PCM Sound & Stability Fixes Multicarts - 120 in 1, 138 in 1, 161 in 1 and others.

[PSICODROMO]

I have runing at 4,7-4,8v. without issues in my MV2F, what is better for the chips and montherboard, a lower voltage like 4,7v. (without issues) or 5,0v. ?

 

[GadgetUK]

Normally I would agree, but on the MVS you tend to get crashes or glitches appearing when 5v level drops below 4.8v. I prefer to run it as close to 5v as possible.

 

[PSICODROMO]

then in better 4,85 if you dont have crashes or glitches than 5,0 ? Is not bad for the motherboard chips, caps... ?

 

[Xian Xi]

4.85v should be fine, you usually start running into problems once you drop below 4.8v.

Edit, I noticed he said it already...lol

 

[donluca]

GadgetUK, I've finished doing the mods on both my 161 and 138 in 1. I haven't put the optional caps yet as I don't want to add unnecessary components.

So far I've tested some games and all seems good to me (Puzzle Bobble, Matrimelee, Last Blade 2, Nam-1975, Garou, Strikers 1945)

Can you tell me some games that usually have problems on these carts and what to look for in them?

One more thing: Giga Power games for some reason boot two times at start (the green thing at the start happens two times in a row). It really doesn't bother me, but is it normal? If there's a quick/easy way to fix that I'll gladly do that.

Thanks for all your support so far, it's really appreciated!

P.S.: is it me or is the non-hacked version of SVC missing from both those multicarts?

EDIT: ok, I've actually noticed a bug in Puzzle Bobble.
If you hear carefully, you'll find out that the SFX when the ceiling is about to go down (not the one when it actually goes down, the one before that warns you) plays two times in a row, the second one a little bit louder and distorted.
Is it because the Puzzle Bobble rom is corrupted or... ?

 

[aha2940]

GadgetUK, I've finished doing the mods on both my 161 and 138 in 1. I haven't put the optional caps yet as I don't want to add unnecessary components.

So far I've tested some games and all seems good to me (Puzzle Bobble, Matrimelee, Last Blade 2, Nam-1975, Garou, Strikers 1945)

Can you tell me some games that usually have problems on these carts and what to look for in them?

One more thing: Giga Power games for some reason boot two times at start (the green thing at the start happens two times in a row). It really doesn't bother me, but is it normal? If there's a quick/easy way to fix that I'll gladly do that.

Thanks for all your support so far, it's really appreciated!

P.S.: is it me or is the non-hacked version of SVC missing from both those multicarts?

EDIT: ok, I've actually noticed a bug in Puzzle Bobble.
If you hear carefully, you'll find out that the SFX when the ceiling is about to go down (not the one when it actually goes down, the one before that warns you) plays two times in a row, the second one a little bit louder and distorted.
Is it because the Puzzle Bobble rom is corrupted or... ?

Pulstar has issues iwth the sound IIRC. KoF95 intro sounds wrong compared with original cart. Yes, SVC Chaos is not available in multicarts, only the Plus one is. I seem to remember the Metal Slugs had issues too, but can't remember specific details. Not related to sounds, Garou crashes when using TOP of some characters and AeroFighters3 is unplayable due to bullets staying on screen.

 

[donluca]

Thank you!

I'll see if I have those issues on my multicarts or if the mods have fixed them.

I know for sure that Garou has no issues (I've tried that character's TOP attack, can't remember his name, and went ok). Pulstar and the Metal Slugs are ok too.
Aero Fighters 3 on the 161 in 1 have a bad dump and there's nothing which can be done about it.

I'll try KoF95 intro on both carts.

 

[GadgetUK]

KoF 95 has missing sound on intro on 161 in 1, but on the 138 in 1 its fine. It's important to note that the caps don't fix problems with the ROM dumps used etc. A couple of the Sam Sho games on the 161 in 1 have dodgy animation on one of the characters. I've not found the problem that others get with Aero Fighters 3 on the 161 in 1, maybe because I only play in console mode? For sound problems on the 161 in 1, normally Pulstar for me - most other games are OK most of the time on the 161 in 1. On the 138 in 1, pretty much anything with PCM - Ninja Masters, Neo Turf Masters, Metal Slug 5, Metal Slug 1, Strikers 1945+, Raging Dragons, Last Resort, and many more.

With regards to 'optional' capacitors, on the 138 in 1 there aren't any - they are all required or you can still get sound glitches.

EDIT: Regards Puzzle Bobble i've never noticed any sound issues there, but there is a bug on one of the carts (I forget which) where if you play in European mode the title screen isn't right (if I remember), but in US mode its OK. (I might have that the wrong way around).

There are other issues on these carts generally, like missing samples on League Bowling, missing sample somewhere in the NAM-1975 intro music I think. Cyberlip on the 138 in 1 has some corrupt samples in the intro, but the game is OK. Blazing Star on one of the carts (I forget which) glitches at level 4 or so I think, and later can crash where you cannot complete it. It is OK on one of the carts (138 in 1 I think) though. Rage of Dragons on the 138 in 1 crashed with exception if you run the game in AES mode - suspected copy protection issue. Super Side Kicks on the 138 in 1 is copy protected and so controls stop responding after a few minutes of play. Blues journey on the 161 in 1 has no sound if you boot straight into that game from cold. whereas if you boot another game, then reset using unibios and then select Blues Journey you will then get sound without issue - I suspect that is some initialisation bug related to sound hardware (missing or corrupt code in the Blues Journey ROM, perhaps related to the 'hold start to get back to menu' hack).

 

[donluca]

Thanks for the incredibly extensive response!

In the files you've shared via dropbox there are some caps which are marked as optional on the 138-in-1.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nx0fhk0eimacrpi/multicartfix.zip?dl=0

If you look at:

1.jpg (47pF going from the voltage regulator to... ground?)
3.jpg (47uF to 220uF electrolytic cap)
5.jpg (same as before)

Are those caps required even if marked optional?

By the way, I have a Spanish (EU) bios on my MV-1FZ. Waiting for my Unibios to arrive!

EDIT: meanwhile... I discovered there were two resistors in place of capacitors! Jesus, I'm marveled that these multicarts manage to work in stock form.

EDIT 2: even with the misplaced resistors swapped for capacitors, Puzzle Bobble still has the glitch on the "ceiling warning" sound.

EDIT 3 (hopefully last): I've seen some tiny graphical glitches in some games. KOF2002 and Metal Slug come to mind. These are small, 1 pixel wide white lines that come on screen for a fraction of seconds and then disappear. You have to really put a lot of attention to see them.
It's exactly the same as these glitches here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLeHK3kBzSs
This happens with my 138-in-1 which has the lower board literally covered in flux.
Should I clean the mess? With what product though? 90% alchool takes forever to remove this thing.

 

[SmokeMonster]

EDIT: meanwhile... I discovered there were two resistors in place of capacitors! Jesus, I'm marveled that these multicarts manage to work in stock form.

Should I clean the mess? With what product though? 90% alchool takes forever to remove this thing.

Could you show a picture of the two resistors that you found in place of caps? I didn't inspect mine closely enough to catch this.

I don't know if this is a good way to clean the flux, but I sprayed mine down with Simple Green and used a toothbrush to gently clean it. Then I brushed it with dish soap and rinsed, followed by a final rinse with distilled water. Dry it using compressed air and set it in front of a fan for a day, then clean off any remaining flux with isopropyl.

 

[donluca]

I'd love to, but I've already removed them and god only knows where they are by now.

If you want, tomorrow I'll take pictures of where they were but it looks like it's random. GadgetUK found only one in his board in another position.

Anyway, they're pretty easy to spot if you look closely.

Resistors are black with tiny grey numbers on them, caps are pink-ish.

EDIT: actually I've casually found one while cleaning the table, LOL



Ignore the solder blob behind. I had to boost the brightness a lot to actually make something out of this tiny thing.

 

[MtothaJ]

Added the 3.3V regulator in today:



The 'QC passed' sticker seems like a bad joke in the light of missing components

The cart boots and plays fine, will do some testing as an when time allows. I had a brief look at the smd caps in the light of what was said about some caps being replaced with resistors in the 138-in-1 but here on the 161 it seems that this aspect in ok.

 

[donluca]

Yup, I can confirm there are no misplaced resistors on 161-in-1.

Yesterday I've put all the optional caps on my 138-in-1 and Puzzle Bobble's ceiling warning SFX still glitches, it's driving me mad!! >

Maybe it's just a bug on the european version. When I'll get the unibios I'll try switching region and see if that bug still happens. I also want to run CRC checks on all the games in both the 138-in-1 and 161-in-1 to see which games are good and which are bad dumps.

 

[GadgetUK]

All games on 161 in 1 will report bad CRC with unibios due to P ROMs being hacked to include the 'hold start for 5 seconds menu reset', but nearly all games are original dumps (except for obvious hacks, + versions etc). What might be useful is for us to build a CRC list up, and a table, so we can document which games have issues, and CRC for each, that way people experiencing problem with a game can check their CRC etc.

Have you tested both versions of Puzzle Bobble, it on 161 in 1 and 138 in 1 I believe? I will test it when I next get time!

 

[donluca]

I haven't tested the 161-in-1 Puzzle Bobble, might do it later.

And yeah, a wiki with a table along CRCs and problems would be indeed useful to a lot of users.

EDIT: Puzzle Bobble on the 161-in-1 is perfect!

 

[nam9]

The 'QC passed' sticker seems like a bad joke in the light of missing components

Apparently the practice of Muntzing is alive and well in China...

 

[donluca]

Can anyone confirm that in the 161-in-1 there's a corrupted explosion SFX in Metal Slug 2?

I was playing it a bit and noticed that one of the explosion SFX played just static.

 

[GadgetUK]

I don't get that, maybe one of the VROMs is bad on your 161 in 1, or a bad CPLD connection =\
Edit: all the Metal Slugs are perfect on my 161, 138, 120 and 60.

 

[donluca]

It's only one of the many explosion SFXs, you have to listen quite carefully. It's pretty noticeable when you beat the train's boss on Metal Slug 2 (third mission).
Not a big deal but, damn, now that I noticed it I can't help hearing it every time :P

 

[donluca]

Another thing I noticed:

Metal Slug 2 on the 161-in-1 displays text in spanish language in the "how to play" which seems correct to me since my MVS has the EU spanish bios, but the 138-in-1 displays in english.

 

[GadgetUK]

Tested Puzzle Bobble on 161 in 1 and don't get the sound issue, will check my 138 in 1s later. Also will check MS2 3rd boss later too! Not sure about BIOS, I only use Unibios and always set to European or US and always English on any multicart.

 

[MtothaJ]

AFAIR the one game where I get Spanish text on the 161 in 1 despite European / US Unibios settings is Neo Bomberman.

 

[SmokeMonster]

I get English text in Bomberman on my 161 (w/Unibios v3.2, US region).

 

[MtothaJ]

I get English text in Bomberman on my 161 (w/Unibios v3.2, US region).

My settings are Europe / Arcade - would need to double check what the story is on US settings.

 

[donluca]

Tested Puzzle Bobble on 161 in 1 and don't get the sound issue, will check my 138 in 1s later. Also will check MS2 3rd boss later too! Not sure about BIOS, I only use Unibios and always set to European or US and always English on any multicart.

Yup, puzzle bobble on the 161-in-1 is perfect.

Pay attention when you defeat the third boss on the explosions SFX. There's one which on my cart produces only static. It's very short so you have to listen carefully.