Phoenixed CPS2 board randomly dies? Help...me...

[CulDad78]

I acquired a phoenixed Mars Matrix about 2 weeks back. I finally got a chance to play it earlier this week and it loaded up and played without issues for about an hour. Its been sitting in my astro cab since then. I turned it on today and played for about 3 hours straight, no issues at all. Then just now I went to play again and it came up green screen. I pulled the board apart from the A board, adjusted the harness and turned back on - same thing, green screen.

Troubleshooting: I've tried other games on this A board, no problems - so it isn't the cab or the A board. I've tried the Mars Matrix board on a different A board, same result, green screen.

I then tried the board on my 3rd working A board, setup inside my Blast, and in this cab I get a bright Red screen, however everything is loading up as expected on this A board / cabinet combination.

I then pulled the PCB out of the shell and tried that, just to make sure I was getting a great connection, same result, red screen.

It's almost as if it suicided between earlier this morning and now...so, can a phoenixed board suicide???? Or what other explanations could there be? Please offer ideas to troubleshoot if you have them. Thanks...

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

The sound program roms not having a good connection can cause that so you could reseat those. The connection between the boards also definitely can but you already troubleshooted that. The hardware is getting really old at this point though so it's not really surprising if some random part goes bad. It has happened to me on a CPS2 board before. If you have another phoenixed game you could swap all the socketed chips from the game boards. If it doesn't work on the other board then it's an eprom problem. If they don't have a sticker over the windows then light could have gotten in and screwed up a program rom if you store it near a window.

[kernow]

The sound program roms not having a good connection can cause that so you could reseat those. The connection between the boards also definitely can but you already troubleshooted that. The hardware is getting really old at this point though so it's not really surprising if some random part goes bad. It has happened to me on a CPS2 board before. If you have another phoenixed game you could swap all the socketed chips from the game boards. If it doesn't work on the other board then it's an eprom problem. If they don't have a sticker over the windows then light could have gotten in and screwed up a program rom if you store it near a window.

There are a lot of nonfactual statements in this post.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Really? Like?

[kernow]

I'm pretty sure you can't just swap phoenix sets around without certain jumper changes, perhaps someone who does more conversions can fill me in, but theres more to it than just swapping the whole set of socketed roms.

And the UV light issue, you're saying it got through the case? Theres no way an EPROM can get erased by daylight, a lot of PCB manufacturers didn't even include label windows on the EPROMs because it's a complete myth.

First thing I'd do is get the multimeter out and measure your +5/+12, regardless of whether other boards work or not.

The 'it's old so its probably failed' idea doesn't hold up really either.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

You're right about the jumpers. They would have to be the same. Sorry I should have mentioned that. I posted too quickly. However it might still boot up past a one color screen, it would probably have glitches.

eproms are erased by UV light. It would probably take over a week in the sun to erase one completely but a bit here and there is possible in a few hours. On a program rom that could make it stop working. There are holes in CPS2 cases that sunlight could pass through. Rom chips that don't have windows can't be erased unless you are talking about little gal chips or something which are electronically erasable.

I promise you I have had a CPS2 board just die on me before and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have happened if it was spanking new and I've also had a stickerless rom chip that was recently programmed lose bits after I left it sitting by a window for a while. I have a programmer and have gone through lots of phoenix boards. I'm not pulling any of this out of my ass.

[kernow]

ok, the sunlight got through the holes culldad, despite your windows blocking most UV light, you should totally tape up those holes man.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

I'm just saying it's possible. I agree it's not likely. Anyway you can continuing acting like a cocksucker now, genius.

[kernow]

[AeroCityMayor]

Short cap EXC3

[CulDad78]

I keep my boards in a Photo Lab XJ9001 (Dark Room) when not in use, so it wasn't a sunlight issue.

Ended up pulling each chip up, some canned air to their settings, some rubbing alcohol to connectors, and basically pulled off anything that is meant to be pulled off, then put it in and it fired up

So apparently something wasn't making the connection...the odd part is that the board had not moved at all between playing flawlessly - then going back an hour later, never touching the board as it was already in the cab, and then just nothing. Odd.

[AeroCityMayor]

So apparently something wasn't making the connection...the odd part is that the board had not moved at all between playing flawlessly - then going back an hour later, never touching the board as it was already in the cab, and then just nothing. Odd.

This is a common issue with Phoenix boards. Charge builds back up in the cap at EXC3 and you get a green screen. When its discharged, all is well again.

Not odd at all

HTH

Cheers,

Ralph.

[hd]

ok then shortcut this CAP EXC3 permanently and the problem should be gone. since it is an voltage INPUT there should be no problem.

[CulDad78]

So apparently something wasn't making the connection...the odd part is that the board had not moved at all between playing flawlessly - then going back an hour later, never touching the board as it was already in the cab, and then just nothing. Odd.

This is a common issue with Phoenix boards. Charge builds back up in the cap at EXC3 and you get a green screen. When its discharged, all is well again.

Not odd at all

HTH

Cheers,

Ralph.

Ok - good to know. I have a few other phoenixed boards and haven't had the issue prior, but certainly good to know that can happen.

[Kretinou]

Are you computer graphics artist ?

[kernow]

I might be! You want some work done?

[Kretinou]

I might be! You want some work done?

Ho please .... no

[Frenetic]

Thanks so much for this tip Ralph. I found the EXC3 clay capacitor above the PAL BSGB1 (diagram here: http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/File:CPS2_B_board.jpg) and bridged the +/- on the solder side of the board with a resistor I got from Radio Shack. Worked like a charm.

Short cap EXC3

[AeroCityMayor]

Nice one matey, glad you got it sorted!

I love it when a plan comes together!!!

</hannibal>

[Drakon]

For anyone who's interested converting a cps2 board requires eprom swapping with phoenixed programming roms, sometimes some jumper changes and in a lot of cases a reprogrammed pal chip using a gal16v8.

http://16bitgamer.forumotion.ca/t321-st ... conversion

http://16bitgamer.forumotion.ca/t322-ma ... conversion

CPS1 conversion is possible in some cases:

http://16bitgamer.forumotion.ca/t323-kn ... conversion

I also converted another cps2 game into phoenixed alien vs predator I just didn't bother posting it.