Glitch out while playing on my 4 slot

Renmauzo

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So, a while back, I had issues with a black screen and junk graphics on my 4 slot and couldn't play games at all. I got plenty of help here, and as such, cleaned the board, removed the BIOS chip and cleaned the pins, and took a pink eraser to all the contacts. Now, with a little luck and a few restarts, (sometimes it starts properly on the first go) I can get the system to turn on. Here's the problem (besides having to do multiple restarts most of the time): I'll be playing a game, and usually within about 5-10 minutes, my screen goes haywire, my credit LEDs start flickering, and I hear a 'de-de-de' sound (can't think of a better way to describe it) from the speakers. I can't usually get more than 2 matches into MotW, RotD, past the 2nd (sometimes 3rd if I'm lucky) level of MS5, and the same goes for Blazing Star and Pulstar. I got lucky one afternoon and the system stayed glitch free long enough for me to beat PI2, but 5-10 minutes is usually all I can get.
Could my harness be at fault? The whole thing seems to be very sensitive to vibration, like the harness will jostle and it will work suddenly, that kind of thing.
My other issue, and I've read about this with some searching here in the tech thread, is that the game in slot 4 will come on first (game depending, like Andro Dunos), but when I cycle through and try to come back to the first selection (the game in slot 4) it's 'disappeared' and I can only select from the other 3 titles.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated as my wife and I just want to play some games and not have to wonder if it's going to crap out on us in the middle of a good run.
On the bright side, I'm getting really good at the first few levels of all my games, lol.
 

Karou

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I really have no idea what connectors you might be talking about but with some loose connections in other stuff of mine I've jammed various plastic shims where it doesn"t block anything to make connections stay together better. Zipties? Sounds like you are using it in a cab? how is the board oriented? Is there a best way to have them oriented? Probably so the cart labels are up so gravity just pulls them in more rather than getting them to go over a bit=glitch? From what I've read here you apparently just have to experiment to see what order your games and which ones will work together in multislot boards. I hope I'm right about something??
 

SNKorSWM

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You might want to check your power supply unit.
 

Renmauzo

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Thanks guys! SoS: I did buy a proper replacement power supply for the cab, I just haven't installed it yet...basically because I'm afraid of screwing it up. The previous owner seemed to have some work done and the power supply was changed to some shitty Sony PSU that doesn't match the figures listed in the manual. The problem is that the person who did the work spliced the wires between the original PSU and the part of the harness going to the board, and as such, am a little out of my element as to how to set it right.

I'll look at getting this done and see if that resolves my issues.
 

SNKorSWM

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How does it run if you just plug in one cart and leave the other 3 slots empty?
 

Renmauzo

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So, it's been 5 years, and this is still a problem and figured I'd try reaching out again.

I'm not tech savvy enough to know how to change out the PSU. I bought the recommended PSU (typical ATX format) for a 4 slot from Suzo-Happ, but the one in the cab is a Sony PSU that has each wire individually clamped into their respective terminals, so I have no idea how to switch this out from a wire interface POV.
That said, the problem of having to power cycle numerous times before I even get a game to boot has never been solved (black screen on power up with the odd artifact randomly on screen) and when a game will boot, within minutes, the screen will go haywire with artifacting and the audio will sound a lot like a skipping disc in a discman.

Since I first reported these issues, the boards have gone to and come back from Richard (channelmaniac) who worked on the boards (I have the original 4 slot the cab came with and a spare I bought) and gave them the thumbs up, all the games have been cleaned with contact cleaner, and I eventually bought an MVS to Jamma converter board to play Jamma games, which oddly enough all work the first time every time and never glitch out; these problems only seem to occur with the 4 slot boards.
I'm at the point where I'm not sure what else I can do and am nearly ready to cut my losses on the whole thing, which is disappointing as I have some really great kits like MotW, Pulstar, and SDB that I really love to play...well, the few minutes I can get out of each before they glitch out that is.

Any ideas? I'm wondering if others have run into this issue before and am wondering if it's a voltage issue. Any ideas and/or help is always appreciated.
 

Kid Panda

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Possibly the wiring harness has some loose grounds floating around. The jostling you mentioned seems like pins aren't making full contact properly. With the movement causing haywire might be the pins at the edge connector as well. Make sure all the pins are pushed in on the harness at the edge, and maybe unhook it and then reseat the connector again. If you have a multimeter, have you checked that your voltages are fine?
 

Renmauzo

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Possibly the wiring harness has some loose grounds floating around. The jostling you mentioned seems like pins aren't making full contact properly. With the movement causing haywire might be the pins at the edge connector as well. Make sure all the pins are pushed in on the harness at the edge, and maybe unhook it and then reseat the connector again. If you have a multimeter, have you checked that your voltages are fine?

I've tried re-seating the harness multiple times to little effect, so I'm going to pick up a multi-meter tomorrow and check the values as the next step.
 

Kid Panda

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I've tried re-seating the harness multiple times to little effect, so I'm going to pick up a multi-meter tomorrow and check the values as the next step.

Word, we'll get you going, don't ever dump the neo. :D
 

ChuChu Flamingo

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Could try cleaning the jamma edge connector and the harness. They can get pretty damn filthy.
 
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Renmauzo

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Could try cleaning the jamma edge connector and the harness. They can get pretty damn filthy.

I did that fairly recently. I feel like it's the PSU not pushing out enough power or consistently at the very least, but I have no idea how to get the new PSU to interface with the harness; even with a wiring diagram beside me, I'd feel in over my head...

I'll check voltages tomorrow and we'll see about the next step.
 

Kid Panda

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Snap some pics of the PSU harness and maybe we can piece you together too.
 

Renmauzo

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So here are some pics I got today of the PSU and some kind of thing that looks like a transformer that is partially connected. My hope has been to replace both pieces with the Suzo-Happ PSU and clean up the wiring.

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As you can see, the molex terminals on the new PSU don't correspond to what's going into the Sony PSU, or at least, everything has been separated and I worry that I would have to figure what wire from the harness corresponds to each part of those molex terminals on the new PSU and then make custom molex pinouts to interface them.

On a side note, when cleaning the machine today, I accidentally turned it on while there was no game in the board, and got to a cross-hatch screen that took me into various menus. I got to a RAM dump screen, which I did (didn't know about this feature), and after that, I tried a few games and they booted up the first time each time (couldn't believe I didn't have to power cycle) and I was able to play through and they never crashed. I will do some more testing tomorrow, but I'm hoping that this was the solution to this problem all along. I'm also going to try this out with my back-up 4 slot board tomorrow and see if I get the same result. Even if the problem is solved, I still want to look into replacing the PSU as I move towards a complete restoration of the cab. Thanks guys!
 

ChuChu Flamingo

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Could clearing backup ram fix issues like this?
 

Renmauzo

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Nope, looks like it was either a coincidence, or because I only had one cart in at the time. I wanted to test with all four slots in play, and sure enough, mid-level in ST2, the screen goes haywire and the audio starts to click. I'm thinking that it must be inadequate voltage to each cart, but unless I can get someone in here to figure out how to switch the PSU, I might never be rid of this problem (unless I just put in one cart at a time).
 

Neo Alec

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You need to install a new power supply. An arcade power supply with enough watts for your board. Not a PC ATX power supply like the one you got. It seems really obvious to me that it will fix the problem. Don't worry, they're easy to install. You just use a screwdriver to move those cables over to the new supply.
 

Renmauzo

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You need to install a new power supply. An arcade power supply with enough watts for your board. Not a PC ATX power supply like the one you got. It seems really obvious to me that it will fix the problem. Don't worry, they're easy to install. You just use a screwdriver to move those cables over to the new supply.

Thanks Alec. I've been looking at the models available on the Suzo-Happ site, and there are a number of options that look similar to the SOny PSU. Is there one you'd recommend as a proper replacement? I'm also wondering if I NEED that other part in there that looks like a cylinder?
 

Renmauzo

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So I'm thinking one of these then?

http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=521_522&products_id=3069

http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=521_522&products_id=3351

Now, here's why I bought the one that I did before: http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=521_522&products_id=232
This is listed as being for all dedicated SNK NEO GEO cabs, but none of it interfaces, so why would they (and others in threads past) put that on there and recommend it?
 

Kid Panda

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So I'm thinking one of these then?

http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=521_522&products_id=3069

http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=521_522&products_id=3351

Now, here's why I bought the one that I did before: http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=521_522&products_id=232
This is listed as being for all dedicated SNK NEO GEO cabs, but none of it interfaces, so why would they (and others in threads past) put that on there and recommend it?

Sadly the wires were cut on your Neo, that Suzo Happ PS you have is in my goldie and links right up with the molex pulgs in the cab. My Big Red Neo 2 slot is the same. You could adapt that Suzo Happ, but you will be cutting wires. That cylinder is the isolation transformer for the monitor and if yours has the original Wells Gardner monitor you have to leave it in.
 

Renmauzo

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Sadly the wires were cut on your Neo, that Suzo Happ PS you have is in my goldie and links right up with the molex pulgs in the cab. My Big Red Neo 2 slot is the same. You could adapt that Suzo Happ, but you will be cutting wires. That cylinder is the isolation transformer for the monitor and if yours has the original Wells Gardner monitor you have to leave it in.

Son of a B...thanks Panda, at least that's cleared up then. I guess I'll go with one of those other two then. Is there a difference on the back end if I go for the 12V (first link) over the 5V (second link)?
 

Kid Panda

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Son of a B...thanks Panda, at least that's cleared up then. I guess I'll go with one of those other two then. Is there a difference on the back end if I go for the 12V (first link) over the 5V (second link)?

Actually, you know what? It would be easier to get the Molex plugs for that and just solder the wire to it put some heat shrink on it. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. I'll pull out the goldie tomorrow and take som pics of how the PSU is wired up, I'll show some pics to of where the wire actually runs.
 
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Renmauzo

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Actually, you know what? It would be easier to get the Molex plugs for that and just solder the wire to it put some heat shrink on it. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. I'll pull out the goldie tomorrow and take som pics of how the PSU is wired up, I'll show some pics to of where the wire actually runs.

Sweet! I've got a Hakko soldering station coming in shortly, so I can get that kind of work done.
 
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