help with game doctor SF7

[Soviet Conscript]

ok,
i bought a 64 meg game doctor 7 about 2 months ago because i wanted to play some SF imports i had with it. i wanted to use it to play translated patched SF games i had. my SNES was away getting a 50/60 hrtz mod as well as a lockout mod. after getting it back and finding a new AC adator i was finally ready to try it today. first i ran a few games without the SF7 and they played perfect. after putting on the SF7 though i'm not getting anything. just a black screen with a few faint lines and sometimes block like patterns. i tried cleaning the contacts on everything and same result. i tried with diffrent games and same result. i'm useing a generic 9v ac adaptor for it thats set to + and is rated for 800ma, i've been told it should work fine. the plug is a little loose in the socket but it seems like it is getting power.

anyone have any advice on this? i included a few pics

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6581/sffuz3.jpg

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/9994/sfbuf6.jpg
one thing i am wondering about it this was supposed to be a 64meg SF. shouldn't there be ram chips in the slot underneath? sorry i'm very new to the whole copier scene.

[shadowkn55]

Does the floppy drive light up when you turn it on? You might want to get a power supply that fits snug into the jack. You might also want to clean all the connectors and see if that helps.

As for the ram chips, there is an internal board that probably has 64m worth of ram on it.

[Soviet Conscript]

Does the floppy drive light up when you turn it on? You might want to get a power supply that fits snug into the jack. You might also want to clean all the connectors and see if that helps.

As for the ram chips, there is an internal board that probably has 64m worth of ram on it.

now that i look at it, no

the floppy drive does not light up at all. the power supply isn't falling out or anything its just a little loose. even if i press it in and hold it in place i get the same effect. sometimes i get pink/black/white flashs....sorta look like a old NES with a bad pin connector. i'll get a new tip for the power supply tommarow that fits better and see if that helps.

[Soviet Conscript]

got a new plug that fits nicely. no effect

i did discover one thing. after trying to turn it on again after it was sitting plugged in awhile with no game in it i turned on the snes and got the game doctor menu. unfortunitly it was froze and when i turned it off and back on i could not get it to reappear.

today after putting in the new ac adaptor i tried running it with no game. again i got the menu screen but it seemed totally frozen. i restarted and only got the black flickery screen again. tried with a game and got the same thing. also no lights from the floppy drive.

honestly, i'm on my last nerve. i initially was very excited about this whole thing like 2 months ago when i took up the endevor but its so far turned out to be a giant waste of money. can anyone help me get the damn thing working?

[shadowkn55]

Try cleaning all the connectors if you haven't done so already. Before you turn on the snes, hold the R button on controller. You can let go after you see the game doctor screen. This disables the autoboot cycle it goes through when you first turn it on. You can also disable this permanently by bridging two points on the gd7 pcb. I think it was points s1 and s3 that disable autoboot and changes the default language to English. It also changes the title screen to Professor SFII.

[Soviet Conscript]

thanks. i've had some limited success. it looks like the floppy is messed up. i decided to open it up and remove the floppy just to see what happens. well without the floppy drive it booted up to its menu fine. i was able to navigate it. change language to english. confirm the 64 ram. i was also able to play games attached to the SF. both US and JP although starocean would not load. i'm guessing it has to do with the chip. (even though i have my snes lockout disabled i'm guessing i need the blue connecter to make this game work???

anyways i tried a diffrent floppy drive and that drive didn't work either but at least it loaded up and everything.

basicly its useless to me without a floppy drive but i feel a little better knowing that i probibly just need to install a working drive and the unit itself isn't dead. any particular drive i need? the second one i tried acually had its connectors oposite frome the drive that was initally in it so it wasn't fitting right, but it didn't work anyways so...

[shadowkn55]

Most games that use the auxillary pin connectors don't usually work on the gd7. The blue connector is only for dsp games and wont help with Star Ocean. Any floppy drive should work fine like Mitsumi. If you can, try using the parallel port. It's less hassle and quicker than floppy.

[Soviet Conscript]

Most games that use the auxillary pin connectors don't usually work on the gd7. The blue connector is only for dsp games and wont help with Star Ocean. Any floppy drive should work fine like Mitsumi. If you can, try using the parallel port. It's less hassle and quicker than floppy.

but if i put the game on floppies and run it as a ROM on the gd7 will it work?
i talked to a few people that say that have played star ocean with the eng. translation patch through a gd7

BTW, can you reccommend a good site that explains the whole process of getting a rom onto a disk and how to use one in general. i'm not comeing up with much on the net
thanks

[shadowkn55]

but if i put the game on floppies and run it as a ROM on the gd7 will it work?
i talked to a few people that say that have played star ocean with the eng. translation patch through a gd7

BTW, can you reccommend a good site that explains the whole process of getting a rom onto a disk and how to use one in general. i'm not comeing up with much on the net
thanks

It doesn't work that way. Star Ocean is an exception though. You'll need the hacked version of Star Ocean and a gd7 with 96m worth of ram.

Ucon64 is a good tool that does everything gd7 related.

[Soviet Conscript]

lol, trying to use ucon64 makes me feel like a grandma sitting down at a computer for the first time. someone really needs to write a "for dummies" guide to these things

thanks for all your help though

[phreak97]

doesnt the gdsf7 need more current than 800mA? my sf3 needs 850mA.. if you dont have enough current capability then the thing will probably freeze when it tries to use the floppy drive. does the sf7 say 9-12v on it like mine does? btw mine turns on with no power at all, it just errors on everything and the drive wont come on (if i remember correctly) so the problem could still be your power source. if you have one, use a multimeter to make sure the connector polarity matches the diagram on the bottom of the unit. also check the voltages between black and red, and black and yellow on the floppy drive power connector inside, if red is not 5 or close, and yellow is not 12 (not as important, and may not even be connected, in fact it probably wont be, though some floppy drives may require it) then you have power problems, it isnt the floppy drive, and the unit is repairable.

as a power supply for the sf7 unit, a genesis cable should be perfect, it's what i use for my sf3. it's 10v 1.2A so youre right in the middle of their recommended voltage, and theres plenty of current available. (you can overrate current for power sources, in fact it's better if you do, voltage is more important to get right)

[Soviet Conscript]

got anouther GD7 and a diffrent power adaptor. the new gd7 works fine. tried the new adaptor with the old GD7 and now it will not freeze. still can't find a floppy drive though so i guess it was a bad drive and bad ac adaptor

[xcvmvcx]

I've had my GD7 for over 10 years and am still loving every minute of it.. I'm playing Dragon Quest V ENG on it as we speak.

Over the last decade, I've encountered issues that left me in a panic because I was afraid the unit was dead. If you have too much power going in, you could risk frying your unit (I was lucky to determine it quick enough before any permanent damage happened).. but it could range from black screen to BAD RAM messages or freezing.. so make sure to check you are using the correct adapter with ratings.

[retrofan]

I don't see how you can put too much power in the unit since it has a 5V linear regulator that can take up to 28v and still put out 5V.
So how did you figure you had too much power? What voltage did you put in when you had the issues described above?

I've tested mine with 12v and still 5v comes out of the regulator. Perhaps you have a bad regulator.