Cabal repair log

 PCB Repair Logs, Repair Logs  Comments Off on Cabal repair log
Dec 292010
 

Got a Cabal game. It looks like a bootleg but is pretty good quality. The ROM’s match that of the joystick version which is good because it means I can test it properly.
As it turned out, the joystick controls were completely erratic and all over the place. I took the top board off to give me access to the traces from the edge connector.

There is a small daughter board present which is silkscreened with “Joystic Sub”. I removed this and found the likely cause of the problem, several of the pins had broken off.

I cut the pins out that were broken and replaced them as required. Pins 13 and 14 were not connected to anything so I didn’t bother replacing them.
Fired the game up and the controls are working again. Pretty addictive game too.

Golden Axe repair log #2

 PCB Repair Logs, Repair Logs  Comments Off on Golden Axe repair log #2
Dec 022010
 

My Golden Axe (set 1, World, FD1094 317-0110) had suicided.
I have a copy of the decrypted ROMs from Sega Resurrection. I pulled the two EPROMs from locations A1 and A2 on the top board (27C2001), erased and reprogrammed them and also fitted a standard 68k CPU in place of the custom block.
My Golden Axe board is alive once more and now have no worries about that suicide battery anymore.

Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers repair log

 PCB Repair Logs, Repair Logs  Comments Off on Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers repair log
Nov 092010
 

As with the 1944 board, this came from the same seller with the same fault of a solid blue screen.

and like the 1944 board also was that the battery still had 3.6v present, the difference being was that the CPS2 suicide test EPROM didnt work with this indicating that the decryption code was still present in the memory. It is possible for the decryption code to get corrupt and with no other signs of fault I took the plunge and removed the battery, this time thought I discharged the capacitor next to the battery to make certain that the RAM with the decryption code in lost all power. The suicide test EPROM now worked.
After burning 5 new 27C4096 EPROMs for sockets 3 to 7 I fired it up and all is well again.

1944: The Loop Masters repair log

 PCB Repair Logs, Repair Logs  Comments Off on 1944: The Loop Masters repair log
Nov 092010
 

Bought 2 boards off ebay the other day, one was Super Street Fighter 2 The New Challengers and the other was this 1944 The Loop Masters.
Both were sold as being faulty.
When I fired this up it gave a solid blue screen.

This is a classic sign that the board has suicided so to make sure I opened it up and inserted my CPS2 test eprom (available from CPS2SHOCK site) into ROM slot number 3.
It loaded up confirming that the board had suicided.
The strange thing was that the battery was still giving out 3.6v but as this was one of two board with the same indicated fault I assume the previous owner had done something silly.
Only the EPROM in slot 3 requires replacing to phoenix this game so with that done and the battery removed I fired it up again.


I would have liked to keep it original but there is nothing I can do about that now.

Dragonball Z 2 Super Battle repair log

 PCB Repair Logs, Repair Logs  Comments Off on Dragonball Z 2 Super Battle repair log
Oct 282010
 

Had this board for nearly a year now but the game is so bad I’ve never bothered repairing it until now.
The board itself is pretty clean but the sprites had jailbars through them.

This is quite often a sign of dodgy ROM’s. Several of the MASKROM’s were socketed so I dumped them and checked them against MAME, they all checked out fine. The MASKROM’s are read as 27C160 EPROM’s.
After a little bit of probing, prodding and pulling I believed the fault to be down to the MASKROM at the top right of the board. After inspecting the board under the magnifier I located about a dozen cracked/dry joints. Went over all the solder points on the sockets with the soldering iron, replaced the ROM’s and fired it up. All the graphics were fine and no amount of board flexing could bring the fault back.

 Older Entries  Newer Entries