Garou MVS Cart Freezes On Cutscenes.

[MidnightAbyss]

You guys know what this is. Finally arrived from China. It has four chips that for some reason the names were scratched off though. Kind of odd. Maybe someone knows something about that. Pics of it below the spoiler.

Spoiler:

Thanks for that. I just discovered something screwed up about this thing. If you don't press start before the first line of text is read in the opening the whole cart freezes. It works perfectly fine though if you do. I already cleaned the contacts when I first had it apart. So it's not that.

And the list goes on. I just found out if you don't skip the scene after you win a fight and go to the next the game freezes too. I sort of hate to send this thing back to China because it was so damn cheap and it'd take forever to get a refund. Not sure what to do at this point. Thanks for the help again. Hopefully someone has an idea what the hell is going on here.

Yeah. I'll probably start by reflowing the solder joints and go from there. By the way, the last chip does have a jumper wire on it. You can't see it in the picture though. The scans of the board show a black wire jumping pins on the last chip. Thanks again for the help everyone. I will be back after a couple hours and a few beers.

Yeah. It's not fun.

Quick update. I got distracted and haven't reflowed the solder yet. I did run a CRC check in Unibios and it failed all across the board.

Edit: Reflowed solder on the four chips and not a damn thing has changed.

Edit2: Reflowed whole top board and not a damn thing changed.

Edit3: I think this thing is roached. Any ideas about where to go from here? Maybe I should make a separate thread so I'm not filling this one up with my problems.

Here's all the info from the recent purchases thread. Basically the game freezes at every cut scene. If you skip them all the cart works perfectly fine when actually playing. Where should I take this from here? Thanks again for everything. The help is greatly appreciated.

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

One of the four P ROMs has probably developed bad bits. Those are the only ROMs that could crash the CPU.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

One of the four P ROMs has probably developed bad bits. Those are the only ROMs that could crash the CPU.

Do you know anyone that could flash some new ones? How much is it probably going to run me?

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

Fox1 in the market forum.

The other possibility is the NEO-SMA encryption chip on the PROGLBA board, which decrypts the P ROMs, has gone bad.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

Fox1 in the market forum.

The other possibility is the NEO-SMA encryption chip on the PROGLBA board, which decrypts the P ROMs, has gone bad.

Does he have a thread? You mentioned in the market forum so that's why I'm asking.

I guess the most important question would really be if this thing is even worth fixing.

 

[RabbitTroop]

I can tell just by looking at it that those cart pins are heavily corroded. You need to clean them, thoroughly, with something like DeOxit D5. I have a feeling that's where your problems are coming from.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

I can tell just by looking at it that those cart pins are heavily corroded. You need to clean them, thoroughly, with something like DeOxit D5. I have a feeling that's where your problems are coming from.

I cleaned them with contact cleaner and an eraser after those pictures. Also, they looked a lot worse in the pictures than in person.

 

[RabbitTroop]

I cleaned them with contact cleaner and an eraser after those pictures. Also, they looked a lot worse in the pictures than in person.

Contact cleaner isn't going to remove oxidation, only surface grime. You need something to remove oxidation if you really want to restore connectivity that is lost to corrosion. The eraser will remove a lot of it, but there may be some stubborn corrosion left on those pins.

My games corrode like crazy just sitting in shock boxes in storage (in CA with low humidity). Cleaning with DeOxit D5 fixes so many of the little graphical, audio, and crashing issues where the pins just aren't making a good connection.

I know DeOxit isn't cheap, but if you're into cartridge based gaming, it's really worth having in your toolkit, and a little goes a long way. I'd try to deoxidize those pins first before trying anything more serious like reflowing solder or burning new ROMs. Get a small oiler bottle, squirt some on the pins and work with cotton swabs until they come back mostly pink/clean. It may not work, but at least you can totally rule out oxidation.

 

[Xian Xi]

Like said clean the pins good. Then if you have a unibios, run a cart CRC check to see if the p roms are still good.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

Like said clean the pins good. Then if you have a unibios, run a cart CRC check to see if the p roms are still good.

Ran a Unibios check and it failed everything. NG all across the board.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

Contact cleaner isn't going to remove oxidation, only surface grime. You need something to remove oxidation if you really want to restore connectivity that is lost to corrosion. The eraser will remove a lot of it, but there may be some stubborn corrosion left on those pins.

My games corrode like crazy just sitting in shock boxes in storage (in CA with low humidity). Cleaning with DeOxit D5 fixes so many of the little graphical, audio, and crashing issues where the pins just aren't making a good connection.

I know DeOxit isn't cheap, but if you're into cartridge based gaming, it's really worth having in your toolkit, and a little goes a long way. I'd try to deoxidize those pins first before trying anything more serious like reflowing solder or burning new ROMs. Get a small oiler bottle, squirt some on the pins and work with cotton swabs until they come back mostly pink/clean. It may not work, but at least you can totally rule out oxidation.

Already reflowed solder as mentioned in my main post. Pins look perfect but I'll get some Deoxit from Amazon and try it. I don't think it'll do anything but I need some anyways. Thanks again for the help everyone.

 

[wyo]

Already reflowed solder as mentioned in my main post. Pins look perfect but I'll get some Deoxit from Amazon and try it. I don't think it'll do anything but I need some anyways. Thanks again for the help everyone.

When you insert the cart, does it go in smooth like a NOS cart? If not, contact cleaner or something more heavy duty may help. I use Weiman Glass Cook Top Cleaner on really corroded contacts but don't over do it as it's pretty abrasive. Also thoroughly clean your mobo cart slot.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

When you insert the cart, does it go in smooth like a NOS cart? If not, contact cleaner or something more heavy duty may help. I use Weiman Glass Cook Top Cleaner on really corroded contacts but don't over do it as it's pretty abrasive. Also thoroughly clean your mobo cart slot.

It's not noticeably different in feeling but I can see the pins are worn some. I tried contact cleaner and the pins look clean as can be really. I'm using my four slot to test it and in all slots it behaves the same way. Never had an issue with any of my other carts at all.

Also, I messaged the guy about it and he offered to refund half the cart and I would keep it. I accepted so I'm stuck with it now.

 

[aha2940]

OK, so to summarize:

1. The cart seems legit with repairs. At least, the two boards and all chips (except for the P roms) are original.
2. P roms are not original. AFAIK, SNK never used MX to make their chips, only Toshiba or Sharp.
3. The crashing problems are most likely produced by those P roms, adding to that the fact that it fails the UniBIOS test. Get a couple of EPROMs and burn them again from the MAME set.

Regards.

 

[wyo]

2. P roms are not original. AFAIK, SNK never used MX to make their chips, only Toshiba or Sharp.

Also Sony

 

[aha2940]

Also Sony

Had no idea about Sony, I've never seen a Sony-branded chip inside a Neo cart, but for reference:


Thanks!

 

[Xian Xi]

SNK did use MX chips later in the company's life.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

Thanks again everyone. Couple more questions. I don't know a single thing about burning and flashing EPROMS for cartridges. I can find programmers for about $50 across the internet. Is this all I would need? What needs to be burned to these P roms exactly and where are the resources available? Is this even worth doing myself or should I just have someone else do it? About how much would it run me to have all four of these flashed? Any more recommendations on who to go to?

 

[aha2940]

Thanks again everyone. Couple more questions. I don't know a single thing about burning and flashing EPROMS for cartridges. I can find programmers for about $50 across the internet. Is this all I would need? What needs to be burned to these P roms exactly and where are the resources available? Is this even worth doing myself or should I just have someone else do it? About how much would it run me to have all four of these flashed? Any more recommendations on who to go to?

You only need two chips. Original Garou carts have only two P chips. You can buy them from Fox1 in these forums, he has an EPROM burning service. No clue about the prices, but for sure less expensive than buying an EPROM. Then, all you gotta do is removing the current MX chips, and put the new ones in their places. Use the images in mvs-scans.com for a guide.

Regards.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

You only need two chips. Original Garou carts have only two P chips. You can buy them from Fox1 in these forums, he has an EPROM burning service. No clue about the prices, but for sure less expensive than buying an EPROM. Then, all you gotta do is removing the current MX chips, and put the new ones in their places. Use the images in mvs-scans.com for a guide.

Regards.

Ok. Why does this one have four then? If you pull up the scans there's one that has four like mine. What determines whether a cart has two or four? Please don't think I'm questioning your knowledge or anything like that. I'm just curious. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to this. I'll try to get a hold of Fox1 and go from there. Thanks for everything.

 

[Xian Xi]

IIRC, the one with 2 Mask Roms is the initial release and the ones with 4 were the updated ones and the NGPC one is the final version I'm guessing.

Plus, you need to make sure the roms themselves are bad. They could be good and something else on the board could be messed up.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

IIRC, the one with 2 Mask Roms is the initial release and the ones with 4 were the updated ones and the NGPC one is the final version I'm guessing.

Plus, you need to make sure the roms themselves are bad. They could be good and something else on the board could be messed up.

How exactly are you supposed to test that? Just the old swap 'em and see if it works?

Sorry for all the questions everyone. I'm sure you all have answered them before but I tried searching and didn't come up with a whole lot. I greatly appreciate it.

 

[Xian Xi]

How exactly are you supposed to test that? Just the old swap 'em and see if it works?

Sorry for all the questions everyone. I'm sure you all have answered them before but I tried searching and didn't come up with a whole lot. I greatly appreciate it.

You just pull the roms off the board and read them with the eprom reader and it can compare against a known working rom.

 

[LWK]

I agree that the pins are filthy. You need to properly clean those. In fact, if it was me, I'd probably buff and replate them if I could.