Final Blow Sound - Is it me?

parkway

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So I recently purchased my first cab; a Neo Geo MVS 4-slot. When I bought it, it came with a Jamma adapter card to play jamma pcb's with. Tried my first (and only) board last night which is a Final Blow that someone had given me a while ago; they claimed it was working 100% in their jamma cab and I have no reason to doubt them. I was a little uneasy because I'd never handled these things before (forgive my noobness). The first time I plugged it in, it started up, but the graphics/colors were very faint and there was no sound. I figured I didn't push the connector all the way in, so I took it out and re-inserted it; made sure it was really seated in there. This time, the graphics/colors were fine, but still no sound. Game also played just fine, just silently. I guess I'm looking for a little guidance here on a couple of things:

1. Yes, I know it could possibly be a bad board, but is there anything else I should check? The Final Blow board is pretty dusty, so could it just be dirty connectors? Should I see if I can push the board into the adapter even further? I don't want to force anything and the second time I attached it, it was a real bitch to detatch meaning I'm pretty sure it was in there as good as it was going to be. I'd also just assume test it at the friend's house who gave it to me, but he now lives 600 miles away.

2. I know my cab's speakers are getting some kind of signal because when I turn the power on, the speakers pop. The volume is up. I went back and tried a couple of MVS carts, and they all work fine with sound. Am I just an idiot noob and I'm missing some sort of dip switch or setting that I need to tweak in order to play jamma boards?

3. Is the whole jamma to Neo Geo thing just not perfect (i.e. should I expect games to not play exactly right or be hit and miss depending on which game it is) or should they function perfectly as long as the board is in good order?

I searched around for the answers, but couldn't come up with anything specific. I'd appreciate any help; I really would like to start a nice collection of boards to play in my MVS. I will eventually break down and buy/build a jamma cab, but it would be nice to be able to play them now. Thanks all. I appreciate any help you can offer.
 
I'm not sure if Final Blow requires it or not, but a dedicated Neo Geo cab doesn't have the -5 volts from the power supply wired into the the harness by default. Some games require that to even run, but like I said, I'm not sure if that is the case with Final Blow. Also you mentioned the volume is turned up....are you talking about the volume control on the Final Blow pcb?
 
I'm not sure if Final Blow requires it or not, but a dedicated Neo Geo cab doesn't have the -5 volts from the power supply wired into the the harness by default. Some games require that to even run, but like I said, I'm not sure if that is the case with Final Blow. Also you mentioned the volume is turned up....are you talking about the volume control on the Final Blow pcb?

Volume on the board, huh? No, I definitely didn't check that. I'll have to look for that and check it. Probably should try to figure out what to look for first though. :) I've also seen a couple of faq's on adding a -5v wire from the power supply. Is that something maybe I should consider?
 
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