Violent Storm reboots

neSneSgB

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Hello,
I've got a Violent Storm board that won't boot at all. When I got it a few months ago, it used to stay on for about 7 seconds before rebooting, but now it reboots constantly. One issue I possibly see is that the board appears to be slightly curved. I'll take some pictures later today if needed. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Reflow the SMT custom ASICs especially the two smaller ones with finest pitch.It's a common issue on these boards.
 
+5V is not the problem, I know these boards very well and 99.9% of cases the two QFP customs '055673' (sprite generator) and '055555' (priority encoder) have lifted pins so they need a reflow.They generate the graphics but also vital signals (interrupts, etc..)
 
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Sorry for the late response, I will go ahead and reflow the SMDs today. I'll also check voltages just to be sure those are good.
 
+5V is not the problem, I know these boards very well and 99.9% of cases the two QFP customs '055673' (sprite generator) and '055555' (priority encoder) have lifted pins so they need a reflow.They generate the graphics but also vital signals (interrupts, etc..)
Time to return to this board. Still watchdogs constantly. I replaced the sockets on the program ROMs and verified those chips to be correct, reflowed most of the QFPs including the 055555 and 055673, and searched around the board for any damaged traces, without success.

Any other components I should check on it? Would really like to see this board working some day.
 
I just fixed one of these. Check for lifted legs on the Konami customs, opposite end of the jamma connector. Especially legs on the corner of the chips. I had to use a magnifying glass but I got all the legs soldered.

I actually had to rob a custom from another board, but it was worth it. Super underated game in my opinion.

https://twitter.com/esqueleto1/status/965918006143578112?s=21
 
Here's a picture I took of the 055555's bottom edge. This side was a little bent up when I removed it with hot air, so I've tried my best to straightt
I just fixed one of these. Check for lifted legs on the Konami customs, opposite end of the jamma connector. Especially legs on the corner of the chips. I had to use a magnifying glass but I got all the legs soldered.

I actually had to rob a custom from another board, but it was worth it. Super underated game in my opinion.

https://twitter.com/esqueleto1/status/965918006143578112?s=21
Here's a picture I took of the 055555's bottom edge. This side was a little bent up when I removed it with hot air, so I've tried my best to straighten the legs. The other sides of the chip seem fairly straight. I'll give the other customs another close look.
36d30f99d78eec9ddd0107a1939a7e71.jpg
 
Looks like the far right bottom leg is broke clean off, I know for a fact this leg needs to be pulled low in order to work. You might also have some briged traces, but still check for lifted legs. I use a really fine dental pick to lightly tug at them. A sowing needle is useful too.
 
Looks like the far right bottom leg is broke clean off, I know for a fact this leg needs to be pulled low in order to work. You might also have some briged traces, but still check for lifted legs. I use a really fine dental pick to lightly tug at them. A sowing needle is useful too.

I'll go over the pins with a needle, and clean the excess off the far left legs. That very right pin on the bigger pad is just bent over to the right more than normal, but it is there and soldered in that blob.
 
Did you ever get this up and running? Great game, I'd hate to see it sit out.
 
Unfortunately not yet. I sent the board to tendril, who couldn't get it running, but did tell me what seemed to be bad on the board. The two faulty chips seem to be the 053252 and the 055555, which I will need to find on donor boards to repair this one.
 
Are you fixing it to sell it, or to keep?

If you want to get rid of it (broken or fixed) let me know
 
Finally decided to get back to this, now that I know a little more about what I'm doing.

I poked around the board and found two issues: One of the work RAMs was faulty, and 3 of the data lines on the 68K were shorted together, which would easily explain why the board would reboot over and over. I finally the short down to a solder bridge on the 055555. The short wasn't visible to the eye, so I had to follow the schematics around and see what has access to the 68K.

Fixing those two issues, the board finally booted up and showed the self test. But unfortunately that's where I'm stuck once again.

Even though the self test passes all checks, the screen fades out like it should and then immediately reboots and starts again. If I mash the test button, I can see the menu pop up for a brief moment, but the game still resets. Disabling the watchdog makes the game stay on a black screen, and I can't get the test menu to pop up.

Any ideas on where to look next? I did take the 055555 from another board, so I know for sure that the chip itself isn't faulty. All the text that I can see looks good, no graphical issues.
 
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