for sure.

And yeah, that audio makes trying to play a game not fun at all ;-)

Personally, I would be contacting that seller, as he obviously purposely deceived you as to the extent of the issue with the sound.

Perhaps he could cover the cost of the repairs you are going to have to have done?

Good luck and enjoy!

Loup-Garou said:

Personally, I would be contacting that seller, as he obviously purposely deceived you as to the extent of the issue with the sound.

Perhaps he could cover the cost of the repairs you are going to have to have done?

Good luck and enjoy!

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It does seem like he deceived me. It was a craigslist purchase, and i'm admittedly so new at owning an arcade machine that I didn't even realize this could be a problem (I'm learning LOTS about owning an arcade machine over the past few days thanks to everyones help!) I emailed him today, but i'm pretty sure he doesn't give a shit that he screwed me (i'm not counting on getting an email back) but I do know where he lives ;-)

Yea, I'm talking about the actual board and if it does indeed need to be repaired, I would suggest you make that guy that sold you the machine pay for it seeing how he deceived you.

Xian Xi said:

That is a pretty common thing on the side loaders I have noticed.

Reseat the slot board which is the smaller PCB on the mobo where the cartridge slides into. There are 3 connectors on the back of the unit. Sometimes those loose contact or get shift when the cab is moved and in some rare cases some corrosion starts to build in the connector.

You first have to remove the 4 screws holding the back piece on then remove the slot board and then check the pins for any weird white powder and if none put it back on firmly. Then replace the black piece and 4 screws and power it on again.

Click to expand...

thanks for the idea to try--- just took it apart and did that, but unfortunately it didn't solve the problem. I'm going to try to mail it out and get it repaired I guess. At least there is a solution to this without having to take the whole arcade cabinet somewhere. Dealing with the JAMMA board is much easier any idea how much a repair like this might run? Do you think it would cost less to buy a used replacement board?

I'd rather get the one you have repaired. Since they are all used boards you can't guarantee they will work once they leave you get them. The used parts can fail at any time which is why it's better to replace them with new parts rather than spending more money to get another used part.