Well, here's my Puzzle Bobble.

After numerous attempts to get this thing working again it seems like I'm out of luck. The cart works sporadically, it's not the MVS (though that's acting up too, always starts on slot 3 now for some reason), and lately has gotten to the point where it just doesn't show up at all. I've used the eraser, cotton swab + alcohol, and even the electronics cleaner trick to fix this, I've reflown solder joints and checked for continuity, and it still does whatever it wants to. When it shows up via the Unibios the CRC passes with flying colors. Someone suggested it may be a boot, but it was bought from a respected member of these forums who assured me it was the real deal and was through my own research believed to be legit. Here are the pictures:

Case - http://i53.tinypic.com/9sa0as.png
Case 2 - http://i53.tinypic.com/29wr8f5.png
Case Top - http://i51.tinypic.com/2yoes5g.png
Board 1 Front - http://i51.tinypic.com/npnj2c.png http://i52.tinypic.com/o93ehg.png
Board 1 Back - http://i53.tinypic.com/2w7h0tt.png
Board 2 Front - http://i52.tinypic.com/123a1cw.png
Board 2 Back - http://i52.tinypic.com/2s6rgjl.png http://i52.tinypic.com/rkoc55.png

I'll be really surprised if this turns out to be a boot. For the record the black tape covering the rom windows were my own doing. The same goes for the label as I've taken the cover off this thing about ten thousand times now.

its real

werejag said:

its real

Click to expand...

Thanks werejag. That news is a bit of a mixed bag for me unfortunately, as if it were a boot the simple solution would be to buy a new one. Now I know there's something legitimately wrong with this cart.

When it does show up in the selection 90% of the time it will reset/exception out during gameplay and after doing so, disappears from the list. After screwing around with it (e.g. sticking the cart not completely in all the way, etc), it will sometimes come back, other times it stays gone. Again, this happens in every slot which... well you see where I'm going with this.

It doesn't appear to have any broken traces from what I've seen the numerous times I've opened the thing up. That does't mean I couldn't miss something, but I really don't even know where to begin fixing this thing. The slots on the MVS were cleaned as well to no avail. Though I seriously doubt it, I'm starting to wonder if the MVS is just rejecting the board for some reason now that it starts from Slot 3 even with a working and selectable cart in Slot 2. I don't know. This whole situation has got me beyond bothered as this has been going on for what will be a year ago this month. This cart acts up regardless of whether or not there are other carts in the MVS at the time of operation.

It´s legit.

Have you checked if the boards are not warped? Warped boards don´t make good contact with the cartridge slot.

I use a fine Garyflex block to buff up the edge connectors of PCB's that arn't making good contact. It can work wonders.

Some really fine (1000 grade +) wet and dry will achieve similar effect, but be sure to remove and dust created.

Lay the board edge on a sheet of glass and check it's level, as mentioned, if it is warped this could present a problem.

Failing all of that and after checking traces you may have a duff rom that is only working sporadically, although i've found this scenario to be quite rare.

More likely to be a logic chip that's duff in my opinion.