Viewpoint MVS problem

[Ash Burton]

My Big Red is stock, so it has the original.

 

[Tyranix95]

If you want to check the Bios: Try a Uni 3.0 chip, or Stock chip.

Shadow can connect you with either.

But, you have to open the system to change the chip.

 

[skinny503]

Bubba, have you tried it on another system to rule out yours? If you were closer I would say roll on down and we can dump it in my CMVS! If you wanna ship it to me I will test the crap out of it and cover return shipping!

 

[Tyranix95]

That's all you can really do Bub.

0) Re-Seat the cart.
1) Clean/Erase the cart/slot contacts.
3) Try it in a different MVS.
4) Try a different uni/1C Bios chip in the MVS.
--
After that, the cart needs to be looked at.

All the other games are working fine.

 

[bubba966]

Bubba, have you tried it on another system to rule out yours? If you were closer I would say roll on down and we can dump it in my CMVS! If you wanna ship it to me I will test the crap out of it and cover return shipping!

I have no other system to test it in.

And before I boxed it up to have someone else look at it, I cleared the backup ram and changed the time/date as was also suggested to me.

I've shipped it off to shadowkn55 to take a look at. He should have it on Saturday. He built my CMVS, so he should be able to replicate my setup better than anyone else.

 

[skinny503]

Quan is such a pimp! He recapped my 2 slot I bought off him and the sound is amazing! Trying to get him to build me a 1 slot for my next CMVS build.

 

[bubba966]

Quan has been very good to me so far. And I'm grateful that he's looking at the cart. Hoping he can figure it out and fix it.

 

[Ash Burton]

Hopefully Quan can figure this out, like I said via PM I had no such problems running it on my cab. However, I did sell it to you so if you need me to refund some coin when Quan figures out whats wrong let me know or I can just buy it back all together. I'm easy.

 

[Tyranix95]

Raz says the error message means your P-Rom is crashing.

Clean contacts, disable cheats, check P-rom.

...

...

 

[bubba966]

Raz says the error message means your P-Rom is crashing.

Clean contacts, disable cheats, check P-rom.

Contacts were cleaned, multiple times & buy 3 different methods.

Did it with or without cheats.

So hope it's just the P-Rom as it sounded like Quan could get that fixed up.


I would like to thank all of you for the help & suggestions. I wish it was just a dirty board issue. But I suppose one can't always have good luck. Would have rathered this have happened to my World Heros 2 cart...

 

[skate323k137]

I would like to thank all of you for the help & suggestions. I wish it was just a dirty board issue. But I suppose one can't always have good luck. Would have rathered this have happened to my World Heros 2 cart...

That's how it goes... When I got my cab it came with bust-a-move, aero fighters 2, and strikers 1945 plus. Guess which cart I had to send to Tyranix for repair

 

[Xian Xi]

I doubt it's the p1 itself as it's a Sony Maskrom and I've never seen them fail, Toshiba, yes. Either way, everything will be taken care of by Quan.

 

[bubba966]

I doubt it's the p1 itself as it's a Sony Maskrom and I've never seen them fail, Toshiba, yes. Either way, everything will be taken care of by Quan.

I really do hope it's an easy fix.

And while I've not been around here long it seems like something that you, Quan, or Tyranix95 could all take care of w/out much hassle. And since I've mostly dealt with Quan around here, and he can replicate my setup it seemed like a good idea to see what he could do with it.

Maybe someday I'll have the tools/etc. to fix something like this myself. Until then it's good to have you guys around that can and are willing to help out those that can't. It's much appreciated by me, and many others from what I've seen.

 

[Razoola]

What I said was the game is crashing in the P ROM code and that it could be a cart or ROM issue if the contacts have been cleaned. I also suggested to disable any cheats if they are being used given its known cheats cause issues with this game at set points.

The other potential cause is a problem with work RAM on the NeoGeo.

 

[bubba966]

its known cheats cause issues with this game at set points.

It did it without cheats. With cheats. And at different intervals and spots every single time.

Is the cheat issue you mention consistent? As in happening at the same spot/spots every time?

 

[Tyranix95]

... The other potential cause is a problem with work RAM on the NeoGeo.

Hi Raz,

If all of bub's other MVS carts play fine in the MV1C: Is the Work Ram still suspect?

 

[Razoola]

Ok if it is happening without cheats then there is something going wrong else where.

From your crash report and looking at the code I can see the problem is D0 contains 0x01. It should be either 0x0 or an even value. D0 takes its value from workRAM so either the workRAM is corrupting or an incorrect value is being placed into workRAM via the game code due to an issue elsewhere in the game code.

A suggestion would be to make a note of the system hardDIP settings. Then turn all hardDIPs on and power on the machine. Leave it like that for some time (maybe30 minutes or so) and see if any errors get reported. The downside of doing this is you will loose everything stored in the backupRAM. The workRAM however will be tested with backupRAM in a loop until you either stop the test or an error is found.

 

[Razoola]

Hi Raz,

If all of bub's other MVS carts play fine in the MV1C: Is the Work Ram still suspect?

If its a single bit that's failing then yes its very possible. ESP if he has the power on hardware tests disabled in the bios settings. Even with it enabled its possible errors can get through if the chip needs some heat before errors start.

 

[bubba966]

Hi Raz,

If all of bub's other MVS carts play fine in the MV1C: Is the Work Ram still suspect?

Yeah, I've got about 40 other games I've played in the same Omega CMVS without any issues whatsoever.

Ok if it is happening without cheats then there is something going wrong else where.

From your crash report and looking at the code I can see the problem is D0 contains 0x01. It should be either 0x0 or an even value. D0 takes its value from workRAM so either the workRAM is corrupting or an incorrect value is being placed into workRAM via the game code due to an issue elsewhere in the game code.

A suggestion would be to make a note of the system hardDIP settings. Then turn all hardDIPs on and power on the machine. Leave it like that for some time (maybe30 minutes or so) and see if any errors get reported. The downside of doing this is you will loose everything stored in the backupRAM. The workRAM however will be tested with backupRAM in a loop until you either stop the test or an error is found.

I did already clear the backupRAM before I sent it off to Quan as he wanted me to try that out. Also changed the time/date in the system per his suggestion. No difference in the cart's behavior.

And my system is an Omega CMVS. It's not as easy to get to the board as it would be if it was in a cab. I had thought about sending my Omega back to Quan with the game. But as none of my other games have had issues (and I've never cleaned any of my other games) I did not send it back to him to be tested.

 

[bubba966]

its possible errors can get through if the chip needs some heat before errors start.

If this was happening then the longer the system was on, the more frequent the error would be, yes?

The couple of times I left it on long enough to error, reset, & error again it took longer to error the longer I had the system on.

 

[Tyranix95]

Hey bub,

Since shadow has your cart, the Work Ram test is the only thing you can do next.

... A suggestion would be to make a note of the system hardDIP settings. Then turn all hardDIPs on and power on the machine. Leave it like that for some time (maybe30 minutes or so) and see if any errors get reported. The downside of doing this is you will loose everything stored in the backupRAM. The workRAM however will be tested with backupRAM in a loop until you either stop the test or an error is found.

You may have open the case to get to the DIPS on the left side of the NEO board.

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/4638/img1586mz.jpg

 

[Razoola]

If you cannot access the hardDIPS then you can't really rule out a workRAM issue (even if all other games work). All you can do is make sure the 'disable bootup hardware test' is not enabled in the unibios general settings and hope a RAM error is caught there. Check what setting you have there and make sure the test is not disabled.

The code that is causing the crash is running every frame of gameplay so if it is indeed a work RAM issue its very intermittent but it may show in the power on test right after an error has happened.

 

[Razoola]

btw the workRAM address in question is 0x108DE7 so you can even try using the ingame menu to patch values to that address. Then use the ingame menu viewer to see if the written values is there. Of course you should expect the value to change if you exit the ingame menu between patching and looking. Another thing to try is the gamecart CRC check many times after each other even if it passes.

 

[bubba966]

Hey bub,

Since shadow has your cart, the Work Ram test is the only thing you can do next.

You may have open the case to get to the DIPS on the left side of the NEO board.

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/4638/img1586mz.jpg

Yeah, I'd have to open the case up on the Omega to get to the dips. And as the screws are covered I'm not gonna mess with it yet until Quan has a look at the cart. It should be down to him tomorrow.

And the poor JAMMA edge on the board in that pic...

If you cannot access the hardDIPS then you can't really rule out a workRAM issue (even if all other games work). All you can do is make sure the 'disable bootup hardware test' is not enabled in the unibios general settings and hope a RAM error is caught there. Check what setting you have there and make sure the test is not disabled.

The code that is causing the crash is running every frame of gameplay so if it is indeed a work RAM issue its very intermittent but it may show in the power on test right after an error has happened.

I sent the cart off to get it checked out/possibly fixed. So I won't be able to test it out like you mention at the moment.

 

[bubba966]

btw the workRAM address in question is 0x108DE7 so you can even try using the ingame menu to patch values to that address. Then use the ingame menu viewer to see if the written values is there. Of course you should expect the value to change if you exit the ingame menu between patching and looking. Another thing to try is the gamecart CRC check many times after each other even if it passes.

I did try the gamecart CRC check many times during my testing. It passed fine every time I tried it. Though I don't recall if I tried it before or after the error screen & a reset.