CPS2 Black board Revival (What am I doing wrong?)

Lemony Vengeance

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hey all,

I'm trying to revive a black CPS2 SFZ3 board I picked up from ebay.

I'm using Artemio's CPS2Black utility (v1.01) and a SuperBIOS cart to get the ROM (IDC Clean ROM) to the SIMM.

Here's the board:

temporary_zps9a29772b.jpg


Here's the Jumpers (unchanged):

temporary_zps14d61d29.jpg


After writing the ROM to the SIMM, this is what the game looks like:

temporary_zpsa7db0a6d.jpg


I'm missing something here, aren't I? I just need someone to explain in simple terms what I need to do.. I'm either really close or MILES away from this being done.

Thanks in Advance
 

Artemio

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That is an issue with the graphics, the game is ok since the code is alright in the SIMM. If you have the means to check them, dump the 4 mask roms on the bottom left of your pic and compare them against the known dumps.

While doing that, you can confirm if they are correctly placed in the sockets with no bent pins.

You didn't nothing wrong, it is a completely different issue.

EDIT: Something seemed off to me, since I remember it uses them. The docs say that the board has 8 such graphics ROMs, but there are only 4 in your board. You are missing 4 more

http://www.progettoemma.net/gioco.php?game=sfz3j
 
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Lemony Vengeance

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That is an issue with the graphics, the game is ok since the code is alright in the SIMM. If you have the means to check them, dump the 4 mask roms on the bottom left of your pic and compare them against the known dumps.

While doing that, you can confirm if they are correctly placed in the sockets with no bent pins.

You didn't nothing wrong, it is a completely different issue.

EDIT: Something seemed off to me, since I remember it uses them. The docs say that the board has 8 such graphics ROMs, but there are only 4 in your board. You are missing 4 more

http://www.progettoemma.net/gioco.php?game=sfz3j


thanks for the post and tool, Artemio!

The board uses 64 meg mask roms, and not the normal 32 meg mask roms that the normal CPS2 boards use. I was thinking since I had the OG board, I could get away with re-writing the simm only, but that's not the case I guess :P
 

Artemio

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Thanks for the info, I only have MvC at home in the black format and don't even know if that one uses 64MB Mask Roms as well...

Anyway, the only course of action is checking if the graphics Mask ROMs are alright.
 

Dion

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The Black boards are not as easy to revive.

PM mainman. He's the expert.

It is incredibly easy using a SuperBIOS cart and Artemio's tool. Anyone with a SuperBIOS cart can revive one in less than 5 minutes. I have two Youtube videos about it. The one LV posted is one of them.

Make sure you used the new version of the tool. The first version gives errors on SFA3 but not on MVC.

Definitely looks like a GFX rom issue. I assume you reseated all of the roms? The problem with testing the 64mb SIMMS is that I don't believe there is a dump of them in MAME. You could replace a bad one with two 27c322 but I think you would need to replace two of the mask roms and then adjust one of the jumpers.

And for the record, as stated above, the black pcbs used 64mb roms for all games. Even the ones like MVC that originally used 32mb roms on the b-boards. Later b-boards like Progear and SF2:AE used 64mb roms originally anyways.

I'm surprised you didn't tell me about this problem in PM or email. I just happened to look at the forums tonight which I haven't had much time to do. LEt me know if you need help!
 

Lemony Vengeance

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I made sure to grab the latest tool before I re-flashed the SIMM. Just for kicks, I flashed it with the Hyper Anniversary ROM and got garbled graphics. Probably because the mask roms don't have the HA info on it (LAWL) see, I'm learning :P

My Eprom burner should be here tomorrow so I'll check the roms against MAME although like Mitsu, I don't think the all in ones have been dumped. Man, that would be great if the community did that and shared that info..

I'm surprised you didn't tell me about this problem in PM or email. I just happened to look at the forums tonight which I haven't had much time to do. LEt me know if you need help!

I know, I'm usually pretty quick on the emails to you lately but I didn't want to treat you like my personal tech support. I hate it when people do that to me :P Plus, if there's a thread, more people can see the solution and contribute to the project :D
 

Lemony Vengeance

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I reseated the roms last night and no dice :/

I'm going to go to my electronics shop today. IF they have the right ROMS, which ones should I get?
 

Xian Xi

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I reseated the roms last night and no dice :/

I'm going to go to my electronics shop today. IF they have the right ROMS, which ones should I get?

You need to verify the roms first. If they test good then don't replace them, the problem would be more down line in the multiplexing.
 

Tyranix95

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btw, what does the CPS rom test say?

---

It's like the only thing it's good for.
 

Lemony Vengeance

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I need to get the EEprom programmer in. USPS says expected delivery is today, but we all know it's bullshit :( If not today, tomorrow or thursday.
 

Xian Xi

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I need to get the EEprom programmer in. USPS says expected delivery is today, but we all know it's bullshit :( If not today, tomorrow or thursday.

Usually it will say out for delivery or sorted through your local PO then it should be delivered today or tomorrow. If it's blank but today is the expected, maybe not.
 

Dion

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The problem is he has nothing to verify them against. I don't believe the 64mb mask rom version of SFA3 is dumped into MAME.
 

Lemony Vengeance

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ok, so, just to recap:

I've downloaded the IDC clean roms and noticed that there were a few that were named differently:

2013-12-23_1443.png


I tried running the tool but it complained that there wasn't a full romset so I renamed the SZ3JDL to SZ3 to match, ran the tool, then used the file it output to flash the SIMM.

Is this incorrect?
 

Dion

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ok, so, just to recap:

I've downloaded the IDC clean roms and noticed that there were a few that were named differently:

2013-12-23_1443.png


I tried running the tool but it complained that there wasn't a full romset so I renamed the SZ3JDL to SZ3 to match, ran the tool, then used the file it output to flash the SIMM.

Is this incorrect?

Yes. That is correct. The fact that the game boots tells you that the SIMM is fine. The reason why those particular files are named differently is because they are the ones that needed to be decrypted. Not every program rom has decryption so the ones that do not are untouched across all regions of the game. Meaning in your example, 5-10 are identical across all regions of SFA3 and only rom 3 and 4 had any decryption on them.
 

Lemony Vengeance

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I'm wondering if the version I'm using (980629) is not the right version on the board, would that make any difference? I noticed that there are a handful of revisions (980727 and 980904, with 980904 having the least amount of variance from the Euro roms)... could that be the issue? I'm using the list on the CPS2-shock site.
 

Artemio

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No, any version would work. As we've mentioned, the issue is not with the revival itself. It is in the graphics section.
 

Xian Xi

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If you have a probe, check your LS157s to the left of the roms. You should be able to pinpoint which one(s) are possibly bad.
 

Dion

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If you have a probe, check your LS157s to the left of the roms. You should be able to pinpoint which one(s) are possibly bad.

Hey. How would one do that? I have a probe but have only ever used it for my pinball machine. I assume find the datasheet for them first and find the outputs?
 

Xian Xi

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Hey. How would one do that? I have a probe but have only ever used it for my pinball machine. I assume find the datasheet for them first and find the outputs?

Exactly. Get the pinouts and check the outputs and control pins. Usually if it's the chip it would be obvious as either the output isn't pulsing or it's all high. Check it against the other ones, the bad one usually stands out, just like Sesame Street said...lol "One of these things is not like the other...."
 
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