SNES corrupted PPU?

[evildragon]

For some reason, on my SNES, certain planes of the PPU are totally corrupted.. It's not a cartridge thing, as I even went to resoldering the cartridge connector, and yet it's still having this issue. the power supply is fine, i even tried another one just in case.. I'm at a total loss right now... Check out this video (and still images), to see what I mean... the games run fine though...

http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/snes1.png
http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/snes2.png
http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/snes3.png
http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/snessuck.jpg

http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/snes.mp4

[evildragon]

I have been searching this forum, and someone else had the problem in the past, and it was his Mode 7, it was all dead.. And another person had the platform where koopa (in SMW's first castle), was missing, on mine, it's missing too, but more like vertical corrupted lines..

I think my Mode 7 in the PPU is fried..

[Kitsune Sniper]

Quick! Sell it on eBay and say it's possessed! :D

Seriously though, you might want to get a new one. It sucks, but I don't think you can fix that. :(

[evildragon]

I was hoping there was a fix :(

pitty, because Dracula X is a good game, and the whole background on stage 1 is mode 7, so on my SNES, it's just a bunch of flickering sprites, and is VERY distracting..

[Kitsune Sniper]

I was hoping there was a fix :(

pitty, because Dracula X is a good game, and the whole background on stage 1 is mode 7, so on my SNES, it's just a bunch of flickering sprites, and is VERY distracting..

You can always record the stuff and upload it to Youtube. :)

[evildragon]

You can always record the stuff and upload it to Youtube. :)

they would think I was circuit bending ;) they wouldn't even know the console naturally died this way..

sadly, im resorting to asking my father to search eBay for a new SNES, as I don't have any money to purchase a new one.. (had to buy a new floppy drive for my IBM XT)

I might just use this dead SNES's SPC700 for my PC's parallel port (via that cool mod), and play SPC music files on it...

[evildragon]

just a last attempt to save this SNES,is there anything i can possibly try to fix this?

I originally "saved" this SNES.. it was given to me, as the previous owner abused it as he was a Sony fan, and thus this SNES was severely damaged.. I had to resolder almost the WHOLE system to get it working.. Once I did that, the SNES worked great for 2 years, it's just today something failed on it, and I can't find the fault..

It's probably VRAM, or one of the PPU's.. Which one handles mode7?

[Kitsune Sniper]

just a last attempt to save this SNES,is there anything i can possibly try to fix this?

I originally "saved" this SNES.. it was given to me, as the previous owner abused it as he was a Sony fan, and thus this SNES was severely damaged.. I had to resolder almost the WHOLE system to get it working.. Once I did that, the SNES worked great for 2 years, it's just today something failed on it, and I can't find the fault..

It's probably VRAM, or one of the PPU's.. Which one handles mode7?

Man, I still say you should sell it... Or donate it to someone who'd give it a good home and good use. :)

[evildragon]

I would hate to sell or donate a broken SNES... Kinda wrong to do such a thing..

[evildragon]

well, it's officially REALLY dead now..

it is unable to properly show ANY form of graphics.. it looks like a fried Atari 2600, for real...

[ice1605]

At this point I suppose that it doesn't matter, but your graphics problem, are sure that it was Mode 7? Most of the time, Mode 7 was only used for games like HyperZone, where the game was supposed to use a 3-D-ish effect. Mode 7 consisted of a single layer of 128x128 pixel sprites. Usually, one of the lower number modes were used.

[evildragon]

At this point I suppose that it doesn't matter, but your graphics problem, are sure that it was Mode 7? Most of the time, Mode 7 was only used for games like HyperZone, where the game was supposed to use a 3-D-ish effect. Mode 7 consisted of a single layer of 128x128 pixel sprites. Usually, one of the lower number modes were used.
might not be mode 7 exactly...

but, anything to do with scaling and rotation had the bad effect.. but lion kings background isn't scaled or rotated, but somehow related..

[Bratwurst]

Scary premonition of things to come for other Super Nintendo consoles out there, maybe.

[bangtango]

I have been searching this forum, and someone else had the problem in the past, and it was his Mode 7, it was all dead.. And another person had the platform where koopa (in SMW's first castle), was missing, on mine, it's missing too, but more like vertical corrupted lines..

I think my Mode 7 in the PPU is fried..

As I said in another thread here, I've got a couple of copies of SMW and can't see the platform at all during the boss fight in Iggy's castle (World 1). Everything else in the game seems to be in good, working order and other SNES games play great in the system so I have no friggin' idea what is up with that one boss fight/level. Pisses me off. I can't imagine both cartridges are screwed up or dirty and the SNES itself isn't dirty.

[XYXZYZ]

Have you tried reflowing the PPU? Check the traces with a meter?

[evildragon]

actually, i did try to reflow.. got a reworking station luckily..

no dice, it did nothing to change it, still corrupted graphics...

and since it's dead now, the PPU literally, won't do anything, it's totally fried... (and there was no short)

[evildragon]

As I said in another thread here, I've got a couple of copies of SMW and can't see the platform at all during the boss fight in Iggy's castle (World 1). Everything else in the game seems to be in good, working order and other SNES games play great in the system so I have no friggin' idea what is up with that one boss fight/level. Pisses me off. I can't imagine both cartridges are screwed up or dirty and the SNES itself isn't dirty.
Try to play Street Figher II, does the title screen load at all?

I wonder if yours has the same problem mine had..

[evildragon]

Hmm, interesting, I think I have found the problem.. there's quite a few SMD electrolytic caps in the SNES.. one of them had brown goo coming out.. it appears a cap fried the PPU... Sadly, even after replacing the cap, no dice, PPU was put to death immediatley upon failing cap.. don't know "how" but it did..

oddly the fuse never blew...

[fahlim003]

I searched the forums for something related to my issue and this seems most similar. I picked an model 1 Super Nintendo, older model (so with cartridge lock and with 4 rubber feet), and it powers on fine. The issue is marginal in that I get these moderate vertical lines which appear at certain points of games. I do not have a cleaning kit but I attempted to clean the slot using cardboard and a clean SNES cartridge being repeatedly inserted/removed/cleaned to try and clean it out.

If the solution is a simple capacitor replacement on the motherboard, I'll go for it, but there is very little information on this issue in my initial search. Any help is appreciated. Images and perhaps a topic all it's own forthcoming.

http://imgur.com/MdG3V,s2LX2,K1Bmx,wrtHX

[SithWarrior]

Funny I had a strange Snes problem as well its a later revision with no sound board, when using Svideo playing Super Mario World 2(Jap) on the select screen for level 3 past the mid boss level the picture starts acting funny has if your losing reception but when using composite it doesn't happen at all?

[APE992]

Different capacitors for different signals. Bet one might be going by now.

[SithWarrior]

Different capacitors for different signals. Bet one might be going by now.

is it easy to replace the caps on Snes?

[APE992]

If you know how to replace through hole electrolytic capacitors on anything you can do it on a SNES.

Usual disclaimer: you can easily mess it up.

[raylydiard]

A pitty we can't clone the ppu chips.

[APE992]

We could, but it'd probably be easier to do a replacement DAC with a CPLD.

[fahlim003]

So I got around to replacing to the surface mount capacitors with equivalent axial lead electrolytic capacitors.
The layout of my motherboard is as shown: SHVC-CPU-01 (http://console5.com/techwiki/images/8/88/SNES-SHVC-CPU-01-Cap-Map.png)
The same vertical artifacts are still present which makes me think the PPU isn't seated right or is altogether failing. I don't have the means to reseat or outright replace one or both the PPUs so I suspect this system while working is beyond my effort to repair further.