U.S Neo Aes System Scaling Issues

I was at my Parents house today and decided to give my U.S system a run since it's been almost 2 years since I touched it. I usually just mess with my Japanese Consoles since they are modded and have slightly better picture quality.

The Problem I'm having is Distorted Scaling. In Fighting games when the Camera Zooms Out the Characters on Screen get pixelated and distorted.

I've noticed that the NeoSd isn't going in the Cart Slot nice and smooth like my other Neo's. I cleaned the Contacts on the Cart Slot, Cleaned the NeoSd Contacts and still having the same issue. I know it's not the NeoSd since that works fine on my Japanese Consoles.

Does the system maybe just need to run for awhile and warm up since it's been awhile or has something gone bad. I know it's not the NeoSd since that works fine with my Japanese Aes Consoles.




This isn't the Console that was up for Sale Earlier. The one I was selling was a modded console, this one is a U.S Gold Unmodded console that I haven't messed around with in awhile.

https://youtu.be/fTbCB9h7pCs

Is there anything obviously wrong around the LO ROM? If it's an issue specifically with scaling, that would be a culprit. Does the Neo-Geo logo "spin" correctly on boot?
https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=L0_ROM

SpamYouToDeath said:

Is there anything obviously wrong around the LO ROM? If it's an issue specifically with scaling, that would be a culprit. Does the Neo-Geo logo "spin" correctly on boot?
https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=L0_ROM

Click to expand...

No, The Neo Logo has the distortion issue when it spins.

I'll take a peak at it tomorrow and see if there is something wrong. Is it possible that the chip went bad?

RAZO said:

No, The Neo Logo has the distortion issue when it spins.

I'll take a peak at it tomorrow and see if there is something wrong. Is it possible that the chip went bad?

Click to expand...

It's a mask ROM, so it's not likely to fail - but it could have. It's the most obvious suspect, though, as it's specifically involved in sprite scaling.

My second guess would be something wrong with the video RAM, specifically the "fast" RAM where the scaling settings for each sprite are written.
https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=VRAM

The Neo-Geo logo is a good test because it scales horizontally, and then vertically. Are both messed up?

Just to point out the the NeoGeo logo tiles (used in the jingle) are stored on the cart if that is not already clear.

The issue can be with the LO rom as SpamYouToDeath has suggested if the issue is only happens during scaling. A short video on the NeoGeo jingle showing the issue might be helpfull.

Never Mind my kid in the background making Crying Baby Noises. She was playing with her dolls.

https://youtu.be/fTbCB9h7pCs

It looks like the Neo Logo gets distorted when it go's vertical. It's Hard to tell in the video.

Try cleaning the PSU socket on the console, also try a different PSU. Presumably you already cleaned the cart, etc.

wyo said:

Try cleaning the PSU socket on the console, also try a different PSU. Presumably you already cleaned the cart, etc.

Click to expand...

I tried a different PSU. Haven't Cleaned the psu Socket.

I cleaned the Power Connector on the console and same result. I've pretty much covered all the cleaning pretty thoroughly with DeOxit and Rubbing Alchol so I think it's either One of the Chips or Maybe Bad Solder Points around one of the chips mentioned.

I contacted James and he's going to take a look at it for me and do a few mods while he has it.

Isn't the problem occuring with horizontal scaling only ?
Scaling on the "fighting" text of the title screen seems fine, but there are blinking pixels during the split screen at 0:46.
Also the Neogeo logo has glitchy pair of lines when scaled horizontally:

Looks ok when scaled vertically:


I'd check if the EVEN signal is ok on the cart connector. It should be toggling a lot when scaled graphics are displayed.