AES 3-6 Vertical Bars (Sprites Only)

Joined
Jul 15, 2018
Posts
6
Hey guys. I am pretty much a noob so I apologize if this is the wrong place for this, or if it's a common question but...

I got myself an AES 3-6 revision and I was experiencing some weird vertical line distortion. After poking around online I assumed it was what is described here: http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/snk-neo-geo-aes-rgb-neo-aes3-6-vertical-lines/, so I conducted this minor bit of surgery and expected the problem to clear up. No dice. While I think that procedure seemed to clear up my video overall, when I was able to play it a bit more (on several games) and actually pay attention, I believe my problem has to do solely with the sprites, everything else looks crystal clear. Here are some photos to get a sense.
9GDXsqi.jpg

Here we have perfect picture, no problems.


vnY0gWA.jpg

Here just King's sprite is presenting the issue.


tNylaeW.jpg

And finally King's sprite, Andy's and the BG sprites are all presenting the vertical lines.


Does anyone have a good sense of what is causing this? Is it any easy fix? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks so much.
 
Last edited:

Finch

Hardened Shock Trooper
10 Year Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2009
Posts
431
THIS! ^^^ Or even just kind of wiggle the cart in the slot a bit and see if the lines go away. My CMVS system doesn't hold carts super tight when they are plugged in, and if you wiggle them at all this is often what happens. Cleaning the cartridge and slot will probably fix this.
 
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Jul 15, 2018
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Okay, well it happens on every cart, so I would assume it's probably the slots. I will give it a try and report back.
 
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Jul 15, 2018
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Thanks so much for the suggestions but sadly they did not resolve the issue.

I cleaned both the carts and the slots and could not get the problem to go away. Wiggling didn't seem to affect the picture quality at all.

What would you suggest is my next step?
 

Xian Xi

JammaNationX,
15 Year Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Posts
27,748
Try another game, if it does it again then it's the system, if it doesn't then it's the cart.
 
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Yes, I have tried all the carts I own (3) and it always happens. So 100% it is the system. What would I begin testing on the system to start narrowing it down?

(Thanks again for all the input so far)
 

Xian Xi

JammaNationX,
15 Year Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Posts
27,748
Yes, I have tried all the carts I own (3) and it always happens. So 100% it is the system. What would I begin testing on the system to start narrowing it down?

(Thanks again for all the input so far)

Assuming everything is clean, check the traces from the CHA slot on the board.
 
Joined
Jul 15, 2018
Posts
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Okay, so I started checking traces around the CHA slot and they mostly seemed fine, but I did a bit more searching and the most gnarly ones I could find were around the LSPC2-A2 as show in this photo:
sOKjVW2.jpg


As far as I can tell from the pinout diagram here these gnarly traces are mostly P-bus traces and are almost certainly related to addressing CROMs, which from what I've read is the most common culprit for vertical line distortion in sprites.

Looks like the following are the worst culprits, if it's not clear from the picture:
99 - C10
112 - P0
115 - P3
135 - P17
137 - P19
138 - GND
139 - P20
140 - P21
141 - P22


Am I getting somewhere here? The problem is now I am getting to the point where I am not super confident in my ability to correct the problem once it is fully diagnosed.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jul 15, 2018
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Can't see anywhere where it's specifically against the rules, so bumping for visibility as it's been about 3 weeks. Again, thanks for any and all help I have received/will receive.
 

madman

Blame madman, You Know You Want To.,
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Jun 1, 2007
Posts
7,518
How did you "check" the traces"? Visually or with a continuity meter?
 
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