Supergrafx White Screen when trying to play Daimakaimura

[shadowman]

I've just received my Supergrafx today, mainly just to play Daimakaimura and eventually 1941 when I track down a copy. The console also came with another Supergrafx game Battleace. I've hooked the console up to my TV and firstly tried Battleace. Worked fine. Next I took my copy of Daimakaimura (which was brand new and sealed) and opened it up. Plugged the game in and all I get is a blank white screen. I've looked around a bit online and made sure the Supergrafx was set to "Mode 1" which as I understand is the required mode for Supergrafx games (either way, neither mode 1 nor mode 2 allowed the game to boot up). I also tried a couple of standard PC Engine games and those work fine. So at the moment I don't think its the console, as every other game seems to work and including another Supergrafx game. So at this stage I think its probably Daimakaimura, which is strange as the game is completely spotless, I'm quite stumped as to why it doesn't work.

Is there anything else I can try?

[Niku-Sama]

By mode 1 and mode 2 i imagine your talking about what this person is taking about in this post?
http://www.gamengai.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2597

[shadowman]

By mode 1 and mode 2 i imagine your talking about what this person is taking about in this post?
http://www.gamengai.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2597

Page doesn't load for me, but assuming it mentioned changing the switch on the top side of the Supergrafx between the "I" mode and the "II" mode then yes. I believe its all down to the game though, everything else I put in the console works with Daimakaimura being the odd one out, I've tried cleaning the game with Deoxit and rubbing alcohol but had no luck with either. I'm guessing the game is DOA which is a real pity...

[Niku-Sama]

that's werid, I did see that it was blocked for some reason but now its back up and in the post it linked this text file.

http://cgfm2.emuviews.com/txt/sgxtech.txt

[shadowman]

Yeah, that's the page I viewed myself. I've managed to pick up a fairly inexpensive loose copy of Daimakaimura that I'm hoping will arrive in a week or two which should hopefully work, as I've tried everything else but had no luck what so ever getting the one game to work.

[shadowman]

Ok, second copy of Makaimura arrived and that doesn't work either. So I now think its the console not the game (my copy of Shinobi also white screens, and I can confirm that works fine on my Duo R). I've tried cleaning the console and card slot and the best I got was the title screen load up all corrupted, so it could be anything from a bad solder joint to something seriously broken on the console. No clue at this point :(

[Pete Rittwage]

I dunno- if you got a title screen once, there is hope. Must be a pin only used by SGX games, or only by certain (larger?) games. Perhaps a very high address line? Shinobi is a larger game, but there are plenty of others... what else doens't play properly?

[shadowman]

So far the only ones that don't work are Shinobi and Daimakaimura, stuff like Power Drift and Splatterhouse worked perfectly as does Battle Ace
if I get a spare moment I'll try a few more games. Any recommendations on which games to try? (I think Street Fighter 2 is one of the larger games?)

[Pete Rittwage]

Street Fighter II is definately the largest. If it's a problem with pins, it should not work either.

Out of curiosity, what happens if you try an SGX game in a regular PC Engine?

[shadowman]

Cool, I'll try and give SFII a try later and report back. Putting a Supergrafx game in a normal PC Engine gives me a greyish screen.

[shadowman]

Ok, tried SFII and just like you said it does not work. Not exactly the same symptoms - first of all it loaded the game with a weird faint/inverted image (all the warning/licensing text that pops up before the title screen is in a dark font on a dark purple background so its essentially unreadable, then the title screen loaded with the music in the background but the graphics were again dark to the point they were almost impossible to see).
Tried the game again and it just goes between a white and pink screen (with no text on it) so its definitely not working.

What should I check/do next? Sounds like its definitely a problem with pins, but I've not got a clue on how to troubleshoot this further.

[Pete Rittwage]

I would guess it may be the cartridge connector on the SuperGrafx. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about repairing them, as I haven't owned one. I assume you'd need a replacement and some way to do somewhat fine soldering.

[shadowman]

Understood. Its a pity its so hard to take a look at the cartridge connector on the console, even if you open it up. I'll take it apart again and have another look at the cartridge connector and solder joints around it in case I missed something the first time. Thanks for all the help so far :)

[Niku-Sama]

Take pics of the board while your at it and post it if you can

[Pete Rittwage]

It appears the higher address lines go back and forth outward toward the edges of the card, so maybe there's a bad one on one side or the other. They alternate on each side, so it could be one on either side. If you had a lot of games, you could deduce it by ROM size. Strider looks like 4 megabit, and there are many others of that size. None are larger than 8M, except Street Fighter which is 20M!

See here:
http://www.hardwarebook.info/HuCard

Looking back at the thread, though, you mention that Splatterhouse works, and that's a 4M game, where Strider is only 3M and does not... So I am not really sure. It's possible it could be some mode use or something else that explains why only some games work.

Normally these problems are just dirty or worn contacts... I have a PCE that just will not work (white screen) unless I freshly scrub every card I put in it with IPA. If I let it sit for just a few minutes, it will not work again. I guess the pins are just worn out or some conductive coating has gone on them.

Something else I didn't think of until now that could be checked. Are you sure the power supply is correct and still good?

[shadowman]

I'll try and get some pictures when I open it again. I assume you mean Shinobi instead of Strider? As Strider is an Arcade CD game, while Shinobi (which I did try) is a normal Hu Card game.

I'm not sure about the power supply though, as I got that and the AV cables with the console, but the AV cables do need a bit of fiddling with to get working. Are there any other compatible power supplies I can try? (its hard to find replacement ones for decent prices).

[shadowman]

Ok, I've opened up and taken a few pictures of the console PCB. Please let me know if I should be taking other specific pictures of parts of it, as I'm not really sure what I should be looking for. Below are several big pictures (apologies for the quality, I took the photos on my phone):

Closeup of the back side of the PCB focused on the card slot:
https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8280/29688946143_a153e8247f_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/MevBkM)Sgfx (https://flic.kr/p/MevBkM) by gouki16uk (https://www.flickr.com/photos/38305260@N03/), on Flickr

Close up of the front side of the card slot:
https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5665/30022845860_38a7aa2174_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/MK1W6s)Sgfx (https://flic.kr/p/MK1W6s) by gouki16uk (https://www.flickr.com/photos/38305260@N03/), on Flickr

A few extra shots:
https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8278/30319636555_6c0a285618_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Ncf4Cp)Sgfx (https://flic.kr/p/Ncf4Cp) by gouki16uk (https://www.flickr.com/photos/38305260@N03/), on Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8139/30319624555_c7b74419ca_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Ncf14v)Sgfx (https://flic.kr/p/Ncf14v) by gouki16uk (https://www.flickr.com/photos/38305260@N03/), on Flickr

https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5456/30284641586_d2a95b5ebc_o.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/N99GQS)Sgfx (https://flic.kr/p/N99GQS) by gouki16uk (https://www.flickr.com/photos/38305260@N03/), on Flickr

[Niku-Sama]

now that I finally got a chance to take a look at these on my computer I was going to suggest possibly reflowing the solder joint on the pin that connects to that shielding that is in the last picture, maybe some of the other points where it connects with the ground plane and see if that helps.

if it doesn't then maybe try and desolder that orange wire and see if theres any change

thinking about it I could see it being a grounding problem

[shadowman]

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately I had no luck with the console and luckily the seller took the console back and refunded me my money. I ended up getting a replacement console from a friend soon after which arrived yesterday which worked right out of the box! Its unfortunate I couldn't get the original console to work, but at least I now have a proper working console that plays Daimakaimura and 1941 :)