Problem with pirate multicart

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Fisher
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Problem with pirate multicart

Post by Fisher »

Hi.
Some days ago, this multicart was working just fine.
Yesterday, I tried it and got many vertical lines on screen:
Soccer
Soccer
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.
Other games are running fine on this and in the other clone I have, so the probability of this being a console's problem is very thin to none.
I continuity tested all CHR ROM lines, (I did the best I could, since it's an epoxy blob) no problem detected.
Tried an educated guess and added a thin layer of solder on CHR-D2, no difference.
Tried D3, D1 and finally all the CHR-ROM data lines, same thing.

What could be wrong? Maybe a defective CHR ROM?
Thanks in advance.
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krzysiobal
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by krzysiobal »

Something wrong with CHR-D5. Check it against short-circuit with respect to VCC/GND or trace broke.
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Fisher
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by Fisher »

Thanks for the info!
Unfortunatelly, I couldn't solve the problem :-(
I Had made a bridge on the CHR-D5:
20170626_230557.jpg
Got the same results.
An interesting thing is that if I don't fully insert the board into the cartrige's slot and press it forward (to the label side), I get less vertical lines:
20170626_225900.jpg
20170626_210603.jpg
I have no idea of what this would mean... if means anything other than I have a bad CHR ROM. :cry:
I really would love if I could fix it without exchanging the entire CHR-ROM.
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krzysiobal
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by krzysiobal »

Maybe the silver plated connector is dirty and needs alcohol cleaning?
Please use multimeter on DIODE function test and tell me the value between:
CHR-D5 and GND,
CHR-D5 and VCC
(where u put + and - of multimeter should ont make any difference)
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Fisher
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by Fisher »

With the - probe on Vcc and the + probe on D5 I've got a .7520 reading.
I've got no reading otherwise. I was using the diode test function of the multmeter.

The silver plate on the connector is a thin layer of solder I've added.
I've made it thicker with no change on the results.
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krzysiobal
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by krzysiobal »

Do you have kazzo? Can you dump PPU $0000-$1FFF ?
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Fisher
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by Fisher »

Unfortunatelly, I don't have a Kazzo.
I can try to dump the whole ROM and see what happens.
roadkill908
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by roadkill908 »

I was always under the impression that glob tops aren't reliable and can go bad after a certain amount of time. Perhaps that could be the issue? I'm not 100% sure of this, but I read about others not trusting glob top multi-carts in the past before flash chip multi-carts started being produced (those are also not reliable either, so I've read). The best quality multi-carts were the late 1980s to early 1990s multi-carts that used through hole chips.

I could be wrong about the glob top going bad, but just throwing that out there.
Last edited by roadkill908 on Wed Jun 28, 2017 3:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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krzysiobal
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by krzysiobal »

I had exactly same vertical bars on Robocop 2 which was also built on glob tops (the problem was with CHR-D2, not D5 instead). The problem existed for 10 years and one day all of the sudden those bars disappear. You are in good situation because your CHR-ROM glob is surrounded by dip holes so you can cut off glob and solder ordinary 27512 EPROM.
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Fisher
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by Fisher »

roadkill908 wrote:glob tops aren't reliable
I share this opinion too. At first I thought changing the memory was the only plausible solution, but asked in case of someone had a better idea.

I literally have a pile of games, all with glob tops, that just don't works.
In some of them I replaced the glob tops with flash chips and everything worked just fine.
On the other side, I have a couple of glob tops that are OK.
Guess I should repare myself for a sudden death of them soon, since they're over 30 years!
krzysiobal wrote:your CHR-ROM glob is surrounded by dip holes
That's nice and can make things easier.
I'm willing to redo the whole multicart, since I don't like much of one of the games and the other I already have in other multicart. By the way, this is a 4 in 1 reset based multicart.

The Super Mario Bros on this multicart has the stage selection enabled by default and I don't wish to lose this feature, since the kids just love to "continue" where they stopped last time.
Unfortunatelly it has some sound problems too, but the kids just don't care. :-)
Does someone know of a hack of SMB that has this enabled?
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rainwarrior
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by rainwarrior »

Fisher wrote:Does someone know of a hack of SMB that has this enabled?
On the regular SMB you can continue from the world you died by holding A when you press START. It's not a level-select but it helps a little.
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by tepples »

rainwarrior wrote:
Fisher wrote:Does someone know of a hack of SMB that has this enabled?
On the regular SMB you can continue from the world you died by holding A when you press START. It's not a level-select but it helps a little.
True, but SMB prior to the All-Stars port loses this information on a power cycle, and I read "where they stopped last time" as implying that a power cycle takes place.
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Fisher
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by Fisher »

tepples wrote:implying that a power cycle takes place.
Yes, that's what I meant. :)
The kids just love this feature, specially when they need to stop to got to school, sleep, etc...

They learned to count, among some other things by playing videogames.
I think that if porperly supervisioned, videogames can be a nice learning tool, be it to kids learning the basics or adults learning computational related stuff. :wink:
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Fisher
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Re: Problem with pirate multicart

Post by Fisher »

I finally could find the ROM that's on the pirate cartridge.
Unfortunatelly, it has problems with the sound at the sea and bowser levels.
I have no idea if a fix is possible, and even how/where to begin. :oops:
Can someone please fix this to me?

Here is the IPS file:
SMB.ips
(856 Bytes) Downloaded 223 times

Code: Select all

Original ROM:
Super Mario Bros. (JU) (PRG0) [!].nes, CRC32 = 3337ec46

Target ROM:
CRC32 = 2dd3606b
Thanks in advance.
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