Nintendo Vs Unisystem Rom Chip Swap > No picture

ddonaldson

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Nintendo Vs Unisystem Rom Chip Swap > No picture

What was supposed to be a 30 minute rom swap has turned into a three-hour ordeal.

I recently acquired a set of Vs. Duck Hunt roms. After reading carefully on how to remove my working Vs. Excitebike chips, i used a flat head screw driver to slowly and carefully pry them out straight up, very slowly.

One of the Vs. Duck Hunt chips had bent pins. No problem, I straightened them back up using the old mechanical pencil trick.

After I inserted the rom chips in the correct order on SW part of the PCB.

I powered it up; I heard a mechanical click (coming from either the front or the monitor) and then the screen was a light blue color. No Duck Hunt, No sound.

Reseated the chips, then the screen whet white. No duck hunt, no sound other than that single mechanical click again.

I reversed the orientation of the IC, thinking I read the manual wrong. No picture, No Duck Hunt, no sound.

I removed the additional IC (the unmarked one, that sits right next to the named IC). No picture, Duck Hunt, no sound. Reinserted the IC the correct way. Still nothing.

Thinking the chips were bad, I put the Vs. Excitebike Chips back in. The pins on these roms are super straight and very clean! Power up - No picture, no Excitebike, no sound.

I reverse the direction of the IC (thinking I had it wrong). I powered up the machine, and now the screen is purple. No sound. Mechanical sounding click.

After reviewing the boards and the diagram for the 10th time, I reorient the main IC chip to the correct placement. No picture, no Excitebike Hunt, no sound. I reseated all the chips and connectors a few times. Nothing. I know those pins are making contact in the sockets, they are a very tight fit.

Does anyone know what's wrong? Did I just f'up my Vs. Board? Is there a way to use a multimeter to check?

I have been building PCs for the last 10 years or so, and I had the PCB on a fabric-covered footstool to keep it from getting grounded. I discharged myself too before I touched anything. I heard no other electronic sounds, no snaps, no smoke, no smells.

Thanks a million in advance.

Dan
 
What was supposed to be a 30 minute rom swap has turned into a three-hour ordeal.

I recently acquired a set of Vs. Duck Hunt roms. After reading carefully on how to remove my working Vs. Excitebike chips, i used a flat head screw driver to slowly and carefully pry them out straight up, very slowly.

One of the Vs. Duck Hunt chips had bent pins. No problem, I straightened them back up using the old mechanical pencil trick.

After I inserted the rom chips in the correct order on SW part of the PCB.

I powered it up; I heard a mechanical click (coming from either the front or the monitor) and then the screen was a light blue color. No Duck Hunt, No sound.

Reseated the chips, then the screen whet white. No duck hunt, no sound other than that single mechanical click again.

I reversed the orientation of the IC, thinking I read the manual wrong. No picture, No Duck Hunt, no sound.

I removed the additional IC (the unmarked one, that sits right next to the named IC). No picture, Duck Hunt, no sound. Reinserted the IC the correct way. Still nothing.

Thinking the chips were bad, I put the Vs. Excitebike Chips back in. The pins on these roms are super straight and very clean! Power up - No picture, no Excitebike, no sound.

I reverse the direction of the IC (thinking I had it wrong). I powered up the machine, and now the screen is purple. No sound. Mechanical sounding click.

After reviewing the boards and the diagram for the 10th time, I reorient the main IC chip to the correct placement. No picture, no Excitebike Hunt, no sound. I reseated all the chips and connectors a few times. Nothing. I know those pins are making contact in the sockets, they are a very tight fit.

Does anyone know what's wrong? Did I just f'up my Vs. Board? Is there a way to use a multimeter to check?

I have been building PCs for the last 10 years or so, and I had the PCB on a fabric-covered footstool to keep it from getting grounded. I discharged myself too before I touched anything. I heard no other electronic sounds, no snaps, no smoke, no smells.

Thanks a million in advance.

Dan


Two issues I see.....01) If you insert a chip in backwards......99.9 percent of the time, it will kill it (which, you've now done to, at least, a couple). 02) This is not a BIG deal, but....that fabric-covered footstool.....probably a descent static generator.

All IC chips will have some indication of it's orientation....as will an IC socket. It's not always the same...and not always obvious, but there's some indicator. It takes a little getting used to, to know what to look for. Your first step is to figure out which chips were inserted in backwards.....and get replacements.

Edward
 
30 minute ROM swop? THat should take 2 minutes.

BLUE screen usually means the PPU is working. Try another CPU if you have one. That's what I do. I have also accidently inserted stuff in backwards and never fried anything.

ALso, check all the notches on the ROMS, PPU, and CPU. They should all be facing the same way and also be facing the same way as all the soldered in ICs.
 
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Thaanks for the info.

It's my first time. I thought it was pretty good. ;P Triple checking everything (incorrectly, evidently)

The notches are all orientated correctly on the rom chips. I saw the notch on the top of the chip (I did not trust the sticker, as I read), and got those right.

I know the security IC is in the correct direction currently. I had it correct at first, but then switched it...I guess I may have just blown the RP2A03 H or something. I hope Mike has some left!

But the weird thing is: When the security was backwards, I got a purple color. When it's in the right way, there's a black screen.

shit.
 
Thaanks for the info.

It's my first time. I thought it was pretty good. ;P Triple checking everything (incorrectly, evidently)

The notches are all orientated correctly on the rom chips. I saw the notch on the top of the chip (I did not trust the sticker, as I read), and got those right.

I know the security IC is in the correct direction currently. I had it correct at first, but then switched it...I guess I may have just blown the RP2A03 H or something. I hope Mike has some left!

But the weird thing is: When the security was backwards, I got a purple color. When it's in the right way, there's a black screen.

shit.
did you ever figure out what was wrong am having the same problem i have super mario bros ?
 
Take a pic of your board. Make sure it is in focus and the flash isn't dead on.
ok i will tomorrow take pic of both boards. but before i had super Mario bros in there i turn it on coin it up was playing for a few min then it reset it self then again. screen change color i took the board out reset the chips now am getting the black screen.
 
I had a board that I was getting the black screen. It ending up being a bad board that I have not figured out the issue with. Put the same chips in another board and they work fine.

I have also gotten the colored screen before. That was the chips not seating correctly.

Did you cut the caps out of the PCB for a shooting game? That might have something to do with it?
 
I had a board that I was getting the black screen. It ending up being a bad board that I have not figured out the issue with. Put the same chips in another board and they work fine.

I have also gotten the colored screen before. That was the chips not seating correctly.

Did you cut the caps out of the PCB for a shooting game? That might have something to do with it?
no i did not cut the cap on the pcb. i want to see if a other board will work cause the smb came up black screen and so did hogans alley.
 
not sure if this applies to you,

but on one of my vs boards it was working fine and i noticed just a whiff(just a tiny bit) of smoke, pulled the pcb at first i couldnt find anything, tried the board again and wouldnt boot, looked again very close. what i found was that the resistor at r36 had burnt up, weird because nothing else did and it is only a 33 ohm resistor!
 
not sure if this applies to you,

but on one of my vs boards it was working fine and i noticed just a whiff(just a tiny bit) of smoke, pulled the pcb at first i couldnt find anything, tried the board again and wouldnt boot, looked again very close. what i found was that the resistor at r36 had burnt up, weird because nothing else did and it is only a 33 ohm resistor!
not sure if it does but ill look at that area
 
With the problems you've had and with the game resetting after a period of time, I'd guess that's a faulty CPU. Unfortunately these are getting really hard to find, but you might try and take one off another board and check it real quick.
 
With the problems you've had and with the game resetting after a period of time, I'd guess that's a faulty CPU. Unfortunately these are getting really hard to find, but you might try and take one off another board and check it real quick.
here are the pictures i try different CPU nothing coming up
 

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You probably need the RP2A04 chip (or the wire mod). Refer to the SMB installation manual at the PAR site.
wire mod ? i try other cpu i had in the 3 board i had. i get blue screen on some and one black screen
 
Try a PPU from a different game. I did the same thing with my SMB when I first got it. I have 3 SMB PPUs and I was switching games around and put the PPUs in backwards so I think I fried 3 PPUs. The game works with a different PPU but I can't use any of my SMB PPUs.
 
Try a PPU from a different game. I did the same thing with my SMB when I first got it. I have 3 SMB PPUs and I was switching games around and put the PPUs in backwards so I think I fried 3 PPUs. The game works with a different PPU but I can't use any of my SMB PPUs.
what ppu are you using now to play the game ? and the plus side is i got hogans alley but i dont have the gun for it lol. i need to fined out what up with smb. does smb need the cpu rp2a04 ? or can i use the rp2a03 for it?
 
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