FIXED: DK3 Donkey Kong 3 PCB missing sprites

[treborlicec]

Evening folks. My Donkey Kong 3 PCB is missing all sprites. I found a post on MikesArcade that indicated this could be a bad Z80-DMA. Ordered a couple of those and no change. Changed out the socket also and still no change. Any ideas what else could cause all sprites to be gone? Game plays as it should minus sprites. Stock and with a Braze HSS kit, same result.

Also, this is in my DK Jr cab using Mike's adapter to turn the little connectors into an edge connector that works fine otherwise.

Thanks for any insight on where to look next.

 

[treborlicec]

No ideas.......?

 

[VectorCollector]

Watch some UTube ... might help.

https://www.youtube.com/user/OneCircuit/videos?disable_polymer=1

 

[VectorCollector]

For DK, specifically, these ICs are always suspect.

SPRITE ISSUES: vid board – consider – 1H (10125), 5F (LS139), 3E (LS163), 2E/2H RAM (10422), 5K (LS161), 8L (LS04)
I'd also check the ROMs.

 

[treborlicec]

For DK, specifically, these ICs are always suspect.

SPRITE ISSUES: vid board – consider – 1H (10125), 5F (LS139), 3E (LS163), 2E/2H RAM (10422), 5K (LS161), 8L (LS04)
I'd also check the ROMs.

Thanks for the direction. I don't have a good set up to probe around on nintendo stacks. Need to get one of the nintendo to jammas to do so. After some research, it appears that DKJR and DK3 video boards are nearly identical. I swapped the socketed roms and the small chip (prom?) between my DKJR and DK3 video boards and DK3 still has no sprites at all. DKJR does have sprites with my DK3 video board populated with DKJR roms. The sprites did display some color issues which leads me to believe there must be some tiny differences between the 2 video boards. I'll attach a pic in a moment from my phone.

Would this indicate that the DK3 video board is fine? I don't have a rom burner to check the roms. Does the braze kit replace the video board roms or only the program roms on the cpu board? One other thing, there is a blue jumper on the back of the DK3 cpu board. Was thinking this may be factory, but not sure. When I swapped everything back, DKJR is fine and DK3 still missing sprites.

Thanks again for any suggestions.

 

[rod90]

Thanks for the direction. I don't have a good set up to probe around on nintendo stacks. Need to get one of the nintendo to jammas to do so. After some research, it appears that DKJR and DK3 video boards are nearly identical. I swapped the socketed roms and the small chip (prom?) between my DKJR and DK3 video boards and DK3 still has no sprites at all. DKJR does have sprites with my DK3 video board populated with DKJR roms. The sprites did display some color issues which leads me to believe there must be some tiny differences between the 2 video boards. I'll attach a pic in a moment from my phone.

Would this indicate that the DK3 video board is fine? I don't have a rom burner to check the roms. Does the braze kit replace the video board roms or only the program roms on the cpu board? One other thing, there is a blue jumper on the back of the DK3 cpu board. Was thinking this may be factory, but not sure.

I ran into that awhile ago. The initial video board is the same. Some cut traces and jumpers are used to make it a DK3 board.

 

[rod90]

The video board should have a jumper between 7F 21 and 6J 2.
A trace should be cut 7C 21 and the bus next to it. Check my post history and it should show more information.

 

[treborlicec]

I ran into that awhile ago. The initial video board is the same. Some cut traces and jumpers are used to make it a DK3 board.

Makes sense. Just checked and there is a blue jumper (same wire as the cpu board) on the back of the video board. Assuming my video roms are ok, the issue must lie on the cpu board, then.

 

[rod90]

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=420447&highlight=dk3

Here is the information from when I first did this.

 

[treborlicec]

The video board should have a jumper between 7F 21 and 6J 2.
A trace should be cut 7C 21 and the bus next to it. Check my post history and it should show more information.

I do have that jumper on the video board. Found a post of yours with this info on the DK3 cpu:

The CPU board while made specifically for DK3 has after production mods done to it.
Pin 16 and 17 of the Z80 DMA are bridged. Pin 10 of 2H is jumpered to R58 through the VIA in the board that is connected to it. That trace is then cut.

I do have the jumper, but when using continuity meter, the DMA does not have pins 16 and 17 shorted/bridged. I suppose I could have damaged this when changing the socket. Should I try bridging those pins from the solder side to see if the sprites return?

 

[rod90]

That was where I did it.

 

[treborlicec]

That was where I did it.

I'll bridge those 2 pins and report back.

 

[treborlicec]

I'll bridge those 2 pins and report back.

SUCCESS!!!!

I figured out where I messed up. This board was working when I got it. I added the Braze kit, but because my DMA was socketed, it did not seat properly. I had the idea to change the stock ninty socket for a shorter one. I abandoned that idea after doing a few solder joints figuring I'd try to raise the kit so it wouldn't hit the DMA. I must've desoldered just enough pins to undo that factory jumper mod. So, now I do have the shorter socket for the DMA and the kit fits great.

Thanks alot to all and espescially Rod90.

 

[rod90]

I paid a lot for a non-working DK3 board on E-bay. I did not believe the mods done on it and screwed it up. I bought the second one that he had on E-bay. I paid a whole lot of money for the two of them. It took a whole lot of searching here before I finally got both of them working.
My memory is really bad so I made a thread of what I did to help out anybody who needed it in the future.

 

[treborlicec]

I paid a lot for a non-working DK3 board on E-bay. I did not believe the mods done on it and screwed it up. I bought the second one that he had on E-bay. I paid a whole lot of money for the two of them. It took a whole lot of searching here before I finally got both of them working.
My memory is really bad so I made a thread of what I did to help out anybody who needed it in the future.

So glad you did. I ended up buying a couple extra unnecessary DMAs but I'm sure I can use them at some point down the road for myself or others that may need one. Now DK3 resides in my JR cab with my Nintendo switcher