If I had any hair, I'd pull it out

[TheMagicianLord]

Found this basic NeoBiosMasta on eBay and ordered for an MV1B board. It took me 2 hours of troubleshooting before I realized the BIOS IC and socket were actually installed backwards (it came to me that way). I ended up putting a different BIOS in just in case the one installed backwards was damaged. Unfortunately, it didn't help. I've probably installed and removed the board from the 68000 about 30 times now, but get nothing but graphical junk on the screen. I originally had the wires soldered to the CE and OE points, but during the frustrating process of troubleshooting, the CE wire came loose, so I had to resolder it to the point where the original BIOS mounts. I also removed and resoldered the OE point a few times during this process, so unfortunately it looks worse now than when I started. I only wish I had realized the BIOS was backwards two hours earlier.

I've been unable to find any sort of printed install guide for the NeoBiosMasta. Just video installs, which are all the same and show lifting pin 2 and 20. But then I read in some thread on this forum that these CE/OE wires may not even be needed if there's no original BIOS? Can't confirm this, though, because can't find an actual install guide.

All that said, I've tried about every variation: wires, no wires, cleaned contacts multiple times with deoxit and IPA. Can't get anything besides a graphical jumble. Is it possible the initial BIOS being backwards permanently damaged the MV1B board?

In the photo, I've still got the wires attached to the motherboard, but they're disconnected from the NBM. Does anyone know if I need them?

In any case, I'm at a loss. I'm not sure how these installs go so smoothly for everyone else. This is my second one and its a bigger nightmare than the first.

https://imgur.com/JvGistl

 

[ack]

You need the OE/CE wires hooked up. This is what mine looks like for reference (ignore the funky zif socket)



You are using very thick wires, so you could potentially have bridges to adjacent pins on the bios side. Was the board working before the attempt? With it having that NEO-BUF bypass on the slot board, its likely been through a china repair shop.

 

[TheMagicianLord]

Yeah, they're 26 gauge, thinnest stuff I had.

Got the board from China...don't even know where else to buy them. In any case, I think it's a lost cause and I'm not gonna get lucky like I did with the other one. I can't find anything bridged that shouldn't be. I really wonder if initially having the BIOS backward fried something.

 

[TheMagicianLord]

This is exactly how the NeoBiosMasta arrived from eBay:

With the notch for the socket and the IC at the top of the board, NOT down at where the board says pin 1 like it should be.

In any case, kids, don't make the same fuck-up I did and blindly trust that everyone else knows what they're doing.

 

[ack]

Since they messed that up I would double check the 68k socket to make sure all the pins are actually soldered down.

 

[TheMagicianLord]

I reflowed them all. Nothing made a difference. I probably spent 5-6 hours on this overall. At this point, I'm just taking the loss.

 

[Neo Alec]

Have you tried cleaning up the two bios solder points on the MVS board and redoing it with new wires?

Are you sure the bios chip is good? How about getting a better biosmasta?

 

[TheMagicianLord]

Part of the reason the CE/OE points look so bad in the photo is I had already redone them several times (the other part is I'm not great at soldering tiny things). On one of the many removals of the chip clamp from the 68000, the CE wire got yanked loose from the solder point close to the 68000, so had to solder to the original BIOS pad instead. It was really just a messy and unpleasant experience. I feel like if I had noticed the BIOS was backwards from the get-go, this would have had a much higher chance of success.

One other point of confusion for me came from this post: https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/inde...n-photo-heavy-orders-open.197651/post-2932657

Says "no soldering for you" in response to a guy asking about a board with the BIOS completely removed, like mine. So this had me second guessing whether I needed those CE/OE wires, so kept trying with them connected, not connected...argh.

I tossed the BiosMasta, and put the MV1B board in the Goodwill bag. Not sure if it's salvageable, but I have no more energy for it. Ordered another MV1B on alie that's already got the Unibios mod. Think I'm gonna give up on these clamp-on mods in general. Thankfully this BiosMasta didn't have the VMC, else I'd be more upset about it.

 

[maki]

I have had similar experiences with the BiosMasta, its all about the socket.

The "good" socket is really hard to find, it sits very tight, so tight that one can lift the whole MVS with it.
It will get loose over time however, if its unplugged/plugged a lot.

The bad sockets are plenty, easy to find and they are already loose when they arrive.
The result of the loose socket is the usual click of death/BIOS issues.

I've pulled plenty of hair myself, not a fan of that socket on the MVS tbh, works fine with a NDCD SD Loader (same socket) as I never had to plug/unplug it as much, just works.

ManCloud is working on a Flex-QSB, should be on his github soon, really looking forward to try it, feels safer with soldering TBH, let's see.
Once he is finished, he will pout it up on github, her eis a link to the german forum (use google translate): https://circuit-board.de/forum/index.php/Thread/35142-MV-1B-und-bald-auch-MV-1C-QuadBios-Flex-QSB/

 

[SignOfGoob]

Is this done for some reason? Are you trying to make a CMVS that’s a certain size?

As a lazy person myself I’d just get an MVS with a socketed BIOS and never once have this horrible issue.