Donkey Kong 3 Graphical Glitches

WarLordAG

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I was having a really crazy issue where the screen was messed up and the coin counter just kept going up.

I took out all chips, cleaned and reseated them. The following pictures shows what I'm dealing with now. I've since taken all chips out again, just to see if I could fix it, and nothing. Still doing the same thing.

When I first reseated everything there was a chip I was unsure if it was going the right way. When I turned the game on, it was garbled. I shut it off and turned the chip around and that brought me to here, though the chip was unusually warm when I was fixing it.

Thoughts?
 

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I tried that also. Sorry for not mentioning it.
I swapped out for a brand new one and then back in for the old.

I'll try the other new one I have as well I suppose.

[EDIT]

Still the same issue. That's 3 different Z80s
 
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Looks like an address line problem somewhere... check the sockets for corroded pins and the ROMs (both sides of the legs) for corroded pins.

RJ
 
Some of the pins on the legs do look semi corroded but not horrible and not low on the pins.

This thing was outside in a tent when I got it, which obviously wasn't good to it.

Anything I can do to these chip legs to try to really clean them up then?
 
I took all the chips out again, this time cleaning all chips and sockets with alcohol and an electric tooth brush.
Everything looks great and the problem persists.

Could the chip I put in backwards be damaged, and the source of this issue?
 
I took the chip I thought could possibly be bad out and stuck the board back in and fired it up. The problem was fixed, some colors were just off.

I'm going to order a new chip and hopefully that fixes the problem. I'll follow back up here when I get a new chip so if anyone searches for this they'll have some kind of answer.

The chip is at 2N on the video board.
 

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The chip from Hobby Roms arrived today.

Replacing the chip at 2N on the video board did in fact fix the issue. I apologize for the picture being a little blurry but you can still very much tell that the issue is fixed.

I'm glad we have people like Steph in the hobby, even from Canada he was quick and great to respond to mail.

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Thanks for the follow up post, I always appreciate an ending to a problem thats been posted. What lead you to believe that particular chip was bad ?
 
I had inserted it backwards and when I took the board out real quick to turn it around, it was hot.

Stupid move on my part. Thankfully it led to easier troubleshooting.
 
It's crazy how much the game relies on one video chip. A small one at that.
I played a bit while waiting for the new chip to get here as it would play, just do weird stuff.
Obviously the colors were off a ton, but there would sometimes even be gaps in the platforms that Stanley would fall through.
 
Yeah, I had a similar issue with a DK Jr. having one ROM that was corrupt, on level three the jump pad caused a slow painful death by a spike looking thing that was there instead, no jumping would happen, he would be slowly impaled on the spike until he died.
 

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It's crazy how much the game relies on one video chip. A small one at that.
I played a bit while waiting for the new chip to get here as it would play, just do weird stuff.
Obviously the colors were off a ton, but there would sometimes even be gaps in the platforms that Stanley would fall through.

Galaga, Galaxian, Pac Man/Ms Pac, and many many others rely on silly PROMs like that.
 
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