NEOSD MVS Support thread !

drmadd220

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Feb 8, 2006
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Got my NeoSD MVS cart today. Loaded a few games up and played fine. I then loaded up Captain Tomaday and received a Exception Error Handling screen. I have the cart in slot 1 of my 4 slot Big Red. I moved the NeoSD cart to slot 2 and the same error was displayed. Other MVS carts play just fine in the slots. I can not get back into the menu to try to load a different game.
 

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neodev

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Got my NeoSD MVS cart today. Loaded a few games up and played fine. I then loaded up Captain Tomaday and received a Exception Error Handling screen. I have the cart in slot 1 of my 4 slot Big Red. I moved the NeoSD cart to slot 2 and the same error was displayed. Other MVS carts play just fine in the slots. I can not get back into the menu to try to load a different game.


To forcd booting to the neosd menu, just insert the sd card in your pc and delete the file named LastGame.cfg .

Is the exception message always the same? Can you run NeoValidator on your built romset to check if the .neo is correct?
 

drmadd220

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To forcd booting to the neosd menu, just insert the sd card in your pc and delete the file named LastGame.cfg .

Is the exception message always the same? Can you run NeoValidator on your built romset to check if the .neo is correct?


I ran the NeoValidator - looks like that .neo is ok.

The exception message is always the same. I can hit "A" and it scrolls to a second screen of D/A registers.

So far this is the only game it has done this on.
 

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Rot

Calvin & Hobbes, ,
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I would advise you to look at post 44 here under and test if your issue is still present with that one.
I know that if CRC check has passed it should work but have a try...

That link dies in about 8 hours...

I may refresh the link.... depends on demand...

It's a ballache...

xROTx
 

neodev

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Got my NeoSD MVS cart today. Loaded a few games up and played fine. I then loaded up Captain Tomaday and received a Exception Error Handling screen. I have the cart in slot 1 of my 4 slot Big Red. I moved the NeoSD cart to slot 2 and the same error was displayed. Other MVS carts play just fine in the slots. I can not get back into the menu to try to load a different game.

Can you try enabling Arcade mode and taking the SD card out to check if it captain tomaday works fine that way?

Also you should be able to enter the neosd menu by holding START while the MVS boots.
 

aha2940

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Hi

I just wanted to congratulate neosd for their product. I got the MVS version, and so far everything I've tried works very nice on my MV1C and on my AES using Daedalus converter. One very minor point though: I tried playing Ganryu, and the music on the intro has three clicks. Those same clicks are present on my bootleg cart, but they are not when the game is played on MAME using original, encrypted rom. I think this may be a similar issue to the sound in Samurai Shodown V Special? I've never played the original Ganryu on original hardware, so no idea if those clicks are also there, but do not think so because on MAME they are not.

Thanks!
 

drmadd220

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Hi Jontox - actually these are from post 44 - the one before the Korean Variant


I would advise you to look at post 44 here under and test if your issue is still present with that one.
I know that if CRC check has passed it should work but have a try...
 

fille1976

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hi,

i noticed it also on my mv1b with ganryu,i don't know if its normal?
can someone else test this?
 

neodev

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Hi

I just wanted to congratulate neosd for their product. I got the MVS version, and so far everything I've tried works very nice on my MV1C and on my AES using Daedalus converter. One very minor point though: I tried playing Ganryu, and the music on the intro has three clicks. Those same clicks are present on my bootleg cart, but they are not when the game is played on MAME using original, encrypted rom. I think this may be a similar issue to the sound in Samurai Shodown V Special? I've never played the original Ganryu on original hardware, so no idea if those clicks are also there, but do not think so because on MAME they are not.

Thanks!

I've just checked and Ganryu doesn't use any encryption on V roms (actually the PROG rom is plain standard, without encryption on P or V roms), also, the CHA board uses the CMC 042 that doesn't encrypt the audio program, so those clicks are not caused by wrong decryption, and so neosd is running with the exact same data than MAME. Keep in mind that MAME has a software emulation of the YM2610 sound chip, and that it might not be 100% accurate to the actual hardware device, so I'd say the clicks aren't caused by neosd (or the bootleg) but they are either a bad dump, or they are also present in the actual cart. Can anyone with an original Ganryu cart confirm? I think they are quite rare though.

There could be another explanation though, and that's something I'd need to check. That the game is addressing a sample outside of the 4MB rom space that is actually used. Tomorrow I'll check erasing the rest of the V rom data, and also replicating the V rom 4 times to cover the entire V rom flash space to check if it changes.

EDIT: I couldn't wait and I tried ganryu un an emulator. The intro is just 2 long ADPCM-A samples, a first one that plays the "slow" part of the intro, looped 3 times at the beginning, and then another sample, looped other 3 times, during the "faster music" part. This second sample is the one with issues. There are not 3 clicks, but just it's just the same one repated 3 times because of the looping. All data is ok, well in range, so, there is probably just a single wrong byte.

This means that the cause is one of the 2 I mentioned: either a single byte bad dump (or probably more), or the original game just sounds that way, and the encoder the used didn't produce a proper ADPCM value, probably in some edge case. Ganryu doesn't seem a very polished game, even the change from the slow to fast music is abrupt and not properly synchronized, so that issue being in the original game looks "normal" .
Maybe in the hardware the decoder overflows, causing a click, and in mame it's clamped to sane values.
 
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drmadd220

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Can you try enabling Arcade mode and taking the SD card out to check if it captain tomaday works fine that way?

Also you should be able to enter the neosd menu by holding START while the MVS boots.


I have Arcade mode enabled - took the SD card out of the cart. Started up the machine and captain tomaday started up. I let it cycle through the game and then the error came back about the 3rd cycle to the NeoSD cart. This time the address error was a "write". The address is the same number :00030604 but the AC ADRS is now :00008039

Also the holding of the start button does not work on bootup - for some reason when the NeoSD is installed in slot 1 - the system starts up cart 2 and not the NeoSD cart. I put a normal MVS cart in slot 1, it boots up to that cart that is in slot 1.
I tried selecting on NeoSD cart the option of boot to menu and again it does not do boot to menu because it starts on cart 2.

Another thing that I tested was remove one game, so NeoSD cart in slot 1, slot 2 empty, slot 3 metal slug X, slot 4 Aero Fighters 2. Cycle through games error pops up.
Now remove another game, NeoSD cart in slot 1 and Aero Fighters 2 in slot 4. Cycle through games and no error pops up.
 
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RAZO

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I've just checked and Ganryu doesn't use any encryption on V roms (actually the PROG rom is plain standard, without encryption on P or V roms), also, the CHA board uses the CMC 042 that doesn't encrypt the audio program, so those clicks are not caused by wrong decryption, and so neosd is running with the exact same data than MAME. Keep in mind that MAME has a software emulation of the YM2610 sound chip, and that it might not be 100% accurate to the actual hardware device, so I'd say the clicks aren't caused by neosd (or the bootleg) but they are either a bad dump, or they are also present in the actual cart. Can anyone with an original Ganryu cart confirm? I think they are quite rare though.

There could be another explanation though, and that's something I'd need to check. That the game is addressing a sample outside of the 4MB rom space that is actually used. Tomorrow I'll check erasing the rest of the V rom data, and also replicating the V rom 4 times to cover the entire V rom flash space to check if it changes.

EDIT: I couldn't wait and I tried ganryu un an emulator. The intro is just 2 long ADPCM-A samples, a first one that plays the "slow" part of the intro, looped 3 times at the beginning, and then another sample, looped other 3 times, during the "faster music" part. This second sample is the one with issues. There are not 3 clicks, but just it's just the same one repated 3 times because of the looping. All data is ok, well in range, so, there is probably just a single wrong byte.

This means that the cause is one of the 2 I mentioned: either a single byte bad dump (or probably more), or the original game just sounds that way, and the encoder the used didn't produce a proper ADPCM value, probably in some edge case. Ganryu doesn't seem a very polished game, even the change from the slow to fast music is abrupt and not properly synchronized, so that issue being in the original game looks "normal" .
Maybe in the hardware the decoder overflows, causing a click, and in mame it's clamped to sane values.


I just confirmed that the 3 clicks are present on my original MVS cart. So I don't think anything is wrong with the rom.
 

neodev

Neosd Tech
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Nov 28, 2016
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256
I have Arcade mode enabled - took the SD card out of the cart. Started up the machine and captain tomaday started up. I let it cycle through the game and then the error came back about the 3rd cycle to the NeoSD cart. This time the address error was a "write". The address is the same number :00030604 but the AC ADRS is now :00008039

Also the holding of the start button does not work on bootup - for some reason when the NeoSD is installed in slot 1 - the system starts up cart 2 and not the NeoSD cart. I put a normal MVS cart in slot 1, it boots up to that cart that is in slot 1.
I tried selecting on NeoSD cart the option of boot to menu and again it does not do boot to menu because it starts on cart 2.

Another thing that I tested was remove one game, so NeoSD cart in slot 1, slot 2 empty, slot 3 metal slug X, slot 4 Aero Fighters 2. Cycle through games error pops up.
Now remove another game, NeoSD cart in slot 1 and Aero Fighters 2 in slot 4. Cycle through games and no error pops up.

Thanks for testing. I'll try in a multislot with the same setup than yours. Also, some original game carts (not neosd) are known to have issues with multislots, maybe captain tomaday is one of those, but I can't be sure till I test it.
 
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cyd

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Also as an FYI, the slot that is booted first on the multi-slot boards is controlled by the BIOS and is not always slot 1. There are a few things the BIOS checks for when deciding which slot to boot first.

Have you by chance checked the voltage at the top board? Sounds a bit like there maybe a little voltage drop.
 
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aha2940

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I've just checked and Ganryu doesn't use any encryption on V roms (actually the PROG rom is plain standard, without encryption on P or V roms), also, the CHA board uses the CMC 042 that doesn't encrypt the audio program, so those clicks are not caused by wrong decryption, and so neosd is running with the exact same data than MAME. Keep in mind that MAME has a software emulation of the YM2610 sound chip, and that it might not be 100% accurate to the actual hardware device, so I'd say the clicks aren't caused by neosd (or the bootleg) but they are either a bad dump, or they are also present in the actual cart. Can anyone with an original Ganryu cart confirm? I think they are quite rare though.

There could be another explanation though, and that's something I'd need to check. That the game is addressing a sample outside of the 4MB rom space that is actually used. Tomorrow I'll check erasing the rest of the V rom data, and also replicating the V rom 4 times to cover the entire V rom flash space to check if it changes.

EDIT: I couldn't wait and I tried ganryu un an emulator. The intro is just 2 long ADPCM-A samples, a first one that plays the "slow" part of the intro, looped 3 times at the beginning, and then another sample, looped other 3 times, during the "faster music" part. This second sample is the one with issues. There are not 3 clicks, but just it's just the same one repated 3 times because of the looping. All data is ok, well in range, so, there is probably just a single wrong byte.

This means that the cause is one of the 2 I mentioned: either a single byte bad dump (or probably more), or the original game just sounds that way, and the encoder the used didn't produce a proper ADPCM value, probably in some edge case. Ganryu doesn't seem a very polished game, even the change from the slow to fast music is abrupt and not properly synchronized, so that issue being in the original game looks "normal" .
Maybe in the hardware the decoder overflows, causing a click, and in mame it's clamped to sane values.

Thanks for the very detailed explanation neodev. I thought V roms were also encrypted, but it seems only C ones are.

I just confirmed that the 3 clicks are present on my original MVS cart. So I don't think anything is wrong with the rom.

Thanks for the confirmation RAZO. Too bad this game has such issues, I like it (but then again, I also like Metal Slug 4, so what do I now).
 

drmadd220

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Also as an FYI, the slot that is booted first on the multi-slot boards is controlled by the BIOS and is not always slot 1. There are a few things the BIOS checks for when deciding which slot to boot first.

Have you by chance checked the voltage at the top board? Sounds a bit like there maybe a little voltage drop.

Hi cyd, would you be able to let me know the location on the top board to check the voltage?
 

cyd

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I typically use the 2 pin header (JP1) located in the upper right.
 

cyd

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That probably low enough to cause some of those intermittent errors you are seeing. Adjust your power supply to trim it up to 5 volts and I would wager the random crashes will go away.
 

drmadd220

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That probably low enough to cause some of those intermittent errors you are seeing. Adjust your power supply to trim it up to 5 volts and I would wager the random crashes will go away.

cyd, I bumped it up to 4.97 volts. It gave the same exception error with 4 carts installed, but now it does work with 3 carts installed (NeoSD cart and 2 others) So that did gain me one more cart. Also it still will not boot to the NeoSD cart in slot one.

Not sure how much more in voltage I can safely go without messing up any carts or the main board.
 

cyd

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TTL gates operate on a nominal power supply voltage of 5 volts, +/- 0.25 volts. I wouldn't go all the way to 5.25 but 5.05 is gerealy considered accepted. If you still have issues it's time to clean the slots ant card edges ( you may even want to do that first ;).
 

cyd

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Oh and about it not booting the neosd in slot one, put a different game on it, an older game like say SS2...
 

drmadd220

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Oh and about it not booting the neosd in slot one, put a different game on it, an older game like say SS2...

So I loaded SS2 like you suggested and you are correct, that worked when booting up it did go right to the NeoSD cart.
 
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drmadd220

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TTL gates operate on a nominal power supply voltage of 5 volts, +/- 0.25 volts. I wouldn't go all the way to 5.25 but 5.05 is gerealy considered accepted. If you still have issues it's time to clean the slots ant card edges ( you may even want to do that first ;).

I bumped the voltage up to 5.05 volts. Now it freezes the NeoSD game instead of throwing the exception error after a couple cycles through it. But if I remove one game everything works fine. I will clean all the slots again to see if that helps at all. Thanks for all the help
 
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