Unibios fail

dcx516

New Challenger
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
Posts
68
i guess my soldering skills suck big time because i botched up soldering in a unibios. Without a game installed i get a screen that goes from blue to green and i hear a low clicking noise coming from my tv speakers. With a game in, i get a bunch of garbled characters on the screen and the same low clicking noise. I checked my traces and it doesnt look like any are screwed up, anything else i should check?

Thanks
 

wyndcrosser

Baseball Star Hitter
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Posts
1,268
Mvs? AES? Socketed style? More details please to assist.
 

dcx516

New Challenger
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
Posts
68
Mvs? AES? Socketed style? More details please to assist.

Sorry, I was so pissed that i forgot to add the details. It's an AES and I didn't install the socket. I removed the original bios and soldered in the uni. It's a NEO-AES3-5 board
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,927
Get a multimeter and use the AES bios traces tutorial page on Jamma Nation X:
http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/tutorials.html

Try soldering together pins 38,39, and 40 or not. Whether they should be bridged depends on the system.

It can be a long road depending on how much damage was done (it's a lot easier to screw up than you would think). If this is beyond your capabilities, send the system to someone for repair.
 

dcx516

New Challenger
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
Posts
68
Get a multimeter and use the AES bios traces tutorial page on Jamma Nation X:
http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/tutorials.html

Try soldering together pins 38,39, and 40 or not. Whether they should be bridged depends on the system.

It can be a long road depending on how much damage was done (it's a lot easier to screw up than you would think). If this is beyond your capabilities, send the system to someone for repair.

Anyone on here do repairs?
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,927
Not as impossible as I probably made it sound though. I've repaired a couple of these using a multimeter and the guide I linked.

Multimeters are cheap. Just set it to the continuity check mode, put one needle on the unibios pin, and another needle on where that pin is supposed to go to, then check the screen for a minus sign. Patch the pins that aren't connected.
 
Last edited:

dcx516

New Challenger
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
Posts
68
Not as impossible as I probably made it sound though. I've repaired a couple of these using a multimeter and the guide I linked.

Multimeters are cheap. Just set it to the continuity check mode, put one needle on the unibios pin, and another needle on where that pin is supposed to go to, then check the screen for a minus sign. Patch the pins that aren't connected.

I'm going to attempt it tonight. Can't hurt to try again
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,927
Try not to do any further damage. Don't undo your work unless necessary. It can be a real bitch. I would compare it to replacing the the NES video PPU for installing NESRGB. Difficult!
 

Razoola

Divine Hand of the UniBIOS,
Staff member
20 Year Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2002
Posts
4,662
Yup, use the 2 AES pin guides on JAMMA nation X with a multimetre.
 

phoenixdownita

Cheng's Errand Boy
Joined
Jun 28, 2015
Posts
114
Should rename the thread, I thought someone was complaining about the Uni itself.

I installed mine on a 3-5 AES and broke 4 traces in the process (prying out the old BIOS that I thought was completely unsoldered via screwdriver .... turns out I was wrong) it took me a while to "fix" it and I had a socket installed already (coulnd't really see the damage before that).
Unfortunately because of the path some traces had to take I had to use the soldering iron to melt the plastic outside the socket pins to reach the metal pin there and then solder on the side (I didn't want to have very long wires go all the way to the bottom of the board and didn't find any suitable place nearby to drill a through hole). One of the socket pins now "sticks" a little more than I wanted to (no doubt because of my soldering job on it's outside part) but I am able to fully extract the BIOS eprom and replace it as new versions are made available .... so I am a happy camper in the end.

For sure take your time, slow and steady.
I learnt the hard way in this and other "soldering adventure" that there's no such a thing as a 5 minutes soldering job with me, some shit always happens so I make sure I have plenty of time to calm down and fix my mess.

EDIT: agree with the NESRGB install, in my case though the issue was that I soldered the pieces out of order wrt the adapter for the Twin Fami .... upon desoldering I broke 2 traces in the adapter itself .... couple of wires and I was back in business .... but before that I attempted to desolder the adapter from the NESRGB itself which overheated and dropped 2 of the SMD capacitors on the RGB pins and one on the regulator path [I was using a hot gun] .... Tim at a point offered a replacement if I couldn't fix it .... but I did and felt good that I gave myself plenty of time.
 
Last edited:

dcx516

New Challenger
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
Posts
68
Should rename the thread, I thought someone was complaining about the Uni itself.

I installed mine on a 3-5 AES and broke 4 traces in the process (prying out the old BIOS that I thought was completely unsoldered via screwdriver .... turns out I was wrong) it took me a while to "fix" it and I had a socket installed already (coulnd't really see the damage before that).
Unfortunately because of the path some traces had to take I had to use the soldering iron to melt the plastic outside the socket pins to reach the metal pin there and then solder on the side (I didn't want to have very long wires go all the way to the bottom of the board and didn't find any suitable place nearby to drill a through hole). One of the socket pins now "sticks" a little more than I wanted to (no doubt because of my soldering job on it's outside part) but I am able to fully extract the BIOS eprom and replace it as new versions are made available .... so I am a happy camper in the end.

For sure take your time, slow and steady.
I learnt the hard way in this and other "soldering adventure" that there's no such a thing as a 5 minutes soldering job with me, some shit always happens so I make sure I have plenty of time to calm down and fix my mess.

EDIT: agree with the NESRGB install, in my case though the issue was that I soldered the pieces out of order wrt the adapter for the Twin Fami .... upon desoldering I broke 2 traces in the adapter itself .... couple of wires and I was back in business .... but before that I attempted to desolder the adapter from the NESRGB itself which overheated and dropped 2 of the SMD capacitors on the RGB pins and one on the regulator path [I was using a hot gun] .... Tim at a point offered a replacement if I couldn't fix it .... but I did and felt good that I gave myself plenty of time.

Well I did what you guys suggested and it turns out I fucked up 6 traces.....now I just need to repair them. I really hope this works
 

wyndcrosser

Baseball Star Hitter
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Posts
1,268
If you know the traces, just wire them to the socket. Hot glue the wires so they are strong and don't get pulled or something.
 

dcx516

New Challenger
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
Posts
68
If you know the traces, just wire them to the socket. Hot glue the wires so they are strong and don't get pulled or something.

If i had a socket that would have been perfect. Unfortunately i didn't get one with the chip but i did manage to follow all of your instructions and i did it! i finally got the it working. Thank you all, you guys really know your shit, now i gotta fix my other that doesn't get any power
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,927
I broke connections on my NESrgb adapter too. No idea how.

If I need something desoldered neatly I let my wife do it. I don't have the patience. She had been watching me and learned how to do it better than me.
 

dcx516

New Challenger
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
Posts
68
I broke connections on my NESrgb adapter too. No idea how.

If I need something desoldered neatly I let my wife do it. I don't have the patience. She had been watching me and learned how to do it better than me.

I figured it wouldnt be that bad. I used a solder sucker but i guess i heated up the point too much.
 
Top