Crystal Castles: Black Boxes behind Character Sprites????

tyranix95

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Crystal Castles: Black Boxes behind Character Sprites????

Hey gang,

Board played fine this morning. Then I came back this afternoon to this little surprise.

Black boxes are behind the character sprites. How do I make these go away?

Board passes the boot RAM and ROM tests. And board passed the Rom test in Test Mode.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

IMG_4315_zpsiieyru7c.jpg


IMG_4316_zpsil6yyi2u.jpg


IMG_4312_zpstaeb85us.jpg
 
have to first check the voltages coming out of the power supply, on the power supply and ON THE BOARD
just because you see the +5 volts dc on the power supply doesn't mean you have +5vdc ON THE BOARD
if you see 5 v on the ps and not on the game board then you know theres a weak pin inside the connector or a problem with the wire somewhere along the way

could be the +5vdc needs to be adjusted and the sprites go away
if not, at least you've scratched off the list a potential problem

report back what you find plz
 
Ok,

Measured the +5 voltage at the edge connector and at the eproms at the back of the board.

And, the +5v line is registering just under +5.05v at both points.
 
the +5v line is registering just under +5.05v at both points.

ok good
now you know the pins inside the connector is ok and the wires too

I would gently pull out each ROM without bending the legs and clean the sockets with air or vacuum and try and detect any dirt in the way and then install them back and hope that fixes your issue. if that doesn't fix it then there must be some problem on the board that I might find someone here on the boards to fix


good luck
 
Ok, I'll rom check the board next.

---

I just up'ed the +5v line to +5.1, and no change. And,

I just dropped the +5v line to +5.0, and no chance.

So, yea, looks like we can rule the +5v line out. :)
 
In the mean time: does anybody know what the four dip switches do on the PCB?

You know the ones right next to the crystal?

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btw, it seems there are four different version of the Crystal Castle rom in mame.

Does anybody know what the difference between these versions are?
 
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Ok, all roms verified.

ROM 106 Verified.
ROM 107 Verified.

ROM 101 Verified.
ROM 102 Verified.
ROM 303 Verified.
ROM 304 Verified.
ROM 305 Verified.

Looks like this board has a ver. 3 rom set.
 
maybe the big blue capacitor needs to be replaced down there in the bottom of the cab in the transformer assembly. if its dried out and out of specification and leaking ac current all kinds of wacky things can happen
think that "suitcase" transformer assembly has a second smaller silver capacitor that can be bought from grainger for 6 or 7 bucks
 
With a programmer, and the mame dumps.

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I download the mame dumps for the game, and unzip the files into their respective directories on my computer. Next, I remove a rom for the board and put it in my programmer. Start the programmer software. And, select the type of rom I put on the programmer. Then, I select the type of file I want it to be compared to. And, let the programmer compare the file in the rom against the file I selected from the mame dump. If the two files match, then it's verified. But, if the files do not match, then the verification process fails.

how are you verifying them ?

I hooked the board up to a (JAMMA style) switching psu, and the black box problem still persists.

So, I'm thinking the problem may a board problem.

maybe the big blue capacitor needs to be replaced down there in the bottom of the cab in the transformer assembly. if its dried out and out of specification and leaking ac current all kinds of wacky things can happen
think that "suitcase" transformer assembly has a second smaller silver capacitor that can be bought from grainger for 6 or 7 bucks
 
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it's not a ROM issue or a power issue. usually there is a circuit that takes the sprite and the background and decides which pixel to draw. sprites are rectangular so the parts of the sprite that should be "transparent" and let the background be shown instead.
in this case that circuit is always choosing to draw the sprite, even when the part that should win is the background. I haven't looked at a CC for a while but that's going to be somewhere after teh video ROM in the circuit thats in common with the path of the background circuit.
 
With a programmer, and the mame dumps

kk
for some reason I thought you were doing it a different way and just wanted to make sure you weren't skipping something

the big blue capacitor on the bottom, reseating ROMs and checking voltages
is all I can do before sending it out for someone to fix

been wanting an oscilloscope for a long time now but haven't pulled the trigger yet

I have a working 100% crystal castles PCB that i'd sell if yours doesnt get fixed right

good luck
 
kk
for some reason I thought you were doing it a different way and just wanted to make sure you weren't skipping something

the big blue capacitor on the bottom, reseating ROMs and checking voltages
is all I can do before sending it out for someone to fix

been wanting an oscilloscope for a long time now but haven't pulled the trigger yet

I have a working 100% crystal castles PCB that i'd sell if yours doesnt get fixed right

good luck

Thanks! I'll let ya know if I need it. :)

it's not a ROM issue or a power issue. usually there is a circuit that takes the sprite and the background and decides which pixel to draw. sprites are rectangular so the parts of the sprite that should be "transparent" and let the background be shown instead.
in this case that circuit is always choosing to draw the sprite, even when the part that should win is the background. I haven't looked at a CC for a while but that's going to be somewhere after teh video ROM in the circuit thats in common with the path of the background circuit.

Are you talking about the motion-object buffer circuit?

http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Arca...stles/Crystal_Castles_SP-241_2nd_Printing.pdf

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I'm thinking either 11A or 9A.

Gonna try 11A first.
 
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