NES PowerPak makes loud humming noise

[Jasonbar]

Hi-

I just received an NES PowerPak & got it going. It's a very impressive product! http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=34

However, I'm having 1 problem with the audio.

There's a low, loud hum that's present whenever there are *any* graphics on-screen. That is, the only time when it's not humming is after a ROM has loaded & the screen blanks for a moment before the ROM runs. There's hum during the PowerPak menu & hum during any ROM gameplay.

I'm using the RCA video & audio outputs. I'm splitting the audio into L&R and plugging it into my stereo A/V receiver. I've plugged it into 2 different inputs, so I don't think that my receiver's inputs are faulty. I've also tried playing an original factory cart (Super Mario Bros 3) on the same NES with the same cable hookup & there is no hum when playing the original cart. I'm using an original US front-loading NES with the following info on its bottom stickers:
Model No. : NES-001
(c) 1985 Nintendo
FCC ID: BMC9BENINTENDOETS
A separate sticker with no description may be the serial number: N7691601


Please advise me on how to fix this. I've got a relatively fresh 72-pin adapter in the machine.

Oh, I have, in the past performed a small mod to the motherboard to supposedly help reduce the blinking gray screen. I believe it involved cutting a pin leg on the motherboard. Would that affect the PowerPak's audio?

Thank you very much,
-Jason

PS--Retrozone recommends a "drive sorter" to get all the ROMs in alphabetical order. A cursory Googling didn't turn up what I want--can somebody point me in the right direction please?

PPS--What are the shorthand notations on ROM names? I see b1, o1, p1, a1, b2, o2, etc. etc. on many ROM filenames.

[InsaneDavid]

PPS--What are the shorthand notations on ROM names? I see b1, o1, p1, a1, b2, o2, etc. etc. on many ROM filenames.

ROM codes:

STANDARD CODES...

[!] Verified Good Dump
[a] Alternate
[b] Bad Dump
[f] Fixed
[h] Hack
[o] Overdump
[p] Pirate
[t] Trained
[T+] Newer Translation
[T-] Older Translation
(Unl) Unlicensed
(-) Unknown Year
(M#) Multilanguage (# = languages)
(###) Checksum
(??k) ROM Size
ZZZ_ Unclassified




SPECIAL CODES...

Atari
(PAL) Euro Version

Colecovision
(Adam) ADAM Version

Gameboy
[C] Color
[S] Super (complete Super Gameboy emu mode)
[BF] Bung Fix

Gameboy Advance
[hI??] Intro hacks

Genesis
(1) Japan
(4) USA
(5) NTSC Only
(8) PAL Only
(B) non USA
[c] Checksum
[x] Bad Checksum
[R-] Countries

NeoGeo Pocket
[M] Mono Only

Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom
(PC10) PlayChoice 10
(VS) Versus
[hFFE] FFE Copier format

Super Nintendo
(BS) BS ROMs
(ST) Sufami Turbo
(NP) Nintendo Power




COUNTRY CODES...

(1) Japan & Korea
(4) USA & Brazil
(A) Australia
(B) non USA (Genesis)
(C) China
(E) Europe
(F) France
(F) World (Genesis)
(FC) French Canadian
(FN) Finland
(G) Germany
(GR) Greece
(HK) Hong Kong
(H) Holland
(I) Italy
(J) Japan
(K) Korea
(NL) Netherlands
(PD) Public Domain
(S) Spain
(SW) Sweden
(U) USA
(UK) England
(Unk) Unknown Country
(Unl) Unlicensed




STANDARD CODE NOTES...

[!] Verified good dump. Thank the emulation gods for these! Although it may not run perfectly on all emulators, this is a perfect dump of a cartridge ROM chip.

[a] This is simply an alternate version of a ROM. Many games have been re-released to fix bugs or even to eliminate Game Genie codes (Yes, Nintendo hates that device)

[b] A bad dump often occurs with an older game or a faulty dumper (bad connection). Another common source of [b] ROMs is a corrupted upload to a release FTP.

[f] A fixed game has been altered in some way so that it will run better on a copier or emulator.

[h] Something in this ROM is not quite as it should be. Often a hacked ROM simply has a changed header or has been enabled to run in different regions. Other times it could be a release group intro, or just some kind of cheating or funny hack.

[o] An overdumped ROM image has more data than is actually in the cart. The extra information means nothing and is removed from the true image.

[t] A trainer is special code which executes before the game is begun. It allows you to access cheats from a menu.




SPECIAL CODE NOTES...

Gameboy...
[BF] Bung released a programmable cartridge compatable with the GameBoy which could hold any data you wished to play. However, many games do not function on Bung v1.0 carts and have to be 'fixed.'


Genesis...
(1) Carts with this code will run on both Japanese and Korean machines.

(4) While this code is technically the same as a (U) code, it is a newer header format and represents that the cart will run on USA and Brazil NTSC machines.

(B) This country code indicates that the cart will run on any non US machine.

[c] This code represents a cart with known faulty checksum routines.


Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom...
PC10 The PlayChoice 10 was an arcade unit which played exact copies of NES games in an arcade cabinet. The machines had a choice of 10 games to choose from and ran for about 3 minutes on 25 cents.

VS The Versus system ran on similar hard ware to the PC10 machines, but simply allowed you to play against each other.


Super Nintendo...
(BS) These Japanese ROMs were distributed through a satellite system in Japan known as the Broadcast Satellaview. They were transmitted along with a TV show which was connected to the game in some way. These games were only playable during the show, and thus stop after an hour, and many were timed so that only certain time periods were playable.

(ST) The Sufami Turbo device allowed two GameBoy sized carts to be plugged into the SNES. Certain carts combined into new games much like the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on technology by Sega.

(NP) Nintendo Power has been known to release games only available to its subscribers. Most of these ROMs are Japanese, as this practice occured mainly in Japan.

[Jasonbar]

THANKS!!!

That's a wonderful summary--follow-up n00b question:

Where'd ya find that summary? I'm sure there's other goodybutter to be had wherever that came from!

Thanks,
-Jason

[exit]

Nice list man, very informative, it's nice to know what some of the codes meant after all these years.

[Jasonbar]

Sho' 'nuff, switching to another (3rd party) power supply made the hum go away. w00t!

Now, if only I could find a way to read loooong filenames on the NES PowerPak screen. There's no word wrap or left-right scrolling in the menu screen, it seems...

Thanks,
-Jason

[Jorpho]

Where'd ya find that summary? I'm sure there's other goodybutter to be had wherever that came from!I believe it's from the readme of one of the "Good" tools (GoodNES, etc). You should cite your sources, Mr. InsaneDavid.

[InsaneDavid]

I believe it's from the readme of one of the "Good" tools (GoodNES, etc). You should cite your sources, Mr. InsaneDavid.

Truth be told, I have no idea where I originally got it from. More than likely it came from an old emulation forum (I did belong to a zillion of them years ago). As it stands now, it's just one of many .txt files I created from other stuff. Last date the file is down as Friday, October 1st 2004, although I'm sure I had a reformat and change with it before then.

If anything I'm sure I formatted it differently, changed some inconsistencies, etc. but no, I didn't create it originally.

[skaar]

When I found that list it was Kitsune Sniper who'd posted it on some other forum... heh.