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Ghouls'n Ghosts PCB - No Sound and Weird Intro Graphics


noisuf

Question

Hi Everyone,

 

Brought out my Ghouls'n Ghosts PCB to play today (after a year due to moving/storage) and was bummed to find there was no sound. Tried other PCBs and no issues.

 

Also found a weird opening graphics issue where "Three Years Since" words are jumbled and also the "Ghouls'n Ghosts" title screen. I have to admit, I can't remember if this opening graphic/title was an issue before the move.

 

But the rest of the gameplay graphics is fine as you can see in the screenshots. Sorry for the blurry photos, not a sprite issue, just the camera phone not liking any movement at all.

 

Hope the minds trust can help especially with the sound issue as it's one of my favourite games of all time. :|

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Mike.

00 PCB (Large).jpg

01 Opening Sequence - Three Years Since (Medium).jpg

02 GhoulsnGhosts Weird Title (Medium).jpg

03 Opening is OK (Medium).jpg

04 Opening OK (Medium).jpg

05 Opening OK (Medium).jpg

06 Opening OK (Medium).jpg

07 Gameplay OK (Medium).jpg

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Tried reseating the B board, still no sound and the weird intro graphics.

 

Tried adjusting the sound pot on the A board and does nothing apart from increase 'background noise'. No hiss or hum, you just hear more 'white noise' when I adjust the white pot.

 

I do have a Street Fighter 2 PCB, should I try swapping the B boards and see if it's the A board that's the problem? I understand not all A CPS1 A boards are the same so would it potentially do harm?

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I'm also having issues with my ghouls board. I have the same garbled three years since graphics and title screen but I also have jailbars on the backgrounds in game.

Currently waiting for my eprom programmer to arrive so I can check the roms. The problem is on the b-board for mine so will be interested to hear what happens with yours.

 

EDIT: I just saw the pics of yours, the garbling is very different.

Edited by TheRunner
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Ok, I initially had a little good news. I swapped the B board into the street fighter A board. I could see "3 years since" and also the actual Ghouls'n Ghosts title. Still had no sound but at least was in the right direction.

 

Then suddenly I experienced the attached whilst playing, vertical graphics issue on the trees.

 

I tried swapping back into the original Ghouls A board and this vertical issue is still there along with the original garbled 3 years since and mixed title.

 

I've tried swapping back and forth a few times between the A boards and still getting this new issue.

 

Putting the Street Fighter B board back into it's original A board has no issues with graphics or sound.

08 Now Graphic Issue (Medium).jpg

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Have you verified the sound program EPROM at 26 ?

 

Apart from taking out the eprom, unfortunately I don't have any tools (or knowledge) on checking the eprom.

 

I took out 26 and also 27, 28, 29 and 30 to clean the legs and reseat. It hasn't helped with the new graphics issue though or restore the sound.

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Hey Noisuf, yep long time no see, you still working at the same place?

 

You may have a dead Z80 on the A board, it's very common on CPS 1 boards, that would take out the sound.

 

Dumping the ROMs would be my advise, the gfx issues could well be bad data.

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I'm also having issues with my ghouls board. I have the same garbled three years since graphics and title screen but I also have jailbars on the backgrounds in game.

Currently waiting for my eprom programmer to arrive so I can check the roms. The problem is on the b-board for mine so will be interested to hear what happens with yours.

 

EDIT: I just saw the pics of yours, the garbling is very different.

 

Hey mate, just had a read of your post. Hope you get it working soon!

 

My issue is now seems to be a combination: a) A board from the jumbled intro; b) B board being the new vertical issue. AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

I'll need another A board at least now for the intro issue but more importantly, fix the B board..............

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Hey Noisuf, yep long time no see, you still working at the same place?

 

You may have a dead Z80 on the A board, it's very common on CPS 1 boards, that would take out the sound.

 

Dumping the ROMs would be my advise, the gfx issues could well be bad data.

 

Hey Womble, no, I'm now onto the 2nd place since then. You?

 

When I put the Ghouls B board in the SF2 A board, it still didn't have any sound so it makes me think the sound issue is on the B board?

 

The original intro issue I feel is on the A board as it got fixed when I put the Ghouls B board into the SF2 A board.

 

But the new vertical issue happens on both A boards so makes me think this new gfx issue is on the B board.

 

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!! :)

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Just tried removing all chips on A and B board and reseating but didnt help.

 

Did a RGB test and came up with the following. The Red looks bad and the green also doesn't look quite right? Would this be related to the new gfx vertical line issue?

10 RGB Test (Medium).jpg

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You need to verify the code on 26 using an EPROM programmer, that may be your sound issue.

 

I'd put my money on the cps_b_01 ASIC failing, hence the thin vertical lines.

 

They can start out sparse like that at first and get worse over time.

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Hey mate, just had a read of your post. Hope you get it working soon!

 

My issue is now seems to be a combination: a) A board from the jumbled intro; b) B board being the new vertical issue. AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

I'll need another A board at least now for the intro issue but more importantly, fix the B board..............

 

Cheers!

Yeah, interestingly my vertical jailbarring has at least once or twice, not appeared to be as bad while I was testing the game but then it gradually appears over say half a minute until it's really nasty again. Usually though it's just there from the start.

I don't think I have that issue in the colour test though. I'll have another look later on as it's all boxed up again until the programmer turns up. (fingers crossed monday next week)

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You need to verify the code on 26 using an EPROM programmer, that may be your sound issue.

I'd put my money on the cps_b_01 ASIC failing, hence the thin vertical lines.

They can start out sparse like that at first and get worse over time.

 

Will have to look for my cheapie EPROM programmer I used years ago, in one of the storage boxes. :) How do I 'verify the code'?

Oh, please don't say the CPS_B_01 ASIC is failing, that's the square custom right? Why do they start failing? When I first put the Ghouls B board into the SF2 A board, it initially looked good but then the vertical lines appeared soon after turning it on, say 1 minute.

 

I had a good look at the B board tonight. A little bit of surface rust in some spot on the parts side but checked continuity using my multimeter and the worst looked tested ok.

 

Cheers!

Yeah, interestingly my vertical jailbarring has at least once or twice, not appeared to be as bad while I was testing the game but then it gradually appears over say half a minute until it's really nasty again. Usually though it's just there from the start.

I don't think I have that issue in the colour test though. I'll have another look later on as it's all boxed up again until the programmer turns up. (fingers crossed monday next week)

 

Good luck mate. It's a classic game. But these sort of thing just shows that our beloved games all really do have a time limit, sooner or later they fail. Is it just me, I feel sad. :(

 

Sounds like your problems are likely all on the B board, you really need to dump all the ROMs on it, you may have bad joints on some of the QFP chips too, but I wouldn't recommend reflowing everything as a first attempt.

 

I hope youre right about the ROMS or bad joints. Which are the QFP chips? I tried tapping the chips on the B board whilst on to see if it improved but it didn't.

 

OOooohhh, hopefully it can be revived.

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Dump the contents of the eprom to a binary file and then let romident tell you what it is.

 

As for the lines, the same thing happened to me. They just have a high failure rate nowadays.

 

Sometimes reflowing the chip can fix that but often the fault is internal.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Dump the contents of the eprom to a binary file and then let romident tell you what it is.

 

As for the lines, the same thing happened to me. They just have a high failure rate nowadays.

 

Sometimes reflowing the chip can fix that but often the fault is internal.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks palindrome. Hopefully it's not the custom. Will provide an update...fingers crossed it's recoverable.

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Big thanks to Womble for his help today. We actually ended up having a fully working board with sound and no graphics.

 

The vertical issues did not show when Womble looked and it was just the sound eprom that had some pin issues and after burning a new eprom, it was fully functional again.

 

However, I have some bad/sad news. Here's the chronological order of experiences:

 

1) When I put the board into my cab, it was playing fine for a couple of minutes and then the vertical line issue appeared again. I measure the voltage at the jamma connector and also across the sound eprom. It was fine at around 5.15V but I turned it down to 5.1V.

 

2) Disconnecting the Jamma and reconnecting did not help. Connecting other PCBs played fine.

 

3) I have a Blast City candy cab. So I connected the Ghouls into that. New gfx issues were introduced, looked much worse. I measured the voltage again and this measured at 5.01V so this was ok.

 

4) Put the Ghouls back into the original cab and even after cleaning the jamma pins, it was also worse than before.

 

5) Not the A board as swapping into other verified to be working A boards still result in the gfx issues.

 

Please see the images attached.

 

01 Vertical - Small gfx issue that original occurred after playing for a few minutes over a month ago. Also what reappeared intially tonight afer a few minutes of no gfx issues.

 

02 - 04 images - What's appearing now

01 Vertical (Medium).jpg

02 Intro (Medium).jpg

03 Title (Medium).jpg

04 Gameplay (Medium).jpg

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Sounds like a bad connection somewhere.

 

Most likely between the A/B board interconnects.

 

So does it only glitch a few minutes after powerup ?

 

When it happens, apply some pressure where the interconnects are and see if it makes a difference.

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Hmm, not good. My money is still on bad ROMs ( probably multiples now and similar to the loss on the sound ROM), I think you need to swing by with it again, the scope should track down the culprit pretty easily, unless it decides to behave perfectly while here again.
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Sounds like a bad connection somewhere.

Most likely between the A/B board interconnects.

So does it only glitch a few minutes after powerup ?

When it happens, apply some pressure where the interconnects are and see if it makes a difference.

 

Just tried turning it on after being off overnight, immediately an issue.

I've tried changing with other A boards and still the same. Could be possible it's the female connector on the B board side?

Applying pressure doesn't help. Just had a look at the color test and now missing colours everywhere.

 

Hmm, not good. My money is still on bad ROMs ( probably multiples now and similar to the loss on the sound ROM), I think you need to swing by with it again, the scope should track down the culprit pretty easily, unless it decides to behave perfectly while here again.

 

Thanks Womble, will get the spare ROMs. Fingers crossed.

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Ok, I got my Willem clone eprom programmer up and running.....on parallel with my Win XP desktop that I haven't turned on for 2 years. :)

 

I think I've found the culprit. I took off the 16 roms and did a read and verify on all of them. They all passed. However, I downloaded the mame roms and verified these against what was on the roms.

 

For the 18.7a rom, it didn't check correctly against the mame rom (first value on the faulty ROM is 00 and the mame rom is FF). Also, when I downloaded the bin from the faulty rom and uploaded against romident, it didn't come up with anything.

 

So I've bought 20 w27c512 eeproms from China. This could take up to a month so unfortunately won't be able to report back until they arrive. :(

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