MS3 weird sounds.

Just tested my new copy of MS3 and I'm getting some really strange sound problems.

Cart contacts where a bit dirty when I first tried and there was no sound and slightly garbled graphics, after a q-tip alcohol cleaning everything seems fine.

I was playing with the volume pretty low because my girlfriend was on the phone and on level 2 I started hearing this weird creepy noise. It was really hard to tell at first but I determined that it was the kind of spooky sounding instrument ( violin or something ) thats in the music while your fighting the zombies. It sounded kind of out of tune and off from how it normally sounds in the game, but it was definitely it. It was way louder than the rest of the game which was so low it was hard to hear.

It happened again later with another piece of music but I forget where it was.

I've never encountered anything like this anywhere else in my MVS games and it sounded really weird, and was only this one sound in the soundtrack, nothing else sounded weird.

Only possibilities I can think of is something about that frequency vibrates something in the speakers of my TV (Sony HD CRT) or for some reason this one sound comes through the weird 3rd channel of analog sound that's present on a 1FZ board, and something about the circuit I built to mix it with the R and L channel handles things weird. Although other sounds that come through the 3rd channel (insert coin, character select) sound fine.

Any thoughts?

Open up the cart and check the solder joints if they are cracked.

ack, I was hoping to avoid that. The cart has a perfect condition holo label with serial numbers and all.

I'll do it carefully. Is there any guide to what chips handle sound? to narrow down the search? I have a MS3 board that has that weird little extra board stuck on top of the front PCB.

V chips.

couple of things you could try:

insert the game then pull it up a little

insert the game a few times to wear off the protective film from the contacts.

clean the contacts with pencil rubber.

awesome thanks. I'll try all these.

Its such a weird noise I wish I could record it somehow and post it here, sounds like the game is haunted or something. Just threw me off when it was so loud compared to the rest of the game, and the tune was a bit off, didn't exactly sound like it normally does in the game.

I've had the same problem of sounds being too loud, coming in and out on KO 2002 with the converter. Pretty sure I've had the same thing happen on other games with a dirty cart, so I believe it.

I played it again last night, first time I put it in I got crazy glitchy atari sounds, unplugged it, blew in the cartridge and the mobo and put it back in and everything was fine, I didn;t hear the same weirdness that this post was about. It might have just been some dirty contacts in the end. I cleaned it really well when I got it but maybe some stuff was really stuck on there.

glad I didn't need to resort to opening the cartridge and checking solder.

Even if you don't have to check solder, it's a good idea to open the cart and clean the contacts with a pink pencil eraser. That way you get it dang good and clean.

Neo Alec said:

I've had the same problem of sounds being too loud, coming in and out on KO 2002 with the converter. Pretty sure I've had the same thing happen on other games with a dirty cart, so I believe it.

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I had this happen with my Bust-a-Move again cart, After a few plays and a quick cleaning it has never happen again. Damn thing scared the crap outta me as it did get rather loud at one point.

I had a very similar issue with one of my MS3 cart: the sound glitches would only appear on sound effects. Music was fine though...

Had to clean it with isopropyl alcohol as well as with a pink eraser two times. Everything is fine now.

Thanks for the tips about the V chips.