Video Converter Card turns pink

mongoosetoo

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Rush the Rock Alcatraz has a LCD screen in it with a Video Converter card. I hit auto-adjust and everything looks pretty good. Slowly, as I play it gets pinker and pinker. When I finish the game, it stays heavily "pink".

I've already swapped VGA Converter cards with one I had on the bench, and it behaves the same.

Next, I will try using an external power supply - I was thinking maybe the power supply is not stable - looks new but you never know.

Any ideas?

Thanks, mongoosetoo.
 
Last edited:
one step further

I swapped the monitors and even though its a different brand and size it still goes pink too.

I also hooked the volt meter up to power supply as I played. Over the course of 5 minutes of play, the voltage creeped up only .01 volts. I'd consider that normal.
 
Here's the answer!

Ok, I was lazy and did not do a good google search til after I started this thread - sorry about that. Sometimes it's easy to forgot how easy it is to google. Anyway, for those of you who have run into this, this appears to be the fix. I'll try it tomorrow and post the results...

It's from this url: https://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?t=12534


First thing you are going to do is to change the language, then the resolution (change it to the 3rd option works best (1024 x 768). Then adjust the trim pots at the vga card. The 3 trim pots are for your colors. Usually these cards ship with these trim pots adjusted to full output making your colors very washed out (mines were already adjusted to half but yours might be different, it definitely looks better at half (i tried other settings)).. Turn them to half, all of them the same the best you can. This will give you very good contrast and brightness.

Then play with the following settings,
Clamp ST and Clamp SP, this will prevent your screen from turning pink or purple (mine went all purple before i did that, never again once i adjusted that option). Under geometry I believe. Also these controls the horizontal scan of the picture.

This is how you set it the best, IMO.

Start with the clamp that by default starts at 90. Start going down in numbers(89,88,87,…)not up in numbers (very important step). At some point the screen will go black. When it goes black, go one more number down(at 62 it turned black, set it to 61. Just an example, ok. Your number might be different)

Now start adjusting the other clamp that by default it starts at 95. At 62 (remember, its just an example) your screen should come back full screen with really good colors and it should not turn pink on you anymore. Leave it at this setting.

Go into the game monitor test and set it to convergence (or cross bar check). All you need is an image that shows a full screen with vertical and horizontal lines. After this hit auto adjust at the monitor itself. The monitor should adjust the screen to full filling the image all the way to the edges.

If needed, then go back to the vga card and stretch the image horizontally and vertically.

That's it guys, you should be up and running by then !
 
It Works - kinda...

So I followed the dude's advice about the Clamp settings and voila - it looks great. Rebooted and now the game won't launch.

1. I turn it on
2. Calibration screen comes up, after a minute or so it prompts me to Abort (FFB card is bad)
3. I hit the Abort button
4. Screen goes black for 3-4 seconds
5. I hear a "bong!" like the sound card initializing
6. It goes back to the calibration screen.

Checked voltage at 5.25 at HD connector. I have a CF conversion on it and I see green and red lights, but the yellow one (hard drive activity) never comes on. Checked voltage circuit on card, checked continuity all the way from power source to the soldered pins on the CF to IDE adapter, and all looks good.

I presume the yellow light should go blinky blinky once the calibration is done and start loading the game, right? It was cheap enough, so I ordered a CF kit. Am I on the right track? (Pun intentended - we are talking about a RTR Alcatraz).

One more note - - when I got the game, dude had it set to 5.37v. I immediately backed it down to 5.25v per manufacturer's reccomendation. I called the dude and asked him why he had it up so high and he said it was the only way he could get it to boot. Hope he didn't fry anything other than the CF.

Thanks.
 
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