Spy Hunter Graphics Error

ManiN

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Can anyone identify where this error lies? I'm thinking it's video chip 2fg at position 6 on the CPU board in the MCR stack. I pulled the chip and ran it to see the difference, and it didn't show any difference, so I'm still not sure. I had a chip flipped wrong on accident, and I think this was the one, but not sure. Will order a replacement one, but I need to know the right one before I can do that.

See Video:

http://youtu.be/zgtRhf15s2I
 
Bump. Like I said, I completely pulled 2fg to see if there was a change, and it still had the error with an empty slot at 2fg. Makes me think it's it, but until I get my burner working, I can't shotgun the stack with chip burns till it's found haha.
 
looks more like a bad 93422 to me.

Is that video RAM? Same board in the stack you think (video)? I have some boards I can cannibalize off of, I'll see if I can swap some out.

This error happened after I pulled chips, cleaned, and placed back, hence the goof on the EPROM going in backwards... I assumed it to be the culprit, as I saw that flipped, instantly corrected it, then slapped my forhead for not noting which it really was. So I am assuming based on a hunch cause the sticker was placed backwards with respect to all the other chips which is why I think I put it in backwards...
 
the 93422s are all on the video board. Make sure the legs aren't bent outwards any at all.
 
the 93422s are all on the video board. Make sure the legs aren't bent outwards any at all.

I pulled the board set, and on the video board, I pulled all the ram and slightly bent the legs in, cleaned with some deoxit and reinstalled them to find the problem still exists. I think I'll do some ram swapping in pairs to see if the problem changes to spot a bad ram next.
 
might as well reseat the 6116 or 58725 as well while your at it.
Usually, if its a rom issue it'll have some of the sprite missing, but not extra color added like that.
 
Yeah, I hit em all while I was at it. I remember when I first put it back in, One of the connectors on the SSIO board was in wrong, shifted, leaving bent pins and likely crossed or shorted circuits likely due to the plug on one end of the 1 pin too large connector. Surprisingly it was easy to do that... I fired it up not knowing and there was white blocks on several sprites. I immediately shut it down and ripped out the set, to find the misaligned plug and backwards eprom. The connector was the lower one below the audio. I didn't think anything video was related to that connector. I straightened out the pins, and flipped the eprom right, then reinstalled the boardset to find the error you saw in the vid. Thoughts?

And yes, I realize this problem is my own careless doing, but hind sight is 20/20 right? :)
 
if you think you put an eprom in backwards, there's a good chance that it damaged it - don't think your alone though, it happens to everyone every now and then.
 
messed with it some last night. Swapped the 93422s around to see if any change and there was none. I then completely removed the SSIO board to try and narrow things down and it flipped the screen etc., which was fine hooking it back up, but nonetheless, the red lines were still there. I think that may help eliminate worry about the connector mishap on the SSIO board. I tried to burn a chip to replace the 2fg in thoughts it was damaged, but the burner died shortly after that, so I have no faith in the chip that was burned. Next step I suppose is to get a burned chip from somewhere to eliminate that possibility.
 
if you think you put an eprom in backwards, there's a good chance that it damaged it - don't think your alone though, it happens to everyone every now and then.

99+/100 times you do that it'll die.

I had one EPROM... once... that was glowing like a lightbulb when I plugged it in backwards. I turned off the power, took it out carefully as it was blisteringly hot, then put it back in the right way. It was the only time I've ever seen one survive being plugged in that way.
 
Yeah, I have a feeling my burner was dead even when I burned that chip and it didn't burn properly... I'll get a different chip in there and see what's up.

I thought when you have a bad eprom, it would usually report an error when you fire up the game?
 
Shanman from PAC hooked me up with a chip and again, no joy...

I think I'll go back and do some step retracing, probably re-seat everything on the boards again while paying attention so they are slightly bent inward such as CDJump said. After that, I think I'll start dipping my feat in the board diagnostics with more equipment. Good reason to advance one level in my repair skills.

Another thing to add, it seems since I rebuilt the linear PS, there is a lot more snowy interference coming from the speakers. I have the SSIO board removed, and it's still there. I think it lies in the cheap squeak board or filtering on the PS. I tried recapping the CS, and no improvement. Thoughts? I think I saw somewhere where someone replaced the input lines to the amp with better shielded ones and basically fixed the issue. I swear it wasn't so bad before the PS rebuild. Voltage is at 5.1V, so I don't think there's funk causing sound distortion and sprite errors.
 
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start unplugging stuff one by one and see if goes away. Coin door wiring, then the lamp driver, then the csd, then the ssio. If it's still there, its most likely the big cap in the suitcase (or a faulty cap in the ps pcb).
They aren't known for being quiet. Mine has enough background noise its noticeable, even without anything plugged in. The signal wires to the amp should be shielded already.
 
Ok, so I narrowed the situation down to just the video and cpu board by removing the SSIO board. With the problem still there, I checked pin continuity for every socketed chip with still no fix. I finally sat back and thought that I should just pull chips and look at the changes on the vid board until I see a change directly related to the red lines. I realized when I pulled the chip 3fg, next to 2fg that I thought it was, the problem turned to clean white lines in lieu of the red. I replaced the 3fg, and bam!, it's clear and correct.

Going to call this fixed. I believe 3fg was the one I originally had installed backwards and ruined. I guessed wrong that it was 2fg dragging out this repair.

End note: be careful and watch the details of chip orientation when re-seating!
 
start unplugging stuff one by one and see if goes away. Coin door wiring, then the lamp driver, then the csd, then the ssio. If it's still there, its most likely the big cap in the suitcase (or a faulty cap in the ps pcb).
They aren't known for being quiet. Mine has enough background noise its noticeable, even without anything plugged in. The signal wires to the amp should be shielded already.

I did this and it seems the fuzz is only from teh CSD. When I unplug it, the interference goes away. Sounds still play from the other effects such as machine gun, but not Peter Gunn obviously. I replaced the 3 only caps on the board, and that didn't help.
 
iirc, there's an lm3900 that could well be the culprit on the CSD, did you reflow all of the header pins on it as well? Those are bad about cracking the solder joint and causing buzzing.
 
Hmm, I saw a blurb about a MC3340 causing hiss. I'll look into both. I'll also re-flow the headers. Hadn't done that yet.
 
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