ESP Ra.De PCB freezes on boot -- any ideas? [EDIT - Fixed!]

[bobbyconover]

Hey guys, I just bought an Esp Ra.De PCB that was tested and working before being shipped. I know the seller is telling the truth about that because he's a good friend of mine...

On power-up, the game displays a frozen screen. Sometimes it's the boot text (this game is for use in Japan only..), sometimes it's the high score list, and sometimes it's just a solid color or scrambled junk. Every time I fire it up I get something different. All I've done so far is clean and reseat the roms, which didn't help. Also, I've tested this in 2 cabs now so I'm fairly sure it's not a power supply issue. Test switch is unresponsive.

Has anyone heard of this happening on this boardset before? Any ideas where to start? Thanks for any insight anyone can provide!

Bobby

[bobbyconover]

Upon further investigation, it looks like I have a window of 1-2 seconds upon power-up to do whatever I want. If I jam on the credit and start buttons, I can get the game to coin up and start for a split-second (complete with sound, etc). Same thing with the test switch, which gets me into a frozen test mode.

I just went over the whole board looking for bent components and leads that might have been shorting against legs of ICs, etc, and found nothing.

[emphatic]

Upon further investigation, it looks like I have a window of 1-2 seconds upon power-up to do whatever I want. If I jam on the credit and start buttons, I can get the game to coin up and start for a split-second (complete with sound, etc). Same thing with the test switch, which gets me into a frozen test mode.

I just went over the whole board looking for bent components and leads that might have been shorting against legs of ICs, etc, and found nothing.

I remember having a very similar thing happen to my board (international version). I don't remember exactly how I solved it though, sorry. Perhaps it's a corrupt NVRAM or so? Did you try using the "window" you speak of to enter the SERVICE menu and set it to "default"?

[bobbyconover]

Thanks for the ideas emphatic. I fixed it! Turns out that the easily-damaged capacitor C2 looked a little funky, though it appeared to still be in-tact and still adequately soldered in place. I figured the chances of a cap like that being damaged in shipping were high, though, and decided to try replacing it for the hell of it. The issue is now gone and the game plays fine!

So in the future, if anyone has issues with their Cave 1st Gen PCBs locking up like this, check the caps. Glad it was a simple fix!

[emphatic]

Great!