X-men 6 player, Defective IC, Bad Roms

Spoon2bigg

Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2015
Messages
98
Reaction score
4
Location
Memphis, Tennessee
Hey guys, I've been working on my X-men 6 player for a while now, had some issues with the audio so I got a chip replacement from Ian Kellogg and had it installed. I was hoping that would fix the issues but apparently it's more than that.

On boot up the last 4 roms are bad, it says defective IC on the first monitor, and then lists the 7B, 6B, 4E, and 3E as bad. I found them on the board but it appears to be 2 soldered roms, one seated rom, and a processor. I reseated the one rom and still nothing. I've attached some photos of the screen, as well as the roms on the board.

Previously when this issue began it would eventually boot up after a long time, or I could use the test function to skip the boot up screen. But this isn't ideal to have in operation. I'm trying to figure out how I might be able to repair this issue.

Thanks for your time.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3136.jpg
    IMG_3136.jpg
    519.5 KB · Views: 28
  • IMG_3135.jpg
    IMG_3135.jpg
    511.8 KB · Views: 35
  • IMG_3137.jpg
    IMG_3137.jpg
    562.3 KB · Views: 38
Hey guys, I've been working on my X-men 6 player for a while now, had some issues with the audio so I got a chip replacement from Ian Kellogg and had it installed. I was hoping that would fix the issues but apparently it's more than that.

On boot up the last 4 roms are bad, it says defective IC on the first monitor, and then lists the 7B, 6B, 4E, and 3E as bad. I found them on the board but it appears to be 2 soldered roms, one seated rom, and a processor. I reseated the one rom and still nothing. I've attached some photos of the screen, as well as the roms on the board.

Previously when this issue began it would eventually boot up after a long time, or I could use the test function to skip the boot up screen. But this isn't ideal to have in operation. I'm trying to figure out how I might be able to repair this issue.

Thanks for your time.

Most likely there's a communication problem between the sound CPU and main CPU, so the self-test times out and shows all the sound CPU-accessible components as bad.

Check that you have installed the sound module correctly. The main CPU and sound CPU communicate via the 054321 chip on the underside.
 
I just fixed an Xmen from hell with bad audio - I know literally everything about them now ;)

That error means the 68000 main cpu has not read the status code in time from the sound CPU - the sound CPU is responsible for all those 4 tests. So your sound may be dead (z80), it's ram may be dead (ram chip next to z80), the custom chip may be dead or needing reflowed, or the cpu could have general addressing problems.

The board I fixed had a bad clock crystal for the 054321 AND a bad PAL used for the z80 memory map. (It also had the sample rom ripped out, bad palette ram, and I had to rebuild traces and a socket - complete board from hell).

PM me if you want me to look at it for you.
 
Btw, I don't think the 'Ian Kellogg' module can cause those errors - that module sits after other components in the chain - I don't think the Z80 can test it directly.
 
Check to see if you soldered the Quad Flat Pack Chip underneath correctly and all the way. When that ceramic chip is absent, it will give those exact errors. Also make sure you didn't break any traces when you desoldered the original chip.
 
Check to see if you soldered the Quad Flat Pack Chip underneath correctly and all the way. When that ceramic chip is absent, it will give those exact errors. Also make sure you didn't break any traces when you desoldered the original chip.

This. When I did mine I didn't get all the pins resoldered correctly. Gave me the same error. I was fortunate enough to put a socket in so I could just pop it back out and reflow. Looks like you did socket too.
 
Hey guys, thanks for all the tips. I pulled the board and the audio chip wasn't seated all the way. I reseated it and the rom error message is gone.

Now the game turns on, checks the roms then the audio begins very loud and clipping and builds up in volume as the game starts until it gets extremely loud, then the whole game cuts off and restarts that process. When I hit the test button and go to the menu to access the volume setting the game stops buzzing, but as soon as I hover over volume the game freezes then restarts, not allowing me to turn the volume down.

I considered disconnecting the speakers but obviously there is something going on with the audio still that is affecting the whole game. I haven't checked the voltages yet so thats my next move. Any other ideas?
 
Back
Top Bottom