Sudden Graphical Glitches on my Final Fight PCB

Jibbajaba · Feb 21, 2016

Hey guys,

I bought a Final Fight PCB about a year ago, and it has always worked like a champ. Yesterday I put it in my arcade cab and fired it up, and got some graphical glitches. I re-seated every socketed chip, and also re-seated all three boards. Nothing changed. Below is a vid of the glitch, and an Imgur library with a few PCB shots. Any input is appreciated. Thanks!

http://imgur.com/a/qYftZ

Kid Panda · Feb 21, 2016

I can't give you real expert advice, but I will say CPS 1 A boards are notorious for failure.

Hope you get it fixed brotha!

Jibbajaba · Feb 21, 2016

Kid Panda said:
I can't give you real expert advice, but I will say CPS 1 A boards are notorious for failure. Hope you get it fixed brotha!

Yeah someone on KLOV also said "A Board".

wyo · Feb 21, 2016

Do you have a spare A board from another game you could swap it out with? If not try to find a cheap game such as World Warrior and steal the A board. Sadly, the CPS1 A-pocalypse is upon us

Jibbajaba · Feb 21, 2016

No, I don't have any other CPS games or a spare A-board. But I can just bring it to the next NorCal meat-up and ask someone else to bring one to swap out.

pulstar · Feb 23, 2016

My FF did a similar thing (not exactly the same, but some lines, sprites repeating etc) and it turned out to be the C board. It's a 50/50 split on the A or C board to be honest. Hopefully it's the A board, much easier to find a replacement.

Stellarola · Feb 23, 2016

My SF2 had similar glitching. I took it over to WestCB and we connected his 'A' board...worked like a champ after that.

Sounds like you've got a plan of action. Good luck, hope that's all it is.

Xian Xi · Feb 23, 2016

This was one of the things I was hoping Darksoft would make, a replacement CPS1 A board.

Tyranix95 · Feb 23, 2016

Custom graphics chip problem.

Either connection between the board layers, bad solder joint(s), or bad chip (most likely suspect).

Next Step: Test unit with a known good "A" or "C" board to isolate the faulty layer.

wyo · Feb 23, 2016

Just got a World Warrior with no sound. At least the A-board is good though. CPS1 strugglez...

F4U57 · Feb 23, 2016

+1 on the A board.

My Final Fight and Knights of the Round both have graphical issues with the A boards they came with.

Both work great with my working A board.

A boards are becoming more and more sought after.

Dark soft should definitely create a replacement CPS1 A board!

wyo · Feb 23, 2016

F4U57 said:
+1 on the A board.

My Final Fight and Knights of the Round both have graphical issues with the A boards they came with.

Both work great with my working A board.

A boards are becoming more and more sought after.

Dark soft should definitely create a replacement CPS1 A board!

Yeah man, if we have to use OG A board for a multi we are fucked :lolz:

Jibbajaba · Feb 23, 2016

Is it one of the chips on the A board that is going bad? Why isn't this a fixable problem?

F4U57 · Feb 23, 2016

Jibbajaba said:
Is it one of the chips on the A board that is going bad? Why isn't this a fixable problem?

From my understanding (which is quite limited), the A boards are difficult to troubleshoot. There is a long process of elimination in determining graphical errors due to faulty CPS1 A boards. There is one main chip which is more often than not a culprit, but the banks of chips on the right of the board are also considerations.

Read up on some repair logs for an idea of the troubleshooting of A boards. They're intimidating ha ha.

Also, check the underside of the board and make sure no pins are touching and shorting out. Straighten them out if they are.

CPS1 is grief stricken. So damn frustrating.

fluxcore · Feb 24, 2016

I have a whole banana box full of cps1 a-boards with various graphical problems... 90% of them due to the custom chip.

I wish someone would come up with a replacement for that chip :/

Stellarola · Feb 24, 2016

fluxcore said:
I have a whole banana box full of cps1 a-boards with various graphical problems... 90% of them due to the custom chip.

I wish someone would come up with a replacement for that chip :/

If it's not an issue with solder joints/connection, it's most likely just a fault in the internals of the chip design itself.

Not exactly related, but back in 2007-2009 nVidia had a huge lawsuit for faulty graphic chips that were used in most major manufacturer notebooks. We call this 'flip chip design'. While some people would fix this by reheating these chips, it was not a definitive solution. Same goes with Xbox 360 RROD.

Back on track though, those custom Capcom chips were never meant to last...

If you need more examples, just look at their record of their hardware/security measures...Capcom WAS trippin'...

F4U57 · Feb 24, 2016

What sucks, is we'll all end up with a bunch of working B+C combos and maybe only 1 A board to swap between them all. Then that one will go.

Someone needs to invest in a CPS1 A board replacement solution.

Jibbajaba · Nov 20, 2016

Necro-bumping this thread. I just bought a World Warrior B+C combo, and popped it onto Final Fight's A board. Same glitches. They don't happen during the self-check, but once the game boots up.

So in a way I guess this is good news. I would rather have a bad A board than a bad FF C board...

mjmjr25 · Nov 21, 2016

Jibbajaba said:
Yeah someone on KLOV also said "A Board".

KLOV'ers give best advice.

F4U57 · Nov 21, 2016

Jibbajaba said:
Necro-bumping this thread. I just bought a World Warrior B+C combo, and popped it onto Final Fight's A board. Same glitches. They don't happen during the self-check, but once the game boots up.

So in a way I guess this is good news. I would rather have a bad A board than a bad FF C board...

Well at least you've identified it's definitely the A board. It really is a shame - CPS1 is amazing but they're so unreliable. I'm worried I'll fire up my Ghouls n Ghosts one day and it'all be fucked. That said, A boards do come around now and then. I picked one up recently for $50 for my Final Fight.

aha2940 · Nov 21, 2016

A boards are all compatible no matter the game, or region or anything, right?

F4U57 · Nov 21, 2016

aha2940 said:
A boards are all compatible no matter the game, or region or anything, right?

Correct. The Dash boards just run at a faster frame rate.

bustedstr8 · Nov 21, 2016

There can be some issues running games at another speed. I've come across a few over the years. Willow will behave oddly at 12Mhz and I couldn't get Captain Commando to boot at 10Mhz.

EllertMichael · Nov 21, 2016

Stellarola said:
Back on track though, those custom Capcom chips were never meant to last...

If you need more examples, just look at their record of their hardware/security measures...Capcom WAS trippin'...

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