(another) PGM problem - Address Error

[_rm_]

Hi folks,

a couple weeks ago, i managed to repair one of my PGM board with the precious help from the guru, aka Xian Xi

But a few weeks before (yup, i'm that lucky) my other PGM also gave me problems, it simply presents an error screen when a game is loaded:



This was the mobo that i always used and it has several hours of gameplay in my hand and never game me any trouble.

Any hint where i could check for something wrong?

Thanks in advance

 

[Xian Xi]

Clean the slots.

 

[_rm_]

I wish it was that simple...

I gave the slots a good clening and nothing. Just to make sure, i swaped the slots daughter board for a good known one, and still no luck.

It's definitely not the slots.

 

[Xian Xi]

Do an onboard RAM test. Make sure it isn't the onboard RAM. If they are all good then it's the cart.

 

[_rm_]

Still no luck.

ALL ram test ok. ALL my 6 games give the same problem.

Any more toughts?

 

[eathis]

Have you check if the acid of the battery haven't damaged the slot pcb?
That's often what happened with the PGM slots.
The battery dies and the acid flows and damage the pcb and components.

If that's it not sure that you can repair it.
For your next slots you can replace the battery by a CR2032 battery with battery support. No acid in these batteries and that's much more easy to change, nothing to unsolder.

The last PGM slots produced directly got this kind of battery.

 

[_rm_]

Thank you for your reply.

I'm aware of that and yes, there was a bit of damage from acid but no broken traces since the board worked perfectly for many many hours after a good cleaning.

Only after 2 os so years of use this happened and it never worked again, so i think that some IC must have gone bad.

 

[Xian Xi]

Did you check for corrosion in the board connects? Not the slots but the connectors that connect the 2 boards together for the motherboard. I've seen corrosion in there before.

 

[_rm_]

Yup, and it is very clean, also checked for A LOT of tracks and they all have good continuity.

The only area that got a bit of corrosion is the battery area. Do you think it might be that custom chip nearby? Already tought about giving it a reflow, but i won't mess with an SMD Chip with that "leg pitch", will have to ask help from a skilled friend if i ever decide to try that.

 

[eathis]

Maybe a specific component is dead, this happened some times with no reasons like for Z80 error on MV1F MVS slots.

If your friend is good for this kind of things, ask him to take a look.
You'll never found the error without testing everything.