Neo Diagnostics ROMs

fremen · Aug 3, 2012

Hi,

smkdan thanks a lot to share this awesome knowledge with the people.
IMO I suggest that this should be sticked.
I've used the sp1 in a mv1 (the big one) that I repaired and works perfect, all test were Ok, but I have some video problems (here the treat).

Saludos

smkdan · Aug 3, 2012

fremen said:
Hi,

smkdan thanks a lot to share this awesome knowledge with the people.
IMO I suggest that this should be sticked.
I've used the sp1 in a mv1 (the big one) that I repaired and works perfect, all test were Ok, but I have some video problems (here the treat).

Saludos

There's no way to test that sort for that type of video problem in software so posting pics on forum like you did is still the best way to find out the problem. The wiki pages linked in that thread should help for problems like that since the patterns on screen are easy to recognise and fix.

Xian Xi · Aug 4, 2012

Got an AES with the following error:

VRAM DATA (0000)
Addy: 008113
Act: 0002
EXP: 0000

With power cycling, same error. Very clean board, no visible corrosion or broken traces.

smkdan · Aug 5, 2012

Xian Xi said:
Got an AES with the following error:

The data test by itself is mostly the same as the one in the stock BIOS. The address shown and single bad bit in the lower byte looks like a bad lower 2K sprite RAM.

Xian Xi · Aug 5, 2012

smkdan said:
The data test by itself is mostly the same as the one in the stock BIOS. The address shown and single bad bit in the lower byte looks like a bad lower 2K sprite RAM.

That's what I gathered as well, I need to check the soldering on the LSPC also since it's the last bit it could just be a lifted leg. Thanks dude.

smkdan · Aug 7, 2012

Xian Xi said:
That's what I gathered as well, I need to check the soldering on the LSPC also since it's the last bit it could just be a lifted leg. Thanks dude.

Alright. The feedback helps plenty so keep it coming. I posted 013 just now which fixes a few bugs and tries to test for unwritable RAM. It's mainly the backup RAM circuit plus possible battery damage to it that this could help with. If you have other broken boards with unknown causes, try it running it with that.

Nightmare Tony · Aug 9, 2012

Dan, you be awesome. Wish I had this as a tool back in the day at SNK. Kudos, sir!

Xian Xi · Aug 9, 2012

smkdan said:
Alright. The feedback helps plenty so keep it coming. I posted 013 just now which fixes a few bugs and tries to test for unwritable RAM. It's mainly the backup RAM circuit plus possible battery damage to it that this could help with. If you have other broken boards with unknown causes, try it running it with that.

Soldering was fine, no broken traces. Probed it and didn't see anything so I pulled and tested the lower RAM and it tested bad. Replaced with known working one and it's fixed.

smkdan · Aug 11, 2012

Great, worked out as expected then. Your weird Mutation Nation AES problem reminds me that a cart tester would be handy where you just plug in a problem game and it does a few things with the program ROM/bank/protection etc. hardware. It won't necessarily find weird stuff that you might be having a problem with but there's a lot that can be caught. Something for a later version.

@Tony: Thanks, means a lot coming from the man himself

Nightmare Tony · Aug 11, 2012

smkdan said:
Great, worked out as expected then. Your weird Mutation Nation AES problem reminds me that a cart tester would be handy where you just plug in a problem game and it does a few things with the program ROM/bank/protection etc. hardware. It won't necessarily find weird stuff that you might be having a problem with but there's a lot that can be caught. Something for a later version.

@Tony: Thanks, means a lot coming from the man himself

blush. Am hoping the programming manual helped you out in that regard.

dragonpt · Aug 11, 2012

Now i just need an Cheap EPROM programmer, to test this. hard to find one

distropia · Aug 17, 2012

1.- bump for a great tool!

2.- "two techs think twice than one tech"

Question: got a mv1ax that is a nightmare. After some previous repairs and burning your magnificient bios 0.13, i got "Z80 slot switch ignored (SM1) ... SM1 otherwise looks unresponsive"
I've made an adaptor+socket to be able to swap with a 27c020 burned and another pulled from a parts board, same error. Pin3, 22 & 29 on the SM1 are bouncing, z80 swapped and same result.
Weird thing is it works perfectly with MetalSlugX -with unibios-. Perfect, not a single sample is lost. With the rest of games, zero sound or noise. Any ideas? I'm bored of this board, and I've repaired hundreds but this one is driving me nuts.

Xian Xi · Aug 17, 2012

distropia said:
1.- bump for a great tool!

2.- "two techs think twice than one tech" Question: got a mv1ax that is a nightmare. After some previous repairs and burning your magnificient bios 0.13, i got "Z80 slot switch ignored (SM1) ... SM1 otherwise looks unresponsive"
I've made an adaptor+socket to be able to swap with a 27c020 burned and another pulled from a parts board, same error. Pin3, 22 & 29 on the SM1 are bouncing, z80 swapped and same result.
Weird thing is it works perfectly with MetalSlugX -with unibios-. Perfect, not a single sample is lost. With the rest of games, zero sound or noise. Any ideas? I'm bored of this board, and I've repaired hundreds but this one is driving me nuts.

It's possible it's a bad Neo-D0. Check 39 and 40 on the Neo-D0.

smkdan · Aug 18, 2012

I should've added an option to continue if that part fails. I posted 014 on the site so try burning that and when you get the same error, follow the prompt to continue and look & listen for what happens. Unibios masks this error unless you enabled h/w testing. What happens if you turn that on? Did you the original BIOS give you 'Z80 ERROR' when trying it? I'd suspect the NEO-D0 also or a bad port connection but it's strange that slugx works perfectly. My guess from that info is a bad bit of RAM that SM1 and your other games require, but slugx doesn't. The details are a bit much to type out right now so try 014 and see if it does anything for you.

dragonpt · Aug 18, 2012

smkdan said:
I should've added an option to continue if that part fails. I posted 014 on the site so try burning that and when you get the same error, follow the prompt to continue and look & listen for what happens. Unibios masks this error unless you enabled h/w testing. What happens if you turn that on? Did you the original BIOS give you 'Z80 ERROR' when trying it? I'd suspect the NEO-D0 also or a bad port connection but it's strange that slugx works perfectly. My guess from that info is a bad bit of RAM that SM1 and your other games require, but slugx doesn't. The details are a bit much to type out right now so try 014 and see if it does anything for you.

Again thanks for another update, when i get an burner, i will use this alot

RabbitTroop · Aug 20, 2012

Would it be possible to include this in the UNIBios as an option to test boards if needed? This is a very cool project.

distropia · Aug 20, 2012

smkdan said:
I should've added an option to continue if that part fails. I posted 014 on the site so try burning that and when you get the same error, follow the prompt to continue and look & listen for what happens. Unibios masks this error unless you enabled h/w testing. What happens if you turn that on? Did you the original BIOS give you 'Z80 ERROR' when trying it? I'd suspect the NEO-D0 also or a bad port connection but it's strange that slugx works perfectly. My guess from that info is a bad bit of RAM that SM1 and your other games require, but slugx doesn't. The details are a bit much to type out right now so try 014 and see if it does anything for you.

Some sounds and then this:

z80 dead /errored / comm.issue
expected: 00
actual: 53
z80 reported error code 13
ym2610 unexpected irq

smkdan · Aug 20, 2012

distropia said:
Some sounds and then this:

z80 dead /errored / comm.issue
expected: 00
actual: 53
z80 reported error code 13
ym2610 unexpected irq

That helps a lot more and bad YM2610 IRQ can explain games not working and SM1 not working properly. How much YM2610<->Z80 connections did you try testing with your probe and meter? Getting to that means the RAM and cart connection are not causing the problem. Some stuff to look at using a Z80 pinout (of whatever chip your 1AX uses) and this YM pinout:

Z80 /INT (16?) -> YM(56)
Z80 A0(30?) -> YM(60)
Z80 A1(31?) -> YM(61)

If you probe the interrupt pin (first one on list) what does it show? You already replaced SM1 and Z80 and the error points to YM2610 being the problem. You get sounds from the test and MSX so I don't think it's an I/O issue to YM either.

schmake · Aug 21, 2012

I just tried the 0.14 version on 2 different 4-slotters, one which on the original bios gives a work ram error the other gives no output (haven't gone logic probe route on this one).

On the dead board, nothing (not surprised). However the board I am looking to repair (work ram error) board gives the watchdog reset click and displays garbled graphics on screen. This one goes straight to the cross hatch with uni-bios and no top board, so I was hoping for some more detailed diagnostics. Any ideas on why the reset?

smkdan · Aug 21, 2012

RabbitTroop said:
Would it be possible to include this in the UNIBios as an option to test boards if needed? This is a very cool project.

Forgot to reply to this earlier. I don't think it's worth the trouble trying to integrate especially with size issues. It's best in the end if it remains stand alone and you just swap the chips if the board gets a problem over time.

@schmake: Very weird. Haven't got any issues like that before. The garbled screen makes me think it's not running at all. What happens if you hold ABCD buttons down (player 1) when you power up? Do you get a menu or is it still garbage? It almost immediately prepares the screen so even if watchdog problems came up somewhere you would still see stuff on screen. Are you sure the EPROM is 100% good and fast enough? Does it work in another system? It's not related to your RAM issue since it doesn't depend on it to function. I'll have a look over it tomorrow but there's nothing obvious that would make it reset on RAM errors.

Xian Xi · Aug 21, 2012

Another rebooting console:

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?236799-AES-Randomly-Soft-Reboots

But I finally got something from the SMK-D Bios after trying multiple times:

Z80 Dead / Errored / Comm Issue

Expected: 00
Actual : FF

schmake · Aug 22, 2012

smkdan said:
@schmake: Very weird. Haven't got any issues like that before. The garbled screen makes me think it's not running at all. What happens if you hold ABCD buttons down (player 1) when you power up? Do you get a menu or is it still garbage? It almost immediately prepares the screen so even if watchdog problems came up somewhere you would still see stuff on screen. Are you sure the EPROM is 100% good and fast enough? Does it work in another system? It's not related to your RAM issue since it doesn't depend on it to function. I'll have a look over it tomorrow but there's nothing obvious that would make it reset on RAM errors.

@smkdan: Sorry mate, should have looked a bit further all my fault. Got the same response in a working MV1. Decided to recheck the burn against your original rom and it doesn't match.

Erased a couple of eproms, reprogrammed with the new v0.15. Double checked the erase and verification. Got some strange results
MV4 - gives a bios CRC error on both eproms. Can enter the other menu, but goes into a cycle of jumping between calendar test and menu
Good MV1F (well thought it was) - goes to blank screen in mid-test, during WRAM it appears. The other menu works fine

From this short description, is there an issue with my boards or burner/eproms?

Xian Xi · Aug 22, 2012

Z80 Dead / Errored / Comm Issue

Expected: 00
Actual : FF

The Actual value changes once in a while. FF > 03 > 01 > 00 > FF.

smkdan · Aug 22, 2012

schmake said:
Erased a couple of eproms, reprogrammed with the new v0.15. Double checked the erase and verification. Got some strange results
MV4 - gives a bios CRC error on both eproms. Can enter the other menu, but goes into a cycle of jumping between calendar test and menu
Good MV1F (well thought it was) - goes to blank screen in mid-test, during WRAM it appears. The other menu works fine

From this short description, is there an issue with my boards or burner/eproms?

On your good MV1F you'll get a blank screen if don't have the Z80 test cart inserted and you don't hold down button D. Try again with D in P1 port held and it should get through to the end. Was this tried on both of your bad 4 slots? If the BIOS works fine in the 1F but gives CRC error in your 4 slots then the board must have an issue. My first guess would be a bad burn for CRC errors but the working 1F rules that out. If it's the same CRC value on screen everytime I think it's a lower address line from 68k to BIOS. That can easily stop the system from working completely but it's possible to get far enough to display an error like this.

@Xian: If the m1.bin test cart is working fine (you hear those little beeps when it starts+finishes) then those random values just means 68k can't read/write to it. That's not the sort of thing that gets random resets though unless the Z80 comm. part is outputting the comm. data when it's not supposed to. That would conflict with whatever the 68k is supposed to be reading and cause a reset but that's all I can think of.

Xian Xi · Aug 22, 2012

smkdan said:
@Xian: If the m1.bin test cart is working fine (you hear those little beeps when it starts+finishes) then those random values just means 68k can't read/write to it. That's not the sort of thing that gets random resets though unless the Z80 comm. part is outputting the comm. data when it's not supposed to. That would conflict with whatever the 68k is supposed to be reading and cause a reset but that's all I can think of.

I don't hear any beeps or tones.

Neo Diagnostics ROMs

Hardened Shock Trooper

Galford's Armourer

JammaNationX,

Galford's Armourer

JammaNationX,

Galford's Armourer

*Account control passed, on to Tony's family.Ex Ro

JammaNationX,

Galford's Armourer

*Account control passed, on to Tony's family.Ex Ro

Over Top Auto Mechanic

SouthTown StreetSweeper

JammaNationX,

Galford's Armourer

Over Top Auto Mechanic

Mayor of Southtown, ,

SouthTown StreetSweeper

Galford's Armourer

n00b

Galford's Armourer

JammaNationX,

n00b

JammaNationX,

Galford's Armourer

JammaNationX,