AES working but no boot screen and no difficulty select?

knowware

n00b
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
Posts
5
I finally got myself an AES so forgive me if this is a newbie issue.
My AES has no opening boot screen and boots directly to the cartridge and seems to have no difficulty selection on any game, even games where I see other people have a difficulty select screen like Fatal fury special, my system skips where the selection screen would come up. Its always set to level 4 difficulty.
It's a first gen board, low serial #.
I thought it might be a bios issue but I don't even know where the bios is on a first gen board.
I haven't been able to find any information on this issue online so any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.
 

knowware

n00b
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
Posts
5
Also I did the system self test without a cart and it came up cyan (memory card issue though there is no memory card inserted), not sure if that means anything.
 

NexusX

Astra Superstar
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Posts
665
What game cartridge are you using for the test? And just pop open the AES and check what Bios chip (snap a photo of the whole board) is on the board.
 
Last edited:

knowware

n00b
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
Posts
5
Now that I look closer I'm thinking some kind of repair or mod was done at some point to it. This chip looks weird and doesn't match what I've seen online
neogeo.jpgneogeo2.jpg
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
Yeah, that system definitely has had the bios changed.

It's probably a Debug Bios. Try holding select and press C on controller 2. That should bring up the menu.
 

knowware

n00b
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
Posts
5
I couldn't get that to work. I tried every method online I could find to access a bios menu (start+select, A+B+C. B+C+D, select+C) and nothing. Is there anything older than a debug bios? The guy I bought it from had it for over 25 years, it definately seems some kind bios set to MVS mode with splash screen turned off.
 
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