Help with Top Loader RGB + chinese Everdrive N8

[Corredor X]

Hello, everyone!

A couple of years ago I bought a chinese Everdrive N8 (60-pin version) that has the OS 13 on it. I tried it on my Top Loader NES, which was modded with the very first version of Tim's NESRGB mod - never had a single problem with it in all these years. The ED worked great with almost every game I tried on it, the only exception were Famicom Disk System Games. All of them showed a glitched loading screen, with "err. 05" (which is something related to incorrect game name, right?), and then it keeps reseting.

First I though it was a problem with the ROMS, so I tried a couple of other sets to no avail. So, the most logical cause of the problem should be the Everdrive clone itself. To my surprise, it played the FDS games flawlessly on every other console I have, from a couple of original Toaster NES to an early 90's Brazilian famiclone, with and without the 60-to-72 pin converter I use on the Top Loader. Then, it had to be the console itself.

I looked up online and then found this:

https://www.videogamesage.com/forums/to ... s-from-n8/

The OP had the exact same problem with the original N8 on several firmwares and a later version of NESRGB board. Another difference is that he modded the ED to output expanded audio, something I never did - but someone else on the thread had a modded TL and a modded ED that worked fine together. Sadly, couldn't find if their problem was solved in the end, never posted about it again.

Does anyone have a clue on what could be causing this behavior? Thanks in advance!

[orange808]

Does the new board pull more power than older designs?

[Corredor X]

Does the new board pull more power than older designs?

I'm not sure... But thanks to your input, I discovered something very strange.

A week ago, when I read your question, I searched a little about it and found someone on reddit with a power issue in a Top Loader with NESRGB - sadly, I cannot find the original post now. But the issue, in the end, was due to the extra power pulled by a wireless controller, if I remember correctly the setup worked fine with wired ones.

Since I used a wireless pad when I got the issue back then (I still do, although a different model), I decided to test with a wired one, something I could only do today because of a very busy week - that's why I didn't reply to you earlier, orange808, sorry about that.

What I found:

. for context, the first time I had the issue, when I got the everdrive, I was using a wireless dogbone controller (the 8bitdo DIY kit one). Got visual glitches, error codes and continuous resets;

. first, for comparison, I tried my current wireless controller (a retrobit one) and the errors and glitches were still there, although several different numbers were show (error 7, 22, 4 etc.), with the same reset loop. Tried games from three different sets of ROMs, nothing.

. then, I tried a wired Famicom dogbone, got the same behavior from above.

. I was about to stop the tests, thinking it had nothing to do with the controllers, but for some reason I decided to try an original toaster NES controller. While two sets of ROMs had the exact same behavior from the last controllers, a third one - with games that were "optimized" for the Powerpak, that's what the pack description said - kinda worked!

The FDS loading screen had several visual glitches, but no error message at all. Then, after a couple of seconds, the games loaded fine. Some played perfectly, like Zelda 1, but others had some minor visual glitches, like weird stripes in the sky when Simon enters the castle and also a flashing white retangle in the timer on Castlevania 1. Retried this romset again with the above controllers, got the errors back.

So, it looks like a power issue because of the extra juice the wireless controllers use, correct? But why the Famicom dogbone didn't worked with it, then? And why it still had glitches with a normal pad? More importantly, can anyone think of something that could solve the issue? Thanks again!

[orange808]

It was more of a general troubleshooting suggestion. The first thing I suspect when things go haywire is a power related issue.

From reading the forum, I think there's multiple members that can give you more feedback, but it sounds like you might not be equipped to troubleshoot very much right now.

You've reached the rabbit hole. This is the kind of thing that often leads to buying a scope and a solder gun... and down the hole you tumble with the rest of us...

[Corredor X]

You've reached the rabbit hole. This is the kind of thing that often leads to buying a scope and a solder gun... and down the hole you tumble with the rest of us...

Remember that scene in A New Hope where Obi-Wan feels the explosion of Alderaan? My wife, in this very moment somewhere, got a little dizzy and told herself: "...as if... he's going to buy more shit to try to fix those old consoles of his, I can feel it"

But yeah, I was really hoping that it could be solved with some minor modification. I can do some mods (I installed the NESRGB myself and other little things in the collection), but I'm indeed better at following instructions than figuring anything that's happening there, sadly. Hope there's something I could do to fix it without going to the oscilloscope route... but I do confess that I always wanted one of those to play Tennis for Two on it

[Bema]

Hi! I don't have a rgb-modded NES or an Everdrive on it but on other consoles on other occasions I've had glitches that I resolved with running checkdisk on Windows on the SD card/s or using another card entirely. Nevermind that yours (OP) works on other consoles with the same sd card because it could be a combination of bad contacts, the controller problem and the sd card combined. Clean your contacts and try another card. Could also be that the chinese ED has worn out a pin/pins on the console. My resolved problems happened on PC Engine and Mega Drive with original Everdrives but the problem was on both occasion the sd card. Hope this advice could help and apologies if you have already tried that.

[Corredor X]

Hi! I don't have a rgb-modded NES or an Everdrive on it but on other consoles on other occasions I've had glitches that I resolved with running checkdisk on Windows on the SD card/s or using another card entirely. Nevermind that yours (OP) works on other consoles with the same sd card because it could be a combination of bad contacts, the controller problem and the sd card combined. Clean your contacts and try another card. Could also be that the chinese ED has worn out a pin/pins on the console. My resolved problems happened on PC Engine and Mega Drive with original Everdrives but the problem was on both occasion the sd card. Hope this advice could help and apologies if you have already tried that.

Bema, my friend, the advice helped a lot!

I'll try another sd card later, but for now I cleaned every contact in the process - SD card, ED, 60-to-72 adapter and console. At first, everything looked the same: with the wired controller I got an error but the games started, the wireless pad only got the errors - but this time, after a couple of error loops, the games actually started! I'm 100% sure that they didn't work at all before, I waited for several minutes to see if something happened, both when I got the ED and on the last week's tests, and they never booted the games.

Tried several games with the wireless pad on (using the Power Pack romset, the others still don't work at all) and, after two or three error screens, every single one worked to some point. All-Night Super Mario seemed to run flawlessly, Castlevania and Zelda had the exact same visual problems from before (saw an additional one that sometimes glitches Link looking foward) and Arumana no Kiseki had a lot of visual glitches and froze during the introduction, for example.

Something is still amiss, but there was some progress here! I clean both the cart slot and games from time to time, but like you said there's still a combination of factors here messing with the games. I'll look more into it, thanks a lot for the suggestion!

[Corredor X]

After a lot more tests, I found one of the culprits: the 60-to-72 pin adapter.

I didn't have another "official" one at hand, but I remembered that I have an old chinese bootleg 72-pin cart (a TMNT: Arcade Game that has no title screen but starts with 9 lives and 30 continues, a classic) that has one inside, like the early batch of NES games. Took the main 60-pin board of the TMNT game (which also plays fine on the other adapter, by the way), put the everdrive on the cart adapter and it booted nicely. To my surprise, now almost every FDS game I tried, no matter the controller I use, behave exactly like when I tried it with the wired pad. Better than that: games from the other FDS romsets, not all but most of them, are now running just like the only set that worked before!

That means way less error screens, most of the games just show the first FDS loading screen (a little glitched, but less than it used to be), a black screen for a couple of seconds and then the game boots. I saw a couple of double error screens, but also not like they used to appear using the wireless pad. I also noticed that the games now have less visual glitches, when they have them at all... Castlevania only showed the weird castle sky but not the blinking timer - but it also froze a couple of times when Simon used stairs. The Zelda ROM I tried before now runs perfectly, any version of Arumana still freezes after the title screen (but now it has no glitches) and so on. One weird thing I noticed is that every FDS Metroid I tried has graphical problems after the game starts, intro screen is flawless. Lots of garbage and numbers/letters on the screen, Samus and her shots are glitchy, etc. The weirder part: also, every US Metroid .nes ROM I tried had the same problem! Since I've never played it on the ED before (have the cart), I don't know if it was always this way. Every other .nes games I run just played smoothly.

So, the adapter was half of the problem, it seems. Like I said before, it worked on this ED on a toaster NES and other consoles I tried with no glitches at all, so as Bema said, it was part of the combination of things not working here. Will try another SD card soon, let's hope it will have some effect as well.

[Bema]

Hi! I don't have a rgb-modded NES or an Everdrive on it but on other consoles on other occasions I've had glitches that I resolved with running checkdisk on Windows on the SD card/s or using another card entirely. Nevermind that yours (OP) works on other consoles with the same sd card because it could be a combination of bad contacts, the controller problem and the sd card combined. Clean your contacts and try another card. Could also be that the chinese ED has worn out a pin/pins on the console. My resolved problems happened on PC Engine and Mega Drive with original Everdrives but the problem was on both occasion the sd card. Hope this advice could help and apologies if you have already tried that.

Bema, my friend, the advice helped a lot!

I'll try another sd card later, but for now I cleaned every contact in the process - SD card, ED, 60-to-72 adapter and console. At first, everything looked the same: with the wired controller I got an error but the games started, the wireless pad only got the errors - but this time, after a couple of error loops, the games actually started! I'm 100% sure that they didn't work at all before, I waited for several minutes to see if something happened, both when I got the ED and on the last week's tests, and they never booted the games.

Tried several games with the wireless pad on (using the Power Pack romset, the others still don't work at all) and, after two or three error screens, every single one worked to some point. All-Night Super Mario seemed to run flawlessly, Castlevania and Zelda had the exact same visual problems from before (saw an additional one that sometimes glitches Link looking foward) and Arumana no Kiseki had a lot of visual glitches and froze during the introduction, for example.

Something is still amiss, but there was some progress here! I clean both the cart slot and games from time to time, but like you said there's still a combination of factors here messing with the games. I'll look more into it, thanks a lot for the suggestion!

Good to hear. At least some progress. I hope you get it resolved. As a note don't forget what you wrote in your first post; "Then, it had to be the console itself." It still can be. The technically learned people on this forum will be a way better help with that than I am. But I'll advice to keep track of what has been tried out and what not. All the variations and what stays the same. If no matter what you try on other NES consoles, the problems persist on that one particular NES, then by logic the problem lies in there. Best of luck!