Espgaluda PGM cart freezes after several minutes

[Yakkers]

I hope it's not too blasphemous to talk about conversion carts here, I don't really support the practice but I only get mine secondhand so I'm not directly contributing to any new carts getting killed off.

Anyways, what's happening is the game will run fine for several minutes but then freeze, sometimes with a memory error in the top left and sometimes with nothing popping up at all. When I restart I then get a screenfull of missingno graphics, but if I wait a little while and try again it'll boot fine for a few minutes again. I tried taking the cart apart and cleaning the contacts and I've tried doing a hardware reset on my PGM motherboard. I also have a DDP DOJ cart that runs fine, so I know it's not a busted PGM.

Is there anything else I can try here? I know PGMs are finnicky especially with these hacked carts, but I haven't been able to find anyone getting this particular case.

https://i.imgur.com/xUV2vsJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ssF09SJ.jpg

[_rm_]

You should definetly try a different motherboard if you have the chance. I once had a motherboard that "didn´t like" one of my original carts, always freezing and presenting strange error messages on screen. Changed motherboard and never happened again.

But with those chinese conversions (messy AF) floating around, who knows...

[gray117]

Far from a pgm expert but tried clearing the nvram on the motherboard? I think this tends to be more immediate boot issues, but who knows... Kind of counter-intuitive but I'd have a mobo per cart to reduce this annoyance.

(switch the switch on the motherboard while unplugged and off ... leave for 1 min ... boot motherboard on own ... boot motherboard with cart in ... might need a couple of restarts with the same cart left in.)

With various hacks/boolegs about it could be anything (got a pic of the cartridge de-shelled?) but if you've done the nvram clear then yeah you'd suspect cartridge more than mobo. All rom windows covered (too late now but potentially an easy fix next time)?

Beyond this ... Presuming crash is not at the exact same point each time (?), something effected on the cart by increased heat/use == capacitors/resistors ? ... Once it crashes does it then happen faster next time round?

[Yakkers]

Far from a pgm expert but tried clearing the nvram on the motherboard? I think this tends to be more immediate boot issues, but who knows... Kind of counter-intuitive but I'd have a mobo per cart to reduce this annoyance.

(switch the switch on the motherboard while unplugged and off ... leave for 1 min ... boot motherboard on own ... boot motherboard with cart in ... might need a couple of restarts with the same cart left in.)

With various hacks/boolegs about it could be anything (got a pic of the cartridge de-shelled?) but if you've done the nvram clear then yeah you'd suspect cartridge more than mobo. All rom windows covered (too late now but potentially an easy fix next time)?

Beyond this ... Presuming crash is not at the exact same point each time (?), something effected on the cart by increased heat/use == capacitors/resistors ? ... Once it crashes does it then happen faster next time round?

How exactly do you do this? near the JAMMA connector there's a little black button and then a little switch in a red casing, it doesn't hold its position so I held it for about a minute or two, then powered up without a cart and then with the cart. No dice unfortunately.

I'll take a pic of the boards in a bit, I'm hoping it's something I can fix. I did also make sure my cab's voltage levels are normal.

[emphatic]

Is there a battery on your motherboard? You should try to enter the test menu of the game and there should be a "initialize" option or something like that you can try (I haven't powered up my PCB in a couple of years, so I don't remember what it's called).

[Yakkers]

Is there a battery on your motherboard? You should try to enter the test menu of the game and there should be a "initialize" option or something like that you can try (I haven't powered up my PCB in a couple of years, so I don't remember what it's called).

I see a slot for a button cell battery, but there isn't one in there. Should there be? My DDP DOJ cart works fine without one.
Also if you're talking about a system reset on the PGM level, I did try that to no avail. If it's something in Espgaluda's test menu, I'll have to get back to you on that since I can't even get the game to temporarily boot right now. It's just clown vomit from the start.

Anyways, here are some pics of the cart's boards:

Top front
Bottom front
Bottom back

It looks like a hack job, but I think that's par for the course for these carts. I'm not really sure what it's supposed to look like so I'm not sure what I could be looking for.

[gray117]

Yeah there's all kinds of carts about now... Was maybe hoping it was one of the more 'manufacturered' ones with a part which might mean something to someone, but if anything your sacrifice/hack one should probably be better :/

You got the reset right with that switch... Sorry not sure what else to suggest.

Perhaps the only other thing would be maybe seeing if you can get the rom re-written and cover the uv window on the chip... Again far from an expert but I would assume those should be covered with black tape to keep it from being corrupted... Not saying that's your cause/solution, but the only thing I have to suggest :/

[Yakkers]

I ended up just returning it, so I guess this is settled for now. It looks like the seller might not bother having me ship this one back so I might have it around to try and fix.